Both situations, school and church, represent an abuse of power, the strong over the weak, with threat of retribution if the victim reveals the abuse.

However, the teacher is instructing the student in math, social studies, writing, etc. The Priest or Preacher is instructing morals and ethics. They stand in the pulpit and declare the gospels, the words of Jesus, and threaten eternal damnation to those that don’t follow the Word.

The teacher’s threat is a failing grade while the priest’s threat is eternal damnation. The level of hipocracy from the latter far exceeds the former. To preach the ten commandments in public and break them in private is, to me at least, a greater sin. To hold oneself up as a moral authority while buggering a child is the greater sin. And to then cover up the sin claiming the authority of the church is greater than the law is another abomination.

If these numbers are representative of the student population nationwide, 4.5 million students currently in grades K-12 have suffered some form of sexual abuse by an educator, and more than 3 million have experienced sexual touching or assault. This number would include both inappropriate romantic relationships between teachers and upperclassmen, and outright pedophilia.

Three million. But I agree that it’s not a simple comparison, and that factor of 100 does sound awfully high.

For accuracy, percentages of the whole profession would have to be taken into account (there are many more teachers than there are clergymen) and the percentage reported is a factor.

But you have to agree that one gets a lot more attention than the other.

Especially the two orders of magnitude greater in the church than the schools. If I missed it, please point it out. The study discusses a wide range, from misconduct to abuse. Nowhere does it compare the statistics of actual abuse of church verses schools.

She’s pulling statistics out of thin air. Does it happen in the schools? Yes. Does it happen in the Catholic Church? Yes. But this study does not compare the two directly, so the assertion of “100 times the abuse” is unsupported.

I’m sure you can do better stats.

Where’s all the indignation about the teachers?

Consider the statistics: In accordance with a requirement of President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act, in 2002 the Department of Education carried out a study of sexual abuse in the school system.

Hofstra University researcher Charol Shakeshaft looked into the problem, and the first thing that came to her mind when Education Week reported on the study were the daily headlines about the Catholic Church.

[T]hink the Catholic Church has a problem?” she said. “The physical sexual abuse of students in schools is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests.”

The original study can be found here.

We all know that the heterosexual priests were nailing the occasional Nun on a regular basis. In an environment crawling with perversion, you have to believe that some of the Nuns went beyond rapping knuckles with the thousands of boys who enjoyed a Catholic education.

Maybe nobody’s mind was warped by sex with the Sisters. It happens frequently in public schools, and I am sure it happens in the Catholic schools.

I always figured it wouldn’t bother me much, but I might be tempted to shed a few crocodile tears in view of the checks they have been writing.