Yet We Aren't Hearing Anywhere as Near As Much About This In the Media

Sexual abuse is a horroble thing, no matter who did it, but it seems like the Main Stream Media is willing to turn a blind eye to it when it involves people who promote the same agenda as they do (abortion, gay marriage etc) like the Teachers Unions do, then they seem to be more willing to turn a blind eye.

I have to say before I go further that at least here in Eastern Iowa the local media has been more forthcoming. But then, it really has no choice. In 2010 alone there have been 5 educators charged in Eastern Iowa with Sex abuse crimes. Note this is only those charged & only Eastern Iowa.

Here is the list the Cedar Rapids Gazzette published of Eastern Iowa educators charged with sex abuse crimes since Jan. 1:
Dubuque — Shane Oswald, assistant principal at Dubuque Hempstead High School; charged in January with sexual exploitation by a school employee, distribution of a controlled substance to a person younger than 18 and providing alcohol to a person under the legal age, involving a 17-year-old female student.
Waterloo — Larry David Twigg, computer teacher at West High School; charged in February with five counts of lascivious acts with a 17-year-old male student.
Iowa City — Robert Lee Dolan, business teacher at Regina High School; charged in February with third-degree sexual abuse, supplying alcohol to a 17-year-old boy who wasn’t a student at Regina.
Anamosa — Andrew K. Buck, band instructor and girls’ golf coach at West Middle School, Anamosa High School; charged in March with sexual exploitation by a school employee, involving an 18-year-old female student.
Olin — Jeremy Chamberlin, special-education teacher and volleyball coach at Olin High School; charged in March with sexual exploitation by a school employee, three counts of dissemination of obscene material to a minor and two counts of lascivious conduct with a minor, involving a 15-year-old female student.

This is only the tip of the iceberg. There are probably many more that are still being investigated or haven't (sadly) been reported. I do not think Iowa is unusual, or the exception in any way. If there are this many here then there there are probably many more elsewhere, esp where the population is larger.

Given these 5 incidents as well as the stats of what actually has happenned over the years in the Archdiocese of Dubuqe & Diocese of Davenport that cover Eastern Iowa tells me that a 2004 study prepared for the U.S. Department of Education that showed "the physical sexual abuse of students in schools is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests" is probably accurate.

In a 2004 Newsmax article about the report Charol Shakeshaft, the Hofstra University scholar who prepared the report, said in an interview that the number of abuse cases—which range from unwanted sexual comments to rape—could be much higher. "So we think the Catholic Church has a problem?" she told industry newspaper Education Week in a March 10, 2004 interview.

The Newsmax article went on to say "To support her contention, Shakeshaft compared the priest abuse data with data collected in a national survey for the American Association of University Women Educational Foundation in 2000. Extrapolating data from the latter, she estimated roughly 290,000 students experienced some sort of physical sexual abuse by a school employee from a single decade—1991-2000. That compares with about five decades of cases of abusive priests.
Such figures led her to contend 'the physical sexual abuse of students in schools is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests.'"

Did you get that last sentence? 100 times more likely for it to happen inschool that for a priest to sexually abuse someone.

I will not use any of this to try & lesson the guilt of those in the Church who aided & abetted in the cover-up of the priets actions. However, if it is true that the numbers are 100 times worse in schools, then the fact that the Main Stream Media & the Teachers Unions are being silent means that they are 100 times more guilty as well.

In a 29 March 2010 First Things article, Catholic commentator George Weigel referred to the Shakeshaft study. He went on to observe that “The sexual and physical abuse of children and young people is a global plague” & he then pointed out that Catholic priests constitute only a small minority of perpetrators.

Weigel says: "Yet in a pattern exemplifying the dog’s behavior in Proverbs 26:11, the sexual abuse story in the global media is almost entirely a Catholic story, in which the Catholic Church is portrayed as the epicenter of the sexual abuse of the young, with hints of an ecclesiastical criminal conspiracy involving sexual predators whose predations continue today. That the vast majority of the abuse cases in the United States took place decades ago is of no consequence to this story line. For the narrative that has been constructed is often less about the protection of the young (for whom the Catholic Church is, by empirical measure, the safest environment for young people in America today) than it is about taking the Church down—and, eventually, out, both financially and as a credible voice in the public debate over public policy. For if the Church is a global criminal conspiracy of sexual abusers and their protectors, then the Catholic Church has no claim to a place at the table of public moral argument." (emphasis mine) This echos what I said in a recent post about the media's attacks.

& can you imagine the outrage if a judge said this about the victim of a priest like what Bruce A. Gaeta, a state judge in Hackensack, N.J., said in the spring of 2002 "I don't see anything here that shows this young man has been psychologically damaged by her actions. And don't forget, this was mutual consent." he went on to sentence 43-year-old teacher Pamela Diehl-Moore to probation for having sex with the seventh-grade student who was only 13 at the time. He justified the sentence by saying that the encounters with his teacher may only have been a way for him to "satisfy his sexual needs."

Maybe that was true that there was mutual consent, & maybe it just as well might have been true in some of the cases involving priests & teens, but that doesn't make it right in either case, nor does it justify any less of a sentence or probabtion. Afterall, even with"consent" it about every state it still was statuatory rape.

Like I said before, if the media really cared about the children we would be hearing much more about what is going on in our schools & elsewhere. But we won't as long as the Main Stream Media can get away with covering it up. & as long as they do, the clearly show that all they care about is destroying a Church where the sexual abuse scandals were a betrayal of vows & what the Catholic Church actually stands for than the children who are victims. But then why should the Main Stream Media care about children after they are born when they see it as OK for those same children to have been murdered via abortion before birth.

& don't tell me that the 2 are unrelated either. The less we respect children before birth the less we will respect them after birth. The Main Stream Media shares a huge blame in that.

Before I end however, I want to again point out that there are exceptions. In an editorial last week, The Colorado Gazette revisited the testimony of Sherryll Kraizer, executive director of the Denver-based Safe Child Program in a 2008 article in the context of the Church abuse scandal coverage, concluding that “the much larger crisis remains in our public schools today, where children are raped and groped every day in the United States.”

“The media and others must maintain their watchful eye on the Catholic Church and other religious institutions,” wrote The Gazette, “But it’s no less tragic when a child gets abused at school.”

They are right, it is no less tragic, & we shouldn't stand for it being given a pass either.

Sources: Sex Abuse by Teachers Said Worse Than Catholic Church
Forgotten Study: Abuse in School 100 Times Worse than by Priests
Teacher charged in Olin also accused in 2008 Oskaloosa incident