Teachers abusing kids

Does it seem as if the news these days is filled with stories about teachers abusing their trust by having sex with students?

The current example involves a Lone Peak High School student and her Seminary principal. But there have been plenty other recent examples, including a Bountiful Junior High teacher and a 13-year-old male student, a 62-year-old Layton High choir director who married an 18-year-old newly graduated student, and a 61-year-old Fillmore teacher who was allegedly doing bad things with a young girl.

Those are just the ones that come to mind. There are others.

Take a look at this report five years ago by Newsmax.com. It cites a report that says “between 6 percent and 10 percent of public school children across the country have been sexually abused or harassed by school employees and teachers.” And it compares this to the Catholic Church’s child-abuse scandal of a few years back.

No single agency keeps track of these incidents nationwide. Just judging by what I read in this market and elsewhere, however, those figures sound credible.