Nearly 270 K-12 Educators Locked Up On Child Sex Crimes Since January

In the first nine months of 2022, an outrageous number of public educators have been arrested for child sex-related crimes. These sickening offenses and violations happened to underage students in the United States and ranged from grooming to rape.

According to Fox News, the alleged arrests consisted of 74% and were against students. This information was derived from a study conducted by Fox News Digital that discovered 269 educators were arrested from Jan. 1 through Sept. 30.

Out of the 269 educators, it’s disturbing to report 226 are teachers, 20 teacher’s aides, 17 substitute teachers,  4 principals and 2 assistant principals. When you do the numbers, this totals just about one daily arrest.

These crimes occurred throughout various districts across the U.S., and the data does not include the arrests that were not made public. This means those crimes weren’t counted in the analysis, and the number would definitely increase if included.

Among these arrests, a small 16% of the alleged crimes did not involve students, and the other 10% remains unknown. Additionally, it was reported that men, with over 80%, made up the great majority of the arrests.

Cristopher Rufo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, said the number of instructors who have been arrested for child sex abuse is only a small portion of the overall situation or issue.

“The number of teachers arrested for child sex abuse is just the tip of the iceberg — much as it was for the Catholic Church before widespread exposure and investigation in the early 2000s,” he said, Fox News reports.

“The best available academic research, published by the Department of Education, suggests that nearly 10% of public school students suffer from physical abuse between kindergarten and twelfth grade,” he continued.

Rufo then went deeper into the analysis.

“According to that research, the scale of sexual abuse in the public schools is nearly 100 times greater than that of the Catholic Church,” he said. “The question for critics who seek to downplay the extent of public-school sexual abuse is this: How many arrests need to happen before you consider it a problem? How many children need to be sexually abused by teachers before you consider it a crisis?”

The Fox News Digital analysis proved that most arrests primarily involved heinous allegations.

In August, a former principal and elementary school teacher who was also a coach was charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct. Eugene Pratt, 57, taught at-risk youth in several public schools in the state of Michigan and, during his educational career, throughout several decades, has been accused of sexually assaulting at least 15 boys and young adult men.

According to ClickOnDetroit, In August, Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson expressed that for them to have easier access to victims, sexual predators often put themselves in an authoritative position.

“When you see positions that he held that involve being a principal, school administrator, counselor, GED coordinator, and even after he taught, where he was arrested last week out of New Paths, as a driver, as a transport officer,” Swanson shared. “Individuals like Eugene Pratt put themselves in positions of authority over others in order to act on their prey and to find and identify vulnerable people.”

Another incident in August found a 59-year-old middle school teacher, Anthony Mattei, charged with two counts of indecency with a child by sexual contact. This occurred within the Allen Independent School District in Texas, Texas Scorecard reports.

Mattei has since been placed on administrative leave and commenced an investigation upon learning that the instructor had previously been allowed to return to teach children following an investigation into other allegations of misconduct in April.

In Baltimore, Stephen Kenion, 56, a self-defense instructor at the Baltimore City Public School District, was detained after allegations emerged of him impregnating a 14-year-old former student and having sexual relationships with various minors in 2009. Of those multiple minors was an 8-year-old child.

According to CBS News, he has been charged with perverted practices, second-degree rape, multiple counts of second-degree assault as well as various sex offenses.

Another disturbing discovery in August showed four current or former educators of the Plymouth Public School System in Connecticut were arrested concerning an investigation involving child sex abuse allegations by James Eschert, 51, a fourth-grade teacher.

Details in the report stated that a principal and three staff members at the school were accused of failing to report abuse and other charges. These allegations were brought by students who allegedly complained about Eschert’s inappropriate behavior, and nothing was done.

Law & Crime reports in January, Eschert was arrested on five counts of risk of injury to a child and two counts of fourth-degree sexual assault.

In June, The U.S. Department of Education unveiled a report titled ‘Study of State Policies to Prohibit Aiding and Abetting Sexual Misconduct in Schools.‘ This report inspected state policies that banned “passing the trash” or giving suspected sexual violators the freedom to quietly leave their jobs with the potential to violate children in a different school district continuously.

According to Fox News, states receiving federal education funds are required to enact rules forbidding the practice of “passing the garbage,” according to a bipartisan provision of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania initially proposed.

Nonetheless, the Education Department’s report discovered that laws against the practice differ throughout the states. All states require criminal background checks on educators from a prospective employer, and most states need fingerprints; only 19 require employers to provide information from former employers.

Furthermore, only a small number of states are required to check for detailed information when it involves the education and safety of children. Only 14 states demand an educational employee to review applicant eligibility and employment. Only 11 states require potential employees to provide information regarding investigations or corrective actions concerning sexual misconduct or abuse.

When you think of school, you think of a safe place for your children to learn and flourish, but remember to do your research on the school district you’re considering.