Passing the Trash: Here’s What Parents Need to Know About Educator Sexual Misconduct

In the first — and last — national survey of educator sexual misconduct, 1 in 10 students between 13 and 17 years old reported abuse by a school employee.

It’s a shockingly high number that Charol Shakeshaft, a leading researcher of employee-on-student sex abuse, called “significantly less” than the results of previous regional studies.

That was in 2000. A RealClearInvestigations (RCI) report published last week finds little has changed, calling educator sexual misconduct “the largest ongoing sexual abuse scandal in our nation’s history.” Between the warring interests of teachers’ unions, school districts and legislators lay regulatory loopholes allowing predators to keep teaching.

Here’s what you need to know — and how you can protect your kids.

Experts identify four systemic weaknesses that allow predators to abuse multiple children, sometimes over many years.

Predators can go unnoticed for years when schools allow employees accused of sexual misconduct to teach in other schools or districts — a tactic known as “passing the trash.”

Schools allow employees accused of sexual misconduct to teach in other schools or districts because it’s cheaper, easier and less legally risky than firing or reporting them.

A U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigation into four schools who “passed the trash” revealed financial, legal and social incentives for doing so.

One administrator claimed firing a teacher cost up to $100,000, even with clear evidence of wrongdoing. Today, that cost would be up to $145,000.

Other officials feared being sued by the teacher’s union, which often ropes school districts into confidentiality agreements preventing administrators from disclosing an employee’s history of sexual misconduct to new employers.

Still others felt investigations allow predators to remain in school for too long. “It is often easier and faster for school administrators to remove a problem teacher informally in order to protect the children within their own district,” one expert told the GAO.

In last year’s Defense of Freedom Institute’s (DFI) report on “passing the trash”, policy expert Paul Zimmerman comments:

CBA’s negotiated between teachers’ unions and school districts often include confidentiality or non-disclosure agreements limiting what administrators can say about a former employee’s job performance.

These agreements can require employers hide investigations into, or accusations against, a previous employee from prospective employers, according to DFI. Some force administrators to provide these ex-employees positive recommendations.

Dr. Billie-Jo Grant, another expert on school employee sexual misconduct, claims CBA’s “often” require administrators to delete an employee’s records entirely, including any allegations of sexual misconduct.

The federal government does not collect any data on educator sexual abuse. Every two years, the Department of Education (DOE) requires schools disclose the number of sexual misconduct incidents they’ve had, but not who perpetrated them.

Former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos tried to add specific questions about educator sexual misconduct to the DOE’s biennial survey in 2019. Though schools could choose to answer these questions on the 2020-2021 survey, the DOE hasn’t made them mandatory.

State and federal legislators have passed laws designed to prevent “passing the trash” — but schools often won’t comply.

In 2015, Congress amended the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) to target “passing the trash”. The amendment requires each state pass laws prohibiting administers from helping employees suspected of sexual misconduct from getting a new job. This would include banning CBA’s that require administrators to hide, erase or withhold suspicions of sexual misconduct.

But ESSA doesn’t include any enforcement measures. That means there’s no consequences for states that refuse to comply.

In 2022, the DOE refused to even track state fulfillment of ESSA. As of last year, only Tennessee, Oregon and Ohio have passed laws prohibiting both obstructive confidentiality agreements and schools from “passing the trash”.

As of October 2020, all 50 states and Washington D.C. require schools perform background checks on employees before hiring them.

This isn’t always as easy as it seems. Each state handles sex offense records differently, making some databases more reliable than others. Misdemeanor sex offenses or internal investigations often aren’t tracked.

The obstacles make many background checks haphazard, if they occur at all.

A Chicago Tribune investigation published in 2018 discovered 72 Chicago public school employees were accused of sexual misconduct between 2008 and 2017. At least nine of them had previous arrests for “sexual offenses involving children, or drug, weapons, assault or theft allegations that signaled they could be a threat to children.” Others reportedly had misdemeanor offenses that, while not technically excluding them working with children, could have alerted administrators to potential threats.

Teachers and administrators in all 50 states are mandated reporters, which means they must tell law enforcement about any incidents or suspicions of child abuse.

In cases of educator sexual misconduct however, administrators often investigate allegations internally before reporting them to police. Grant’s 2018 investigation of “passing the trash” suggests as little as 5% of administrators and teachers report educator sexual abuse to the police at all, citing fear of lawsuits, ruining an innocent person’s reputation, and fear of victims’ families.

These systemic obstacles and collective action problems create an environment where predators are more likely to move schools than lose their job or face prosecution. Consequently, they generally abuse multiple victims — sometimes dozens.

Citing data used in Grant’s investigation, Zimmerman writes for DFI:

A quick internet search uncovers dozens of examples of repeat offenders, but a particularly poignant one comes out of Collier County, Florida.

Hector Manley taught at Parkside Elementary for four years before police arrested him for sexual assault in 2019.

During his tenure, Manley’s job title changed five times — each to a less prestigious role. Students reported his abuse as early as 2017, and complaints continued until his arrest. Administrators never investigated or reported him.

The disgraced teacher pled guilty in 2022 to 20 counts of lewd and lascivious molestation of a child under 12. He is believed to have preyed on at least 20 different victims.

As district policy only required administrators to inform victims’ parents of the abuse, most families found out about Manley when media got wind of the story and launched an investigation into, or filed a report on, Manley.

“School employees and administrators failed the students of Parkside Elementary by declining to act on multiple reports of sexual assault by a teacher,” Zimmerman writes for DFI, “leading to several more students facing abuse and lifelong trauma that they never should have experienced.”

He continues:

It’s important for parents and teachers to recognize patterns of behavior indicating abuse. Shakeshaft’s “Know the warning signs of educator sexual misconduct” lists two kinds of predators.

Fixated abusers choose their victims carefully and escalate abuse methodically. They are most common in middle and elementary schools and are more likely to be male than female.

They typically shower victims with affection and compliments. If children react positively, fixated abusers will ingratiate themselves more firmly into the child’s life. Common tactics include making friends with the child’s parents and offering extra, private tutoring.

Fixated predators rely on likeability to gain parent’s trust, writes Shakeshaft, so they work hard to keep up appearances.

“This person is likely to be judged a good teacher by parents, students, other teachers, and administrators,” she writes, noting they will likely have a disproportionate number of teaching awards displayed.

Shakeshaft emphasizes, however, that truly excellent teachers often aren’t predators. In fact, fixated predators make up only 1/3 of employees who abuse kids under thirteen. She writes:

Opportunistic offenders make up most of child sex abuse offenders in schools. Unlike fixated predators, opportunistic predators aren’t exclusively attracted to children. They abuse when the opportunity arises. Approximately 40% are women.

These employees “tend to be emotionally arrested and operate at a teenage level,” Shakeshaft explains, suggesting they will have obvious problems with boundaries and judgement. Parents and teachers should look for employees that:

• Describe students as attractive.
• Know an inappropriate amount about one or two students’ personal lives.
• Spend a lot of time around student groups and try to blend into the peer group.

Outside administrative roles, people who work in schools can resolve to look for signs of abuse and report them to the police. Shakeshaft recommends asking yourself whether any staff members:

• Repeatedly crosses boundaries, sexual or otherwise?
• Spend free time with middle or high school students?
• Seek emotional support or validation from middle or high school students?
• Spend time alone with students against school codes of conduct?

The National Children Advocacy Center gives parents recommendations to protect from, recognize and respond to educator sexual abuse.

The Daily Citizen has highlighted some of the lesser-known tips below. For a full list, click on the link above.

Parents can protect their children by:

• Discussing what inappropriate conduct might look and feel like and emphasizing the importance of telling a parent or another trusted adult about it.
• Review the school’s policies on sexual misconduct, including teacher conduct codes, how the school responds to incidences of misconduct, and what happens when a mandated reporter fails to report abuse.
• Ask whether the school conducts background and reference checks on all employees.

Parents should be on the lookout for teachers:

• Repeatedly spending time alone with students, especially in a private location.
• Driving students to or from school, or offering to do so.
• Who make friends with a child’s parents or gain access to their home.
• Who become students’ best friends or confidants.
• Who form close bonds with students who have family problems or behavioral and emotional issues.

Parents should also keep an ear out for rumors of impropriety among students or friends, especially if they joke or talk about it in front of adults.

If you or a child you know has been the victim of educator sexual misconduct, always err on the side of believing them. Remember, these predators are duplicitous. Never discount a child’s account of sexual misconduct based on your own perceptions of the employee or educator at fault.

Resist the temptation to do your own sleuthing and go to the police immediately! Hush-hush, internal investigations can make predators harder to catch and put victims in more danger.

Forewarned is forearmed. Parents should not be fearful or paranoid about sending their child to school, but they should always watch for signs of danger.

Stay engaged, maintain an open line of communication, and, most of all, pray for wisdom and guidance as your family approaches this new school year. The best way to spot a wolf in sheep’s clothing is to consult the Shepherd.