A new Government Accountability Office report finds that some sexual offenders have found jobs in some schools:
In eleven cases, GAO investigators found, the teachers or staff members had targeted children before, and in six of the cases they were in new positions where they abused children again.
The GAO report follows a 2004 Department of Education report estimating that millions of students experience sexual misconduct by a school employee at some point between kindergarten and 12th grade. [...]
Without mandated training for educators, and punishments for those that pass along the offenders or fail to check backgrounds thoroughly in hiring, “I'm not incredibly optimistic that dramatic change is going to occur,” Mr. Shoop says. [...]
Mr. Miller, who requested the GAO investigation, has pledged to work with Republican counterparts to develop related legislation.
It goes without saying that abusing kids is terrible, and we should punish people who do it. But we should also exercise some caution before jumping for more laws to punish sexual offenders, if only because sex-offender registration laws are already problematic. In Virginia, statutory rape is cause for sex-offender registration, regardless of circumstances: a 16-year-old and his 14-year-old boyfriend, for instance. Worse, registration confers lifetime membership, which sharply limits future prospects; that 16-year-old will have tight restrictions on where he can live and where he can go to school.
In Georgia, where sex-offender laws are incredibly draconian, offenders are barred from living within 1,000 feet of any area where children may gather, and forbidden from working within 1,000 feet of schools or child-care facilities. In practice, this makes it incredibly difficult -- if not impossible -- to create a life post-conviction. That these post-incarceration punishments are widespread is some of what contributes to the high rate of homelessness among registered sex offenders. If lists were reserved for the worst crimes, this might be fine, even just. As it stands, there are 674,000 registered sex offenders in the United States, and countless, broad standards for "sex offense." Depending on where you are, sex offense includes everything from rape and molestation to public nudity and urination.
Obviously, we want to keep kids safe. But we should give serious thought to the effect of creating more categories of sex abuse. Will they protect children or just throw more people into a flawed and capricious system?
-- Jamelle Bouie
