Sexual Assault in “Public” Schools

Given our general, cultural obsession with sexual assault within the Catholic Church, we would think that cases of assault within the public school system would be at least as widely publicized. Not so. Local reports such as this one by KOB4 hardly get any traction in the culture at large. With sexual assault of minors hovering around 15,000 a year in public schools (as reported by the Wall Street Journal), one wonders why we have such a permissive and deferential attitude towards public education in general. Yes, a great teacher can change the life of a child, but great teachers who are proud of their work welcome parental input, accountability, and scrutiny of their methods. Great teachers want parents to come see them work. This Danny Aldaz (as reported by the KOB4 article linked above) actually created private spaces within his classroom that would shield him from view. There should have never been a possibility for such behavior. Why aren’t parents encouraged to sit at the back of the classroom while their children learn? If the demand is too great for the available space, there might be a lottery to see which parents get in. The public school system is very familiar with lottery systems, as that is the only way some poor families have of escaping their failing schools, after all. 

Push back against sexual assault in the Catholic Church is welcomed and warranted. The movies, the articles, the books, the documentaries, the late-night tv roasts… all great. Why don’t we see even a tenth of that energy directed against an institution that sees the sexual assault of 15,000 children A YEAR!? An exit from this government school monopoly needs to be a present option for all of us. The public education system is not co-parenting our children. They are here to serve. If they are not serving us to our utmost satisfaction, we must go elsewhere. For the sake of our children, our attitude and deference towards this institution must change, otherwise people like this Danny Aldaz will always be shielded by a wall of bureaucracy that only cares about preserving the interests of its members first.