The epidemic of sexual misconduct targeting children in government schools is back in the headlines, and it is even worse than previously known. According to the latest estimates, a shocking 17 percent of students in government schools will be victims of some sort of sexual abuse at the hands of teachers and faculty. That represents about 8 million children.
Perhaps even more alarming than the exploding level of abuse is the fact that teachers’ unions and the political establishment continue protecting the perpetrators, critics and advocates say. Even in conservative states such as Texas, teachers rape and sexually abuse children with impunity, as exposed last year.
The fresh estimates come from Charol Shakeshaft, professor emeritus at Virginia Commonwealth University. Among her research specialties: “educator sexual misconduct.” Shakeshaft, the leading researcher in the field, has written multiple reports about the issue for the U.S. Department of Education and the Department of Justice.
The 17 percent figure comes from Shakeshaft’s 2024 book, “Organizational Betrayal: How Schools Enable Sexual Misconduct and How to Stop It.” Published by Harvard University, the book makes a powerful case that institutional structures and school culture are often complicit in the sexual abuse afflicting so many millions of students.
“What I find is that teachers see things, kids see things, administrators see things, parents see things. And what they see are what I call red flags of possible problems, but certainly what they see are boundary crossings,” explained Shakeshaft in comments about the issue in an interview with Harvard EdCast.
“Teachers are crossing a professional boundary, and they don’t report it. And they don’t report it for lots of reasons,” she continued. “The foremost reason they don’t report it is because they don’t realize they’re supposed to report it. Nobody’s taught them or helped them understand that these are signs that a child might be being targeted for sexual misconduct.”
The Newman Report has been highlighting the systematic sexual abuse of children in government schools for years. Unfortunately, the problem is only growing. The last official data compiled by the U.S. Department of Education over two decades ago showed that about 10 percent of students were victims of sexual misconduct.
That 2004 “Shakeshaft Report,” perhaps the most comprehensive review of the data on sex crimes by educators against children, was based on a survey of existing research at that time. It found that about one in ten children had been victims of sexual misconduct by government school staff.
Today, those numbers are far higher, and little to nothing is being done. In fact, it is becoming increasingly normal for “educators” to justify and normalize sexual contact between adults and children, as The Newman Report has been documenting for years.
Oftentimes, even when teachers are caught, the schools and district authorities simply move the offending faculty member to another school or another district. Experts in the field refer to this as “pass the trash,” and it is becoming more and more widespread, according to those who study the phenomenon.
The figures are back in the news thanks to an explosive interview by investigative journalist Catherine Herridge with attorney John Manly. Speaking on Herridge’s “Straight to the Point” podcast for the Los Angeles Times, Manly described an “epidemic of sexual abuse” in the nation’s government schools that was continuing to destroy lives.
Manly, who represented victims of USA Olympic Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar, noted that teacher unions and systematic failure to report the crimes are enabling widespread sexual abuse of children in public schools. He also blasted “passing the trash,” saying predatory teachers were simply being reassigned rather than fired and prosecuted.
“In public education in most states, it’s next to impossible to fire a bad teacher, and typically you don’t fire them,” Manly explained, noting that he has identified over 350 abusers in California’s government schools just based on the cases he has worked on. “They actually pay them to go away, even if they’ve sexually abused children.”
Manly also pointed to “widespread non-reporting” of sexual abuse in schools. In fact, there is no legal requirement for most schools to even notify parents if and when it occurs — much less law enforcement. In Texas and other states, state law specifically allows schools not to report the abuse, leading to countless child rapists still in the classroom.
One especially horrific case mentioned by Manly was an LA district teacher who sexually abused over 100 children before being caught. He was only busted after somebody saw pictures he was developing featuring the horror and reported it to law enforcement. Incredibly, the school district destroyed the records of the abuse, too.
“In the vast majority of cases we [have], the mandatory reporting statute is ignored, and schools investigate it themselves,” he explained. “When institutions or people investigate themselves, my experience is they rarely find themselves guilty.” It is all designed to “conceal the level abuse by school personnel from parents,” Manly added.
Manly, who is working on numerous cases involving sexual abuse of children in school, noted that teachers who do report colleagues often face retaliation from the district. The unions, too, are well aware of the problem, but continue fighting against measures to protect children from abusers.
“The one thing we should be doing is to protect children from this,” Manly said. “There is an epidemic of sexual abuse in the state by teachers, by coaches, by other school employees. What right-thinking person doesn’t want a teacher mandated by law to call the police when a little girl or a little boy is molested? That’s not only stupid policy but it’s frightening.”
Calling for federal investigations and action, Manly also argued that local and state education authorities are part of the problem. “Many administrators and school boards do not look at students as human beings,” he explained on the podcast. “They look at them as funding devices, and it gives me no pleasure to say that.”
The widespread sexual abuse of children in government schools is a symptom of the problem: a godless system that rejects the Word of God altogether. If the indoctrination, dumbing down, and sexualization were not enough to show parents they must protect their children from government schools, perhaps the horror now coming to light will be.
The system itself is beyond abusive. It is time for parents and policymakers to shut it down and protect the children, before millions of new victims are scarred and destroyed for life. The wellbeing of the next generation depends on taking action.
