Coalition pushes for laws to protect kids from abusive teachers

Lawmakers will join abuse victims and their advocates today at the Federal Courthouse in Philadelphia. The coalition is pushing for the passage of state and national legislation to protect students from sexual misconduct of teachers.

 

Terri Miller is the president of the national nonprofit: Stop Educator Sexual Abuse, Misconduct and Exploitation, the organization that’s leading the coalition. She wants to see legislation to prohibit something known as “passing the trash.”

“Passing the trash is the practice of allowing teachers who have engaged in sexual misconduct with students, to quietly walk away and find employment in another classroom somewhere else,” Miller said.

Miller says statistics show that educators who abuse kids work in a minimum of three school settings before they’re ever reported and punished.