Betrayal - S1: Bonus Ep 2 - Educator Sexual Misconduct

Episode Date: July 28, 2022

While researching the series, the Betrayal team learned about the prevalence of Educator Sexual Misconduct. Dr. Charol Shakeshaft, an expert and researcher, explains why problems persist and what schools can do about it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hi, my name is Cooper and I'm a mini-golden doodle from Crocodoodles. Now I know what you're thinking, talking dogs? Well, hold on to your tails because it gets better than that. I mean, not better, like, more impressive than a talking dog exactly. But if you apply now at Crocodoodles.com, you could adopt me or any other breed we offer with just a few easy steps. Each puppy is raised by a network of families that deliver exceptional doodles anywhere in the United States. Crocodoodles is making families whole. One pup at a time.

He's a man who can be recognized by one sound. And many names are the Jones. Hey, Dan! Give him hell Indiana Jones! Start your own adventure with a free fan dangle movie ticket when you spend $35 on your favorite Applebee's dishes. See Indiana Jones in the Dial of Destiny only in theaters June 30th. I've been looking for this all my life. A deal this good will go down in history. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny only in theaters on June 30th for limited time and participating locations tax and gratuitous excluded Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

rated PG-13. Let's face it, no one like summer shaving a razor burn. This summer make your skin care routine less hactic and try laser hair removal with one free treatment at my Lon Laser Hair Removal. Visit any of our five Raleigh Durham locations for a free consultation to go over your exact needs and hair free goals with a laser hair removal expert. Put Stunningly Smooth Skin Front & Center. Call 833NoRaser or visit NeverShaveAgain.com to book your free treatment

and consultation. That's NeverShaveAgain.com. I'm Andrea Gunney, and this is Betrayal. Onus Episode 2. Educator, Sexualisconduct We've addressed betrayal in various ways during the series, and we've heard from many of you that personally identified with Rachel, the victim that Spencer Heron was convicted of sexually assaulting a Kell High School. During our production, we've learned more about how pervasive educator sexual misconduct is. Sexual misconduct is a range of verbal, visual, and auditory and physical behaviors that are

sexualized interactions with students in schools. Anything from language to students that is sexualized, asking them what they like to do for sex, what kind of sex do they like, two things that are visual, for instance masturbating in front of students, never touching them, but masturbating in front of them, or disrobing in front of them, or sending them pictures of penises, or breasts, or vaginas, and then physical assault issues like forced sex, or in terms of minors, it may not be forced sex. They're minors, they may be confused, they're often told the person loves them and cares for them

and they're going to get married and things are going to be okay. That's Dr. Cheryl Shakechafd. She's a professor of educational leadership at Virginia Commonwealth University and the author of a Congrational mandated report on Educator Sexual Misconduct. She's been studying school employee sexual misconduct for more than 25 years. Our team reached out to her to learn more about the problem. Dr. Shake Shaff believes schools have not done nearly enough to prevent Educator Sexual Misconduct and that the onus is often on the children to report. Dr. Shakechaf believes schools have not done nearly enough to prevent educator sexual misconduct, and that the onus is often on the children to report.

We have received so many emails with similar stories to Rachel's. We thought it was important to raise awareness to help students, parents, and schools be aware to avoid predators like Spencer. We have expected the children to be the people who police the school and prevent things from happening. So we give them training about good touch bad touch, nothing wrong with that. They should know those things. Absolutely. But adults also need to know exactly what they should do when they see things, when things are going on, when they're bystanders and stuff happens in front of them,

they need training to be able to understand what that means. You know, not just say, oh, he's just a friendly teacher, he hugs all the kids, or she just really likes her students, and yes, she goes out of her way for them. You know, they need to understand what the boundaries are, that nobody gets to cross those boundaries, and that if you see boundary crossing, you report it. And then the people who it gets reported to need to understand that if there's a report, you need to actually do something.

You need to, in most cases, call the police and have an investigation. And sometimes, even well-meaning teachers don't understand the dynamics of teachers who engage in sexual misconduct. We heard from a teacher who joined the staff at Kell High School after Spencer Heron was arrested. And one of his comments really stood out. He wrote,

many teachers at Kell would tell me they didn't really believe the charges or that every story has two sides. And it really made me feel uncomfortable because of the deplorable charges. I found it odd that so many employees were complacent or passive about the story. In schools, they often allow teachers to break rules, taking students in their cars, being along with students behind closed and locked doors in their rooms.

Teachers see things of their colleagues and they don't respond. I asked teachers, did you see anything? And they say, yes, I did. It was, you know, really irregular and not a loud behavior. And then I say to the teacher, well, did you report it? And the teacher will say, well, no. And then I ask, why? And the teacher says, well, if I was wrong, I might get a colleague in trouble. And I didn't want to do that. And it's kind of awkward, you know, we're friendly. And I just didn't report.

I've never heard a teacher say, yes, I reported. And I reported, because even if I'm wrong, I wanted to make sure that if something was happening, somebody was looking into it. So the issue is that in schools, we don't do anything and by not doing anything, by not using prevention methods, we enable those people who either intend to abuse or who either intend to abuse or come around to abusing because they start crossing boundary after boundary after boundary and pretty soon there they are, we enable them. It's like having roads with no stop signs.

Perhaps teachers don't know what they should say. We need to practice the language of reporting. Just get people familiar with it. Instead of saying, I don't think this is really real. I mean, I'm probably making something out of nothing. I mean, it's just, well, you know, I really hate to bring this up. Say, Harold has his classroom across the hall from me and I see him there regularly alone with individual students. It concerns me. Or I saw Janine having dinner with one of her students and they were sitting really close together, I'm concerned.

We need to teach people to just give information and then it's up to somebody to take the next step and investigate. We asked Dr. Shachaeff, how can we change that thinking and culture in schools? Every school should have training, training about patterns and what happens and what you're supposed to do as an adult. Every school should have a set of behaviors so that people understand what's acceptable and what's not acceptable between adults and students.

Many kids just think that it's okay. They say, if this were not okay, somebody would have stopped it. Everybody sees how he acts or how she acts. So kids don't really understand, and they think of it as dating. They don't understand the issues. So the kids see it. The kids talk about it, they see it,

they know stuff's going on, but they don't report it because they don't code it as something that is supposed to be reported because no one's ever taught them. Hi, my name is Cooper and I'm a mini golden doodle from Crocodoodles. And I'm a Bentley, the Cavalry. Now I know what you're thinking, talking dogs? Well hold on to your tails because it gets better than that.

I mean not better like more impressive than a talking dog exactly. But if you apply now at Crocodoodles.com, you could adopt me or any other breed we offer with just a few easy steps. Whether you find a match immediately or by your time looking for just the right family member, we're worth the wait. We're all raised by reputable, responsible breeders and could be delivered anywhere in the United States. We're even certified by the better business bureau and have over 500 positive reviews. But if you don't believe me, Jess asked Bentley. He's British so he knows what he's talking about.

Cooper is quite right. Are we coming all different breeds in sizes and personalities? Plus, we have a three-year health guarantee. So, check us out at Crocododles.com and apply for the perfect addition to your family now. I shouldn't lie around while we're here with terribly popular. Crocodoodles is making families whole. One pup at a time. You're ready for a comeback. And with Purdue Global, you can do more than take classes.

You can take charge of your story, of your career, of your life. Earn a degree you can be proud of and get an education employers respect. It's time, your time, not just to go back to school, but to come back and move forward with Purdue Global, Purdue's online university for working adults. Start your comeback at PurdueGlobal.edu. Everything is better after a great night's sleep. whether you're moving, going back to school,

battling an old, saggy mattress that's killing your back, or simply leveling up for your family. Lisa's sleep can help. Lisa's mattresses are expertly crafted in the US for exceptional comfort and support at every price point. In just a few clicks, you'll be able to check out and buy with no hassle. Deliver right to your door for free. And you can set it up in minutes. See why Lisa is the New York Times number one mattress pick. Four years running. And why they have over 20,000 five-star reviews. Need to try it to believe it. Lisa offers a

risk-free 100-night trial to test out your new mattress. Right now, you can save up to $700 on select mattresses plus two free pillows. Not only that, Lisa donates one new mattress to their partner's shelters for every 10 sold. Get the sleep you deserve with Lisa. Exclusions apply. Visit Lisa.com for more details. That's L-E-E-S-A-D-C-A. Dr. Shake Shabt explains that there is training for sexual harassment, but schools could do more. When you ask most schools if they have training, they say yes, we have training. Then when you ask to see the training, what you see is either training about sexual harassment peer to peer.

So the adults get training about not harassing one of their colleagues. Kids get training about not harassing one of their peers, but neither get training about the adult sexually harassing the student. Or they get trained on mandated reporting, but mandated reporting training is about reporting things that happen outside the school, not inside the school. What else could schools do? We need people who walk through the cafeteria lunchtime and look at what adults and students are doing. People who, when they walk down the halls, are looking at adult and student interaction. When they go by a classroom door or are looking in and seeing what's going on, when it's before school and after school and the classroom is empty, checking the classroom, seeing what's

happened. We need people who are on the move and looking for the right things. It isn't that people don't walk down the halls, but they aren't looking at adult to student interactions. They're looking for some student who's misbehavi. They're not looking for these things, so we need supervisory behavior. When you hear a rumor, even if it's abstract, many people who will investigate. And on the occasions, someone does report it, the investigation often doesn't go far enough. They tend to call the teacher in and say, are you having sex with Anne Marie? And the teacher says no. And the person says, say, are you having sex with Anne Marie? And the teacher says no.

And the person says, okay, thank you. I didn't think so. And then the teacher steps out and texts Anne Marie and says, erase everything off your phone. And if you get called in, tell them nothing's going on. And that's the end of it. They don't follow up in supervision. They don't follow up and trying to see what's happening.

They don't do an investigation. They don't ask the friends, they don't do anything. One of our listeners shared a story that still upsets her years later. She tried to do the right thing. She wrote, I was a sophomore in high school, and one of my teachers used to hit on me and tell me very inappropriate things. For instance, how we would rather have me beside him in his bed instead of his wife. Nothing physical ever happened. It was all verbal and the mental toll it had on me was so much more than my teenage mind could take. He would follow me in the hallways. I couldn't take

it anymore and broke down in tears to my mother and told her everything. Who went to the school and told the principal everything? He seemed skeptical. I was brought in the next day for questioning. Needless to say, nothing happened, and he was slapped with a weak off. When he came back, it was worse because now he demanded to know why I said anything. So what should happen? Call the police and have an investigation. That's what you need to do. I said anything. So what should happen? Call the police and have an investigation. That's what you need to do.

And what else does Dr. Shakespeare feel is non-negotiable? No sharing phone numbers, no sharing social media, no having friends on Facebook, no TikTok, no Instagram, no nothing. School districts are supposed to have email that are monitored. They can have texting systems that are monitored, so that you're using the monitored texting systems for the school. There are lots of ways to do electronic communication with students when you need to that are monitored by schools and are therefore safe. Now that doesn't mean somebody might not also use their telephone,

but we should at least start with the rule that, no, you can't use your personal telephone number, you can't use your personal telephone number for texting or your personal email or your personal social media. School districts have Facebook, social media pages, they have other things where if you want to make an announcement to your students you want to do whatever you can do it there. And we can't just say this one time at the beginning of the school year. It needs to be message over and over again. It is a simple rule and it should be followed and it should be followed with big signs up all over the place and little pop-ups that come up and other things to remind people.

Don't give out your telephone number to an adult in the school. Don't give out your telephone number to a student in school. Don't text. We need to change the patterns. Dr. Shake Chef understands how much we put on our teachers. I was a teacher and I thought this job's the hardest job I've ever had. It was wonderful, but it was hard work.

And so I don't want to slam the teachers for that. Yeah, they're busy. But it is a school culture problem. If you have a school culture, that's the culture of student safety. It's first and these are the things we do and we talk about it and we share our strategies and we bring it up and we share our strategies and we bring

it up and we don't bury it and we don't just say hey we've got a handbook and policies read them and then tell people that's training which it's not you know we can change a culture where we say we don't cross kids boundaries that's behavior that's not acceptable here. The betrayal team thanks Dr. Shake Shaft for insight into educator sexual misconduct. There are new developments in Jennifer's story and we'll share them with you in an additional bonus episode soon. Hi, my name is Cooper and I'm a mini-golden doodle from Crocodoodles.

Now I know what you're thinking. Talking dogs? Well, hold on to your tails because it gets better than that. I mean, not better, like, more impressive than a talking dog, exactly. But if you apply now at Crocodoodles.com, you could adopt me or any other breed we offer with just a few easy steps.

Each puppy is raised by a network of families that deliver exceptional doodles anywhere in the United States. Crocodoodles is making families whole. One pup at a time. Eh! Let's face it, no one like summer shaving a razor burn. This summer, make your skin care routine less hactic and try laser hair removal with one free treatment at my Lonelaser Hair Removal.

Visit any of our five Raleigh Durham locations for a free consultation to go over your exact needs and hair free goals with a laser hair removal expert. Put stentingly smooth skin front and center. Call 833-NO-RAZER or visit nevershaveagain.com to book your free treatment and consultation. That's nevershaveagain.com. No matter what you're a fan of, Texas has the trip for you. There's the Trip to Texas. And the... Trip! Trip.

Or maybe you're the kind of fan who'd prefer a... Trip to Texas. Or a... Trip. Either way, go to traveltexas.com slash get your own for the only trip to Texas that matters. Yours. Tom slash get your own for the only trip to Texas that matters.

Yours.