Veteran educator Nancy Flanagan reacts to the Associated Press’ recent investigative series on teacher sexual misconduct. While she is mortified by the examples of school systems attempting to shield predator teachers, she also thinks the AP overreaches in its conclusions and is ultimately unfair to the teaching profession:
It’s dangerous to gleefully advance the idea that we need to be suspicious of teachers, especially male teachers. Teachers, like all human beings—including doctors, priests and national policy-makers—are subject to weakness and moral turpitude, to violating the public trust. When we suggest that teachers are more likely to exhibit predatory behavior than other folks, or that this is an emerging, terrifying national problem, we aren’t doing ourselves or our schools any good.
All in all, she says, the series is certainly not going to make life any easier for male teachers, despite their “courage and commitment.”
See more responses from teachers to the AP’s series.