Before today’s kindergarteners graduate from high school, around 4.5 million students in America will experience sexual abuse at the hands of a school employee. After more research, Liberty Counsel discovered that the laws in 43 states (exceptions are Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Oklahoma, New Jersey and Rhode Island) have exemptions from obscenity laws that permit sexually explicit materials in schools that can facilitate this kind of misbehavior. These laws protect school employees who provide students with pornographic materials from criminal prosecution under the guise that the materials are “educational.” Liberty Counsel has researched all of the states and has sample amendments or laws to close the loopholes in all 43 states. Individuals interested in changing their state laws can contact Liberty Counsel for more details or download a general fact sheet.

Sexually explicit materials in schools presented by teachers exacerbates the problem by creating a sexually charged environment. Currently, teachers are in a position of authority, with nearly complete freedom to discuss everything with young children, including erotic topics. Sexual predators can use teaching as an avenue to groom their intended target, or even entire classrooms all at once, while being protected by this loophole.

Current laws are not protecting our students. A study estimates that school employees abuse one in 10 students. It also found school employees involved in sexual misconduct in all five districts it surveyed in 2014. The study found this rampant misconduct across geographically and demographically diverse school districts. Our nation has seen an incredible number of teachers and coaches convicted for the sexual abuse of their students. Keep in mind that statistics commonly show that out of 1,000 rapists, only six will actually go to jail. When children are exposed to sexually explicit materials and grooming, the crimes of rape and sexual misconduct against them are even less likely to be discovered.

One nationwide article compiled more than 700 examples of female school employees convicted of sexual misconduct, although that may not be comprehensive. A South Dakota Fact Sheet shows nearly a dozen teachers convicted of related charges, and none of them were included in a national list published by World Net Daily. ­Another fact sheet shows that these teachers were usually transferred to three different schools before being reported to the police. A Government Accountability Office studying school employee sex offenders found that child molesters could have “even thousands of victims, sometimes without ever being caught,” according to a studying of 232 child predators, who had 17,000 victims.

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