.@mcpssuper WTOP: Feds urged to better track sex abuse in schools

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal agencies aren't doing enough to track incidents of sexual abuse committed by school personnel and should better educate districts and states about how to handle such cases, congressional investigators say.
While the breadth of the problem is unclear, the Government Accountability Office noted there have been numerous media reports of such cases and referenced a 2004 Education Department report that estimated nearly 10 percent of students are victims of sexual abuse by school personnel sometime during their school career.
One of the most high-profile sexual abuse cases was in Los Angeles, where a once-respected teacher was sentenced in November to 25 years in prison after entering the legal equivalent of guilty pleas to 23 counts of committing lewd acts on children...

...Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., who requested the GAO review, said the issue is often "treated as something that isn't discussed," but schools have a legal duty to keep students safe from such abuse and that includes a responsibility to ensure such cases don't happen. He's seeking congressional hearings on the issue.
"We know that it is a very real and serious problem and it's fairly prevalent throughout the nation's schools, in different degrees," said Miller, the minority leader of the House Education and Workforce Committee...

 http://www.wtop.com/1226/3552600/Feds-urged-to-better-track-sex-abuse-in-schools

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For more on this issue see the Parents' Coalition listing of MCPS teachers, staff and substitutes arrested at this link.