#73 Cut of the same Cloth
Imagine if you will...
Teachers are molesting our nation's kids. Yes, those people we send our children to nine months of the year have among them sexual predators who prey on the impressionable students. What's worse--far worse--is that the Principals, Administrators, and even the School Boards know about this and have known for a long time. And what have they done with this knowledge? Have they informed the parents of these horrific events? Have they aggressively investigated these crimes and sought to bring swift and terrible justice to all of the guilty? Have they re-examined their entire profession to find the cracks in the system and fill them, to remake the screening process to make sure it is especially vigilant, and to ensure that there are multiple safeguards that demand constant supervision and scrutiny?
No, they have done none of these things. Instead, they hide the truth from the parents and community. By using an elaborate shell-game, school officials are able to move the abusive teachers back and forth to escape detection. When a child comes forward they hush it up, and when a teacher must be moved the new school is unaware of whom they're getting.
If the above were true, what would happen?
I tell you the truth; even terrorists could not inspire the public anger that would rise up if teachers were getting away with molesting our kids again and again, and being aided by officials more concerned with appearance than what is right. Forget Editorials; there would be demonstrations, maybe even riots, and it would be all law-enforcement could do to keep the community from imposing mob justice on the offenders and those who sought to hide the situation. Hopefully, the vast majority of innocent teachers would speak out with the loudest voices for harsh punishment (if the NEA would let them), for these teachers would know that their profession's credibility was shot, and the sacred trust which allowed teachers to have close contact with the children was now torn asunder. The innocent teachers would realize that now not only would everyone in their ranks would be viewed with suspicion, but that many students would turn away from the schools and the education they so desperately need in their lives.
Yes, all of these things and more would happen if the above were true.
Now, we can argue about whether the Catholic Church's demand for celibate priests helps push already morally weak men into a life of depravity, or even if the lifestyle a priest lives--without a wife and family, unfettered access to children and a bottomless reserve of trust in the community--if these conditions attract would-be pedophiles in the first place. That is a debate I will leave for another day. What is clear to me is this: the Catholic Church has acted damnedly by hiding the gigantic problem within their ranks of priests who molested children. To further add to this by knowingly sending these sick men to one unsuspecting parish after another is an abomination I lack the words to describe or compare.
If all of this had gone down in our public schools, the country would demand and see to it that things changed, and changed now. So, then, where is the overwhelming public anger? Where are the Congressional Hearings? Why is the Justice Department not out scouring the country for information toward punishing all of those responsible? Where are the national polls trumpeted on cable news channels showing that Americans are mad as hell, and not going to take it any more? Why have the courts been slow to deal these offenders and the people who protected them, and hand out as terrible punishment as allowed by law? Why is the battle being fought--if addressed at all--on the Editorial pages of newspapers, and what are you going to do to change that?
Hyperion
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