Teachers, sex and high-poverty schools

Today's St. Petersburg Times story raises the question of whether high-poverty schools see more cases of teacher misconduct than more affluent schools. But if readers are wondering whether kids are more likely to encounter sexual predators in such schools, the answer is: We don't know.

At least not from reviewing the limited data the Times was able to use. Putting the Pinellas and Hillsborough cases since 2000 together (all of it from the myfloridateacher.com Web site), and breaking them down into categories of misconduct, here's what we found:

Inappropriate relationships -- This is the category that includes Debra Lafave. The tally: 10 cases. Four in high-poverty schools.

Inappropriate behavior and/or language -- By that we mean, behavior or language that is sexually charged, like the Riviera Middle School teacher who referred to girls' breasts with names like "righty" and "lefty." The tally: 11 cases. Seven in high-poverty schools.

Sex crimes off campus -- This would be things like voyeurism. The tally: 10 cases. Eight in high-poverty schools.

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

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Comments

[Can we study something important, please?]

Aye, aye, aye. All incidences of misconduct are wrong. Why does it matter where they occur?! Nice job trying to make some bogus study. Now I REALLY want to go help out in a high-poverty school where I might be automatically pegged as a perv!

[Steve Lang]

Some of us in teacher education were not surprised by this at all. As we've studied teacher dispositions (the beliefs and values of teachers that sometimes predict behavior), it would not seem unusual for teachers of certain profiles to self-select or be placed in schools with a patterned or systematic consequence. Even though Florida does not use dispositions as part of any required or targeted certification process, the concept was proposed nationally several decades ago in the INTASC Principles. There is still considerable controversy about the measurement and use of such concepts, but the patterns described in this article would be typical of disposition research.

[Nancy]

I don't see a problem with this. Lower income families deserve weaker public service. They pay less taxes.

that is outrageous!

[Chuckles]

I don't see a problem with this. Lower income families deserve weaker public service. They pay less taxes.

[Fed Up Reading Teacher]

If there is a correlation, I do not see why that should surprise anyone. High-poverty schools are very difficult to work in ( I work in one!) and as shown previously on this blog, tend to attract lesser-qualified staff...younger, less-experienced (with poorer judgment and less age gap between students and themselves) and it is sad to say...but perhaps certain individuals even target these schools because of the conditions. Think about it: if you are a pedophile, would you rather work in a school where parents are involved and apt to notice changes in their child, or in a poorer one where parents are working all the time or simply do not care what happens to the child?

[John]

But, the raw numbers fit the preconcieved notion that less than 1% of all the teachers represents the other greater than 99%. I say that 100% of the teachers who are teaching students are worth their weight in gold, oil or some other valuable substance. I also say that 100% of the scalawags who are doing the wrong things with students need to be fired. Oh yeah, 100% of the administrators who sit in their offices and upsidedown wedding cakes and don't involve themselves in the lives of students should also be fired.

[Sherman Dorn]

The relevant question to ask from a parent's perspective would be, "Were children at greater risk of exposure to the teachers eventually on that list by being in high-poverty schools?" To do that, you'd need to know the number of years each of the individuals spent in high- vs. low-poverty schools over a span of time (say, 2002-2007) and then the student-years spent in those schools. The ratio of misconduct-teacher-years to student-years is the relevant stuff to compare, not the raw numbers.