"It is startling and a bit infuriating. It's the tip of the iceberg."

"That someone betrays the trust of the child and family ... I don't know that there is a larger betrayal than that."

Noni Classen, director of education, Canadian Centre for Child Protection

 

"{As children, we had no voice and no power; school administrators and adult bystanders failed to protect us."

"As adult survivors, we feel strongly that we must speak out on behalf of current students."

Stop Educator Child Exploitation (SECE)

An empty classroom is shown in Scarborough, Ont.  Photo by Nathan Denette /THE CANADIAN PRESS

The Canadian Centre for Child Protection, based in Winnipeg, Manitoba released a new report representing a Canada-wide view of sexual offending in the nation's schools. The report's numbers and conclusions were approached through a search of disciplinary records, media sources and criminal case law to enable the researchers to build their database.

Any individual working in a school environment, be they teachers, administrators, bus drivers and custodial staff are included in the record-management. Public notices of the outcomes of investigations launched in the oversight of school employee discipline are not required. Education falls under the jurisdiction of provincial and territorial governments, leading to a complete lack of official transparency. The numbers of events and offences included in the report must therefore be taken as an underestimation.

According to the report, 71 percent of victims were girls, 29 percent boys, when gender identification could be relied upon. Physical contact was represented by 37 percent of the offending behaviour. A group named SECE: 'stop educator-child exploitation' comprised of survivors of sexual abuse perpetrated by school teachers calls for the establishment of independent national or provincial investigative bodies to look into teacher-on-student sexual exploitation.

 

The report numbers 167 school personnel with criminal charges over the five years from 2017 to 2021, the years included in the report listing 251 current or former school personnel who committed or were accused of sexual offences against 548 children. The charges were those of sexual assault, sexual interference and sexual exploitation, for the most part. In the identification of a secondary role, 74 percent of offenders were coaches. 

 

Of the offenders, the vast majority, representing 85 percent, were men. Over 58 percent of the offences were carried out on school property. Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook were identified as the platforms most often used to facilitate victimization, the investigators found. The recommendation in the report was that independent bodies be established to receive and investigate complains.

 

Disciplinary records resulting from the offences should be made public. It was further recommended that all school personnel take mandatory child protection training programs. More trauma-informed support should be available for victimized students. And finally, more consistency in disclosure and policies to make certain students are safe, should be undertaken.

 

In this file photo, students wait to board a bus .  (Mike Groll/AP Photo)