Using public records to investigate how schools handle sexual misconduct cases

The East Valley Tribune–a Phoenix, Arizona suburban newspaper–started a two-part series on Sunday about a practice that is sometimes known as “pass the trash”:

Every year, Arizona teachers lose their jobs because they molest their students, say sexually inappropriate things, even sleep with them in some cases. But schools, protected by state law, routinely keep these incidents secret. And educators move on to other jobs with little consequence.

I’m Catholic, so I recognize the problem and the propensity that organizations have to fall into this bad behavior.

The Tribune has been working on the series since May. Their inquiries led to the Arizona Board of Education creating a first-ever database of educator sexual misconduct that the public can access.

Take a look at the Tribune’s own database.

Overall, the newspaper found that “since 1995, 176 educators have surrendered their teaching licenses or had them revoked by the state board of education for incidents defined as sexual in nature.”