Child sexual abuse: S.C. to train educators in awareness

By LEE HIGGINS - lhiggins@thestate.com

A high school science teacher in Easley faces criminal charges after police say he solicited sex over the Internet from sheriff’s deputies he thought were 13-year-old girls.

A middle school teacher in Clinton pleads guilty to three counts of criminal sexual conduct with a minor, accused of having sex with at least five boys.

A high school cheerleading coach in Ware Shoals is accused of giving beer to two of her cheerleaders and having sex with a male student who was old enough to consent.

These are three criminal cases brought against educators last year alone — incidents state officials hope to pre-empt with a new program aimed at teaching anyone who works in a school how to prevent, recognize and react to child sexual abuse.

“Most children will never tell,” said Anne Lee, president and CEO of the nonprofit group that developed the training. “One in 10 children will tell, and 43 percent of those that do tell will tell a teacher.”

South Carolina is the first state to implement such a program on a statewide basis, Lee said.

“South Carolina can be a model for things good for the rest of the country,” said Attorney General Henry McMaster, who hopes greater awareness by educators will prevent sexual assaults.

An investigation by The Associated Press last year highlighted the teacher sex abuse problem nationwide, finding more than 2,500 cases over five years in which educators were punished for their actions.

Ninety-nine of those cases were from South Carolina, according to teacher discipline records.

The state Department of Education is teaming up with the Charleston-based nonprofit Darkness to Light to teach at least 10,000 of the state’s more than 50,000 educators by next summer.

At least one facilitator in each of the state’s 86 school districts will be trained to teach the “Stewards of Children” program.

Twenty percent of educators in each district are expected to take the 2½-hour class by next summer. It focuses on seven steps to protect children:

• Learn the facts, understand the risks

• Minimize opportunity

• Talk about it

• Stay alert

• Make a plan

• Act on suspicions

• Get involved.

Sex offenders want access to children, and the program’s goal is to “close the cookie jar,” Lee said.

The program is another step in the battle against sexual predators, McMaster said.

In 2004, the state made it illegal for adults to solicit sex from children on the Internet. Since then, McMaster said, 123 Internet sexual predators have been arrested.

“The bad news is,” he said, “there are millions of them out there.”

Among the program’s aims is to keep teachers out of a gray area with students by encouraging them to avoid being alone with students, state Superintendent of Education Jim Rex said.

While the state has had few cases of inappropriate contact between teachers and students, Rex said, “even one example is far too many.”

One S.C. case that caught national attention involved a cheerleading coach at Ware Shoals High School and two S.C. National Guardsmen who recruited at the school. The guidance clerk and one of the guardsmen were accused of having sex with students.

Because the students were 16 and older, none of the adults faced criminal charges related to the consensual sex.

Rex backs legislation filed by Rep. Scott Talley, R-Spartanburg, that would increase penalties for sexual misconduct and raise the age of consent for students to 19. The bill has been approved by the S.C. House and on Tuesday cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Darkness to Light is paying $132,700 of the program’s $162,700 cost, using funds from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The state Department of Education is paying $30,000.

Officials hope to continue the program beyond next summer and teach it to all of the state’s 50,000 educators.

Staff writer Bill Robinson contributed. Reach Higgins at (803) 771-8570.