A move is being initiated in all the states of the union to enact regulations that will stop teachers who are known sexual abusers from being hired in any school in the United States.
Currently, only the states of Oregon, Missouri and Pennsylvania have regulations to that effect. However, a federal mandate approved in December is now requiring states to consider the potential risks of re-hiring teachers charged with sexual abuse.
Previously, a teacher charged with sexual misconduct can still get a teaching position in a new school, sometimes accompanied with attractive recommendations. This practice is called "passing the trash."
The problem has insidiously inserted itself in the country's school system. A lengthy report from USA today in 2007 revealed that there are thousands of such sex offenders in the teaching profession in the United States.
The report stated that most of the sexual abuses were never reported. Those that were reported received no action, with some cases investigated but not proven, and many abusers affecting several victims.
The schools, the courts, the state or even the federal government were not able to find a sure fire method of keeping the molesting teachers away from the classrooms.
In recent times, several Rhode Island teachers accused in a sex abuse scandal at the St. George's School were terminated but were able to get new jobs in different schools all over the country.
The Government Accountability Office, in a 2010 study revealed that offenders used their new teaching positions to abuse more children sexually.
But now, a fresh federal mandate requires all state to develop policies that make it illegal for schools to assist a teacher to get a new teaching position if they are suspected as abusers of children. Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania is the man credited with this bill to make it a federal legislation.
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