Safeguarding students from school employee sexual misconduct requires a systemwide approach, VCU’s Charol Shakeshaft says

By Sian Wilkerson

Virginia Commonwealth University's Charol Shakeshaft has been studying equity in schools for more than four decades. Her latest book, "Organizational Betrayal: How Schools Enable Sexual Misconduct and How to Stop It," presents data from over 200 cases of school employee sexual misconduct toward a student, and it examines school cultures, decisions and practices - all with the goal of preventing the abuse of students by school employees.

"The majority of abusers are employees who don't start out thinking they will have sex with a minor or a student," said Shakeshaft, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership in VCU's School of Education. "These are people who cross one boundary, and then another and then another, without anyone intervening."

Each time a boundary is crossed without being called out, she continued, the school employee "rationalizes to him or herself that this behavior 'must be OK or someone would stop me.' And with each boundary-crossing, the safety of the student is diminished. This is a tragedy that doesn't have to happen - we can stop it."

In a conversation with VCU News, Shakeshaft shared how to create a culture of prevention.

Why does abuse in schools continue to be so prevalent?

The primary reason that abuse continues is that we don't create a culture that (1) educates all members of the school community (students, employees in all roles, parents) about what are appropriate boundaries and behaviors between and among a school employee and a student; or (2) calls out and provides consequences for boundary-crossing. All members of the community need to be able to identify boundary-crossing and feel empowered and have practice in calling out and reporting it.

What does a culture of prevention include?

A culture of prevention contains these seven components of a standard of care: policies for prevention; training and education; screening and hiring practices to identify potential abusers; monitoring, managing and supervising personnel; reporting boundary-crossing; responding with consequences; and resolving and remedying. The latter step, resolving and remedying, is crucial when something has happened. At this point, we ask: What went wrong? What did we miss? What do we need to do to make the student and organization whole again?

Anything else to add?

Everyone needs training to understand appropriate and acceptable boundaries. Everyone needs practice in speaking up and acting when someone is observed or reported crossing boundaries. This requires a culture change where worrying about making a mistake takes a backseat to making sure a student is safe.