Schools Fail To Prevent Sexual Assault: AP Report

Untold numbers of students across the country are victims of sexual violence every year, a threat which schools are frequently ill-equipped and insufficiently motivated to prevent or address, according to a report out Monday from the Associated Press. Reporters working on the yearlong story found around 17,000 cases of sexual assaults in state education records and federal crime data at the United States' K-12 schools, though they note that the actual number is much greater given the chronic underreporting of such violations.

Keep reading on Patch Across America. Unlike colleges and universities, there are no national requirements for U.S. elementary and secondary schools to track student sexual assaults. But 32 states and the District of Columbia do maintain information, though it is inconsistent and sometimes incomplete, The Associated Press found.

Though children are most likely to experience sexual assault in the home, the second place they're most likely to be victimized is at school. And while assaults against students by adults are widely discussed and rightly acknowledged as a serious problem, the AP found that peer-to-peer assaults happen far more frequently and receive far less attention. School officials may even have incentives to ignore the problem entirely for fear that they could be held liable if it is publicly acknowledged.

The AP also reported on the differences between state policies for tracking and responding to sexual assaults. Even though there are federal regulations on colleges and universities that require administrators to track reports of sexual assaults, there are no such national requirements for K-12 schools.

The AP found that some schools tried to skirt around the lax requirements and "mask" the true number of assaults. Schools often have wide discretion about how to characterize a certain act, whether as a sexual assault or another more minor type of incident, which allows for the data to be easily manipulated.

In Maryland, school districts reported incidents of sexual attacks by students that led to suspension or expulsion. Over the four-year period, the state reported 307 such incidents.

The state's department of education maintains a record of student sexual assaults, including the number, and releases that number in an annual public record. The AP also reports that Maryland officials do not verify what schools or districts report, and the state does not require training on preventing or responding to student-on-student sexual assault.

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