Grade School Students Suffer Sexual Assault
Student-on-student sexual assault is not just a problem on college campuses. It threatens thousands of kids a year in elementary, middle and high schools across America, according to a year-long investigation by the Associated Press.
Analyzing information from state education agencies and federal crime data, AP found about 17,000 official reports of sexual assaults by students over a four-year period.
The multi-part series includes an article focusing on the case of a boy who claims he was repeatedly raped in junior high school and another article about kindergarteners who say they were abused, almost always by other students. The series also includes short pieces on what current research says about student sexual assault; advice for parents, and a look at how the AP compiled its data.
Among its key findings:
- More than 2,800 cases of sexual assault, involving more than 3,300 victims, were reported at elementary and secondary schools during 2013 and 2014. Victims of sexual assault in school are most often pre-teens or young teens. Boys are more than 40 percent of the youngest victims, but as students age, girls are much more likely to be sexually assaulted at school.
- Fondling is the most frequent type of sex assault reported at school – nearly 80 percent of all school sexual assault cases between students are incidents of unwanted fondling. The remaining 20 percent are cases of sodomy, other penetration and rape, reports of which spike in the teen years.
- Contrary to public perception, data showed that student sexual assaults by peers were far more common than those by teachers.
- School districts have had to report all sorts of data about students, from those who received free lunches to those who brought in firearms. But there is no federal mandate to track sexual violence.
- 32 states and the District of Columbia track student sexual assaults, though some did so only if incidents led to discipline like suspension or expulsion; the other states, including Maine, did not.
- 18 states reportedthey had training requirements for teachers, school administrators or students about peer-on-peer sex assault.
- Some of the nation's largest school districts reported zero sexual assaults over a multi-year period, and some state education officials told AP they doubted their districts' numbers.
- In multiple cases, AP found that school districts bungled investigations, failed to supervise students they knew were trouble, neglected to inform authorities or worse.
