Don’t Dig There
Lots of people don’t want us to tell this story. Today we released the trailer.
Some of the pushback was expected. Administrators and educators from Centennial High School were largely unwilling to revisit the past. Katy and I have both been hung up on more times than we can count. I have sent dozens of emails that will never get a reply. One administrator told Katy, “Why don’t you look into a more recent story? Didn’t this happen 20 years ago?” Another administrator said, “I’d prefer to not go down that road.” One teacher you’ll hear about this season told me in an email, “This is not Watergate,” and declined to answer any questions about his alleged behavior. I expected that.
even some people who have nothing to do with this story weren’t sure about our excavation of it. I remember the first time a peer asked, “Is this really a good idea to report on, given everything public school teachers in the U.S. are facing right now?” My blood boiled. I tried to imagine this person saying that directly to a survivor: “Are you sure what you endured is worth putting more burden on educators?”
The implication is clear: their story isn’t worth the trouble. But that tacit tolerance is exactly the problem. It’s the narrative many survivors ruminate on as they stay silent for years. “Just move on … it’s not worth dredging up the past …” And yet, every year there continue to be stories about educator sexual misconduct, in all 50 states, at all grade levels.
The latest data from experts in the field says 17% of students will be the target of educator sexual misconduct during their K-12 education. That’s nearly one in five. And studies show nearly 89% of teachers wouldn’t report suspected abuse by another educator.
That’s not only a failure of individual educators. That’s a failure of the system. The system didn’t make it easy for teachers to recognize or report abuse 20 years ago. And it doesn’t make it easy now.
