The teacher abuse double standard

Teachers sexually abusing students has unfortunately become a normal news item in the last twenty years. Female teachers abusing male students garners the most media attention. That coverage may lead some to believe that women who abuse students face harsher sentences when convicted. However, it appears the opposite is true. According to a Star-Ledger investigation of 97 cases in New Jersey, male teachers are more often convicted and face longer sentences:

The data about 72 men and 25 women also shows:

• Male defendants went to prison in 54 percent of cases compared with 44 percent of cases for female defendants;
• Men averaged 2.4 years in prison compared with 1.6 years in prison for women, or 50 percent more time;
• Ninety-three of the 97 cases ended in plea deals;
• €…Forty-seven cases ended in noncustodial sentences, which typically involved pre-trial intervention programs or probation.

This comes as no surprise to anyone following the media coverage of these cases. As the paper noted:

A Dose of Stupid v89

It happens every day. In fact, it is pretty hard to avoid it. There are some things that can only be understood with a slap on the forehead. Things so mind-boggling that one wonders how humans managed to evolve thumbs while being this mentally inept. Case in point:

This thing about male victims

What happens when one is a radical feminist and reads an article showing that men experience more domestic violence than one assumes? Does one challenge those radical feminist views? Does one rethink her understanding of domestic violence? Or does one try to disprove the statistics by playing semantics?

Karen Ingala Smith decided to go the latter route. She attempted to dismiss the finding of the British Crime Survey, a survey that showed a higher than expected rate of domestic violence against men. She got the ultimate smackdown from one of the professionals cited in the above article, but that did not deter Smith. She chose instead to list her problem with the notion that one in three domestic violence victims is male.

Let us break down her arguments point by point:

Bulletin Board v191

Boy Scouts agree to release ‘perversion files’ — The Boy Scouts of America said Thursday it will release to attorneys 10 years of confidential files it uses to keep pedophile suspects from becoming troop leaders or volunteers. The decision comes after the 4th Court of Appeals in San Antonio denied an appeal from the BSA to keep the files sealed. “Youth protection is of paramount importance to the Boy Scouts of America,” BSA spokesman Deron Smith said in an email. “We are thankful the court reviewed this matter and will comply with its order.”

Discrimination against men? — Recent Virgin airlines passenger, John McGirr claims Virgin airlines treated him like a sexual predator on a flight to Sydney. He claims a flight attendant asked him to move saying he was not allowed to sit next to children because he was male. According to Mr McGirr the flight attendant walked up the aisle and tried to find a female to swap seats with him. “By that time, people had looked around and it was like I’d done something wrong, (I felt) defenceless.

Ex-Scout leader admits sexual abuse of boys — Henry Calder, 60, who had been in a position of responsibility in the Scout Association for about 40 years, had taken videos between 1982 and 1991 at camps organised by the movement. He had also been an employee in the finance department at East Dunbartonshire Council until his retirement in 2010. Calder, of Kirkintilloch, was arrested in a raid organised under the auspices of Operation Alba, which targeted people who downloaded child pornography on the internet.

Zimbabwe Police Concerned About Rape Against Males

Recently, two women and one man allegedly kidnapped and raped a 25-year-old soldier. They reportedly held him for four days, sexually assaulting him multiple times:

Assistant police spokesman Assistant Inspector Muzondiwa Clean told the NewsDay news organisation that at around midnight on April 1, the soldier willingly accepted a lift into Mutare in a Mercedes Benz vehicle from the Birchenough Bridge business centre. [...] The soldier was allegedly threatened with a knife by the driver when he asked to be dropped off instead of travelling for food, and one of the female passengers blindfolded him shortly afterwards. Assistant Inspector Clean said the soldier was then taken to a house in an unknown location, where he was stripped naked and robbed of his mobile phone and $35. he solider claims he was sexually abused by the women on numerous occasions at the house, before the group drove him into the remote Dangamvura Mountains.

Afterward, the group stoned him, resulting in an injury to his foot. The soldier eventually made his way to the police and reported the incident.

Bulletin Board v190

Boy reveals parental abuse via Facebook — “Hi, my name is S. and I am 14. Since I was 8, my parents beat me regularly. Whenever there was a family argument that I was not connected to and I made eye-contact with my father, he would get angry and punch me hard, sometimes with a belt.” This post, published Friday night by a 14-year-old-boy from Haifa on the police’s Facebook page, raised suspicions of harsh abuse and led to a police investigation and the subsequent arrest of the child’s parents.

Experts see increase in male sexual assault awareness — A California man who, as a child, was sexually molested by his mother, said the trauma he endured has stayed with him well into his adult life and affected his ability to comprehend his emotions and be intimate with women. The 50-year-old, who asked to remain anonymous, said he only came to the realization that his mother’s behavior was inappropriate with him as a boy, within the last few years. “I still battle with a voice that says I’m a baby,” he said, adding that coping is a continuous struggle.

Female rapists abuse soldier for 4 days — A 25-YEAR-OLD soldier was allegedly kidnapped and detained for four days by suspected female rapists, who are said to have sexually abused him several times before releasing him early this week. Police in Mutare have confirmed the incident, saying they were hunting for the suspected culprits. Manicaland assistant police spokesperson Assistant Inspector Muzondiwa Clean told NewsDay yesterday that on April 19 around midnight at Birchenough Bridge business centre, the unsuspecting soldier boarded the women’s vehicle on his way to Mutare.

The Earl Silverman Center

In light of Earl Silverman’s suicide, I thought it was important to make sure some good comes out of it. Kristina Hansen has started the Earl Silverman Center. The goal is to provide support for male victims of domestic violence. The Center is accepting donations:

Men make up almost 50% of all domestic violence victims yet there is not one domestic violence shelter for men in Canada.

Earl Silverman was the first to open a mens shelter for men who had been domestically abused in Calgary, Alberta. The Men’s Alternative Safe house, otherwise known as MASH4077, had never been granted any government funding, even after numerous attempts by Earl to file for funding, because the government refused to recognize that there was a need for such a shelter.

Earl decided to fund MASH4077 by himself with his own finances, as well as meager private donations. He worked on the MASH4077 project from 2003 and ran the shelter for 3 years out of his own home with private rooms and beds which accommodated the men who sought refuge from domestic violence.

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Our first goal is to raise $5000.00 which we will use in order to file for non-profit status, set up a temporary head office, printing materials and other promotional items, and for locating an appropriate property for the center.

We need your help to make Earls dream a reality and to honor his memory. Men need your help so that they can finally get the help they so desperately need.

Please donate if you have the extra money. Also, please spread the word about the Earl Silverman Center.

R.I.P. Earl Silverman

Last month, I wrote about Earl Silverman closing down his shelter for abused men. The Men’s Alternative Safe House (MASH) was reportedly the only private men’s shelter in Canada. Earl paid for everything out of his own pocket, but could no longer shoulder the costs. He eventually sold the home. The day after he finished packing everything up, Earl hanged himself in the garage. According to the article, Earl was a victim of abuse at the hands of his ex-wife, and found it difficult to get help:

“When I went into the community looking for some support services, I couldn’t find any. There were a lot for women, and the only programs for men were for anger management,” Mr. Silverman told the Post shortly before his death. “As a victim, I was re-victimized by having these services telling me that I wasn’t a victim, but I was a perpetrator.”