In 2004, the US Department of Education released a study indicating that 1 in 10 students have experienced sexual misconduct by educators behaviors ranging from inappropriate joking to rape. This DVD will help school personnel better understand offender tactics, victim impact, and appropriate professional boundaries.

Amy Hestir was sexually abused by a popular high school coach starting at age 12. He gave her cards, gifts, and even hired her to baby-sit his daughter. She did not consider the relationship to be rape until she tried to end it and he forcibly raped her. Like many sexual abuse victims, she did not tell about the abuse while it was happening. Ten years later she did tell, but prosecution was not an option as the statute of limitations had passed. Sen. Jane Cunningham talks about “passing the trash,” a term used for school districts who allow the accused to resign and move to another district without reporting the allegations. Sen. Cunningham co-sponsored the Amy Hestir Student Protection Act which increases civil liability for school districts who fail to report substantiated allegations of sexual misconduct to a subsequent employing district and increases the statute of limitations for prosecution of child sexual abuse.

School Resource Officer Thomas Wright reports that social media decreases the time that offenders need to select and groom their victims. He says that virtually all sexual abuse cases now involve technology in some way. Dr. Charol Shakeshaft, of Virginia Commonwealth University and national expert on educator sexual misconduct, talks about the importance of educating school personnel on understanding child sexual abuse and offender behavior.

Recent headlines about child sexual abuse prompted Mark to speak out about his own sexual abuse by his sixth grade basketball coach. His parents were not suspicious when the coach began showing him extra attention away from the other kids. For many years he never spoke about his abuse for fear of how he would be perceived. Jennifer Marsh with RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Hotline, discusses the unique impact of child sexual abuse on men.

Preview video: “Innocence Shattered”