Male sexual violence and harassment in K-12 schools is now, and always has been, an epidemic.

Our schools have become training grounds where our boys and other students are learning how to abuse their privilege and power. They are getting the message that sexual abuse is not only tolerated—it is venerated.

It is as bad as ever—despite the Me Too and Times Up movements, the implementation of DEI frameworks in K-12 education, and incredibly, despite the 50 year anniversary of the very federal law requiring schools to do something about it.

This is due to the adult privilege in the feminist activist world, and the structural sexism, and instituitional indifference in the K-12 social justice world. This is evidenced by the use of highly exclusive DEI frameworks which completely avoid discussions of male privilege and sexism in K-12 education, and the lack of scholarship on the subject in K-12 educational research.

We are a group of school staff who are digging into one of the deepest, darkest, secrets in education—a near total lack of compliance with the 50 year old federal law known as Title IX, and the catostrophic failure of the systems in K-12 education and Law Enforcement to report and investigate the rampant student on student child sexual abuse happening in our schools.

In our experience collecting stories from other school staff across the country, we have seen that student on student child sexual abuse is NOT REPORTED to outside authorities, and is instead investigated by school principals in clear violation of the law.

In our many years of experience being the sole trusted adult on our campuses, we have learned to see children as their own historically marginalized group.

Additionally, students with disabilities, or who are futher marginalized within the K-12 complex or society at large, suffer greater rates of child sexual abuse at school.

Ours is a highly nuanced perspective; we uphold the reality that sexual harm is a gendered crime, and center female voices in the work. However, we also maintain a sex postive, and male positive perspective. We see clearly that toxic masculinity is hurting our boys too, and endeavor to find a praxis of love, solidarity, and healing for all of our nation’s youth.

Finally, we also honor the fact that LGBTQIA+ students are at a higher risk of sexual harm at school, but see clearly that their stories have been co-opted by polticians on both sides of the culture wars who seem completely unable to acknowledge that Title IX was never implemented in the first place—making their current battle over the new regulations pointless virtue signaling for political gain.

There are a few local non-profits working HARD on this issue. Their work is absolutely integral, but as educators and school staff, we KNOW that the world of education is inaccessible to outsiders.

We see that these folks might have the best of intentions when it comes to bringing about important changes within our schools, but their impact is very limited, because our leaders are very good at faking actual reform.

Additonally and most importantly—only veteran teachers and counselors with tenure have the ability to speak truth to power to the highly political juggernaut that is K-12 governance in America, which is wildly different from district to district, convoluted, and lacking in oversight.