A "Silent Epidemic" Of Teacher Abuse

Part Two Of Series Examines One Family And Community Scarred By Sexually Abusive Educator

(AP)  In this second installment of a three-part series on sexual misconduct by teachers in American schools, the Associated Press examines the devastating impact one abusive educator has had on a family and a community.

Read: Part 1

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They've learned to watch their older daughter for any sign that something's wrong.

She cuts her long, blond hair and dyes it jet black. And they worry.

Her father picks up a book she's been reading, "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy, and skims it for clues.

He notices a highlighted passage: "You forget some things, don't you," it reads. "Yes. You forget what you want to remember and you remember what you want to forget."

Her parents can relate. There's a lot they'd like to forget, too - especially since the day nearly three years ago when their then-15-year-old daughter told them her elementary school band teacher had molested her and other girls.

The teacher, Robert Sperlik Jr., pleaded guilty last year to sexual abuse and kidnapping of more than 20 girls, some as young as 9. Among other things, he told prosecutors that he put rags in the girls' mouths, taped them shut and also bound their hands and feet with duct tape and rope for his own sexual stimulation.

He pretended it was a game, gave the girls candy and told them not to tell.

And for a long time, none of them did.

An extensive Associated Press investigation found that stories like these are all too common. AP reporters in every state and the District of Columbia identified 2,570 teachers who were punished for sexual misconduct from 2001 to 2005 alone, for actions that ranged from fondling to viewing child pornography to rape.

Though experts who deal with sexual abuse say victims tell the truth more often than not, the ordeal is often worsened when the community around them is drawn in and people take sides. Often, victims and their families face uncooperative administrators, disbelieving neighbors and an agonizing legal journey.

This family in Berwyn, a suburb west of Chicago, understands the emotional toll.

"It's a silent epidemic is what it is," the girl's father says. "People are protecting people who aren't worth protecting. I hope our daughters will have that instilled in them, too - that you report what you know."

The couple - a telecommunications technician and a stay-at-home mom - spoke on the condition that they and their daughter not be identified, so she can try to move on from the nightmare that began in the late 1990s.

But they want to share their story to encourage anyone being abused by an educator to come forward. They also hope school officials will do more to get abusive teachers out of classrooms.

"I thought my children were safest in school," the girl's mother says. "I don't trust anybody now."

Her daughter was a fourth-grader at Pershing Elementary School when Sperlik began teaching her how to play the clarinet.

She liked him. He said nice things about her and played funny games during class, including letting them draw lips on duct tape and put it on their mouths.

Eventually, though, she and two of her friends started to feel uncomfortable with what they described as increasingly creepy behavior.

After attending a school seminar about inappropriate touching in 2001, they wrote a note to the woman who spoke to them.

He "rubs our leg sometimes, rubs our back to feel for a bra," the girl - then age 11 - wrote for herself and her friends. "He comments (to) me about my hair and how nice it looks when it's down, comments to (another female student) on how she dresses and that she should be a model."

"We are afraid to tell our parents," they continued in the note, which made its way to Karen Grindle, the principal at Pershing.

The girls thought it was enough to flag an adult's attention without having to be too explicit.

[anonymous765]

It was well known that these incidents were occurring. In addition to the counselor I also told two teachers and there were at least two other teachers who witnessed the behavior, once right in class. Nothing was ever done.

I grew up and now have a child of my own, but I have real reasons to never let my child set foot inside a public school. In addition, I have learned that some private schools have similar problems. I want to send my child to school, but I have not yet found one that I can trust with my cute tot. I am seriously researching homeschooling as an option.

Teachers with these tendencies aren''t the only predators lurking in the schools, and teachers and counselors will not safe guard our children, nor even step in when abuse is occurring. Anyone who sends their child to school believing it is a safe place is deluding themselves.

[anonymous765]

I read this article and I wondered if anyone will ever do a story on another problem in our school system. I was sexually assaulted by a classmate when I was in eighth grade. It happened in the hallway during school hours, sometimes in front of teachers. I finally was fed up with it and went to one of the school counselors and told her what was happening. (Though I had to actually describe what he was doing, I didn''t know it was sexual assault until I was a college student and I went to a police presentation on *** crimes.)

The counselor told me that it was my fault. I must have been trying to seduce this boy. She went on to say that if I would just buy the expensive trendy clothes that the popular kids wore it wouldn''t be a problem. (My clothes were ordinary, and modest, not tight and not revealing. Theirs were immodest, very tight and revealing. It was the style in that area at the time.)

In addition to the continuous sexual assault over the year, from this boy and his cronies I also endured harassing phone calls, threats of rape, threats of bodily harm, and having freshly cut grass and dirt thrown on me after school.

(cont next post)

[michellem99-2009]

crzmeat amen..I am sick and tired of them being treated yhis/that way. I don''t buy the mentally ill issue. IF THEY DO THE CRIME-THEY DO THE TIME..NO IFS,ANDS,OR BUTS. IF THEIR PEERS SAY HE/SHE DIE THEM THAT BETTER BE CARRIED OUT. Yer don''t get save and hope yer life is forgiven as that book yer paid no attn to when yer free. I don''t pander to any sp interesnt...as a woman I feel there are times when death is needed.

[actornaught]

Death penalty period we want to rid ourselves of this abuse...
Posted by crzmeat at 08:41 PM : Oct 21, 2007

Holy Thorazine, get a grip! I was about to agree with you, since you''re not with the many ''cons that rant on & on about how much the "immoral" victims deserve abuse.

If you have a death penalty, these sickos will just kill the kids when they''re done with them!

[me4prezz]

We had a teacher in high school that everyone knew was doing stuff like this, but he was finally forced into early retirement, with full pension, when the school finally accepted that something was happening. Sick.

As a person who was raped, this is beyond disgusting and makes me seriously consider home schooling my children, if only to protect them. I am scared to death that something will happen to them as it did to me and I don''t think I could handle that.

[sharncedar]

If someone can git pregnant, then they have access to conraceptives. And thats it. Ya ******** biology 101 flunkie weirdoes.
Posted by booyaw78 at 10:07 PM : Oct 21, 2007

lol - booyah!

[booyaw78]

"Operation Git De ****** Out"

[booyaw78]

And yer kids are ******** up our schools wit yer bullshyyt politics. Their ******** skkkank daddies beat''n them makes them a buncha ******** bullies too. People go to school to learn, ya ******** dropouts. There ain''t no ******** moralities here. If yer not here to learn, and yer just here to act all tough and political, then git de ******** out.

[booyaw78]

Ya see, thats you impressionists'' problem. You think that because the biology allows for something, that that means its a political statement of "I do". Yer a buncha ******** no good god damned skankkkks. And thats the ******** truth.

If someone can git pregnant, then they have access to conraceptives. And thats it. Ya ******** biology 101 flunkie weirdoes.

[fairandbal]

The ONLY epidemic that this article SHOULD be highlighting is the Epidemic of %u2018sexual morality%u2019 articles posted by CBS News this week. Here%u2019s the list I%u2019ve seen:
- Military is recruiting g-a-ys
- Maine school allows birth control
- Sexual abuse in schools

Why all of these articles THIS week? Surprise, it''s also the week that the GOP is courting the fundamentalists at the ''values votes'' summit. This article is clearly about the MSM trying to change the conversation. Trying to frame the conversation about ''sexual morality'' which is the ONLY thing the GOP tries to legislate, and social justice morality (which is what JESUS really talked about more than anything).

It''s about the MSM trying to help out the GOP who really has no morality or ideas. I''m willing to bet anything that someone from the AP is working for Giuliani and/or Romney campaigns.