Saturday, October 27, 2007

THE SOCIETY OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL SCIENTISTS
THE 15TH ANNUAL MEETING

The panel on Catholic blogs went well today at the conference. I spoke about the background of Catholic blogging and gave a bit of history. I mentioned two ways I felt that Catholics use blogs - as a correction to and extension of the mainstream media, and also as evangelization. I will post more about the panel and the conference tomorrow.

It was a bit weird being at St. John's University for the first time since graduating in 1992. The campus has been built up, it now has dorms and also a Church, where a Mass was held for conference attendees. I love the academic world and felt a longing to be back at a University setting.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

FINALLY, via Newsday the AP has studied the sex abuse scandals of school systems.

AP: Sexual Misconduct Plagues US Schools

"An Associated Press investigation found more than 2,500 cases over five years in which educators were punished for actions from bizarre to sadistic."

"Most of the abuse never gets reported. Those cases reported often end with no action. Cases investigated sometimes can't be proven, and many abusers have several victims. "

"The seven-month investigation found 2,570 educators whose teaching credentials were revoked, denied, surrendered or sanctioned from 2001 through 2005 following allegations of sexual misconduct. "

"The findings draw obvious comparisons to sex abuse scandals in other institutions, among them the Roman Catholic Church. A review by America's Catholic bishops found that about 4,400 of 110,000 priests were accused of molesting minors from 1950 through 2002. "

It is about time that the problem has been studied in depth, but I wish they had done the study covering the school system from 1950-2002 as was done with the Catholic Church. I would also add that there have been many false claims of abuse filed against teachers, as there have been against priests. But at least now a study has been done that will call attention to the problem of abuse in schools.

UPDATE: The link was corrected