Letter to Lawrence Journal World Regarding a Good Decision
I believe it's much more important, whenever possible, to give affirmation for good decisions that an institute makes than to berate them for the bad.
It's just like giving positive reenforcement to children. Problem is that it seems to often be more difficult to find good decisions to honor in institutions than it is in children.
Yesterday, a local front page story (not easily available online) was that the University of Kansas has just adopted a written policy that any child abuse that is known to have occurred on campus will be reported to appropriate law enforcement officers immediately. The article explained that this came in the aftermath of the Penn State problems.
Except for it seeming like something that should have been done decades ago, there was nothing alarming about the article. It certainly is a good step forward.
Wanting to strike while the iron was hot on this one, I took time to send a letter to the journalist who has since past it on to the editorial dept.
Here are my comments:
" As Chancellor Gray-Little says, we do have a moral obligation to protect members of our community. In my opinion, ALL adults should be mandatory reporters! I am grateful that KU has now spelled out the requirement to report child sexual abuse. Not only does this protect the children. It protects the University. Furthermore, it should insure that a person who reports a colleague will not be in danger of being punished by the system for doing so.
As a writer, the problems of institutional collusion have been a major concern of mine since I had a horrible first-hand experience of career loss myself, decades ago, because I refused to be silent when a colleague was abusing adolescent girls. In that case, the institution was more interested in protecting itself from exposure than in protecting the young people who were victimized! Since then, I've heard from many victims of professional sexual misconduct. Sadly, collusion is still more the norm than the exception.
Unfortunately, the abuse of minors is just the tip of the iceberg so far as universities are involved. We still need a lot of public education, as well as increased training of faculty members and students, so that everyone understands that young people don't stop being vulnerable at age 18 to educator abuse. Because of the power imbalance, there is no such thing as "consensual sex" in a relationship between a faculty member and a student. It is always an ethical violation of the one in power, regardless of the circumstances. The laws to protect young adult students from abuse by professionals are not as strong as for minors; but the moral obligation to intervene and to support the victim, while protecting others from harm, should be of equal concern to all.
S.E.S.A.M.E. (see http://www.sesamenet.org ) describes educator abuse, regardless of the age of the student, as 'behavior that is psychologically equivalent to incest.' "
Posted by Dee Ann Miller
at 6:08 PM CST
