Sexual Misconduct in the Schoolhouse by Fibkins William L.;

Author:Fibkins, William L.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Incorporated
Published: 2012-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

The Case of Kenneth Deluca

According to the Ontario (Canada) Province Ministry of Attorney Gen­eral’s report on April 9, 1996, Kenneth DeLuca plead guilty to fourteen sexual offenses involving thirteen victims.[7] The crimes took place be­tween 1972 and 1993. Each was committed while DeLuca was a teacher with Sault Ste. Marie Roman Catholic School Board. All of his victims were females; all but one was a student. Their ages ranged from ten to eighteen. The report suggests that DeLuca represents the ultimate breach of the trust placed in a teacher—a teacher who preys on students.

How­ever, as we have seen in many of the cases presented in this book, DeLuca’s predatory behavior was known early on by administrators, col­leagues, and parents. As early as 1973, and at numerous times thereafter, complaints were made about DeLuca’s conduct to principals, other teach­ers, and school board officials. Though the complaints were well founded, they were not acted on. DeLuca’s sexual misconduct continued for twenty years as he easily moved from school to school.

The report confirms that DeLuca’s case was not unique and follows a pattern similar to other sexual miscon­duct cases. For example, teachers were reluctant to report suspected sex­ual misconduct by a colleague, victims and their parents were intimidated to prevent or discourage disclosure, misconduct was not acted on, and the suspected predator was transferred from school to school.

As the report states, “The response of the School Board and its employees to complaints or disclosures made by the victims was completely inadequate and, in­deed, harmful. It involved, at times, stereotypical notions of what could be expected from a truthful victim, a minimizing of the seriousness of DeLuca’s misconduct, a lack of objectivity and a self-serving approach to these complaints.”

The report cites a review of the DeLuca case begun in May 1999 by Sydney J. Robins, a former judge of the Court of Appeals for Ontario, which resulted in 101 recommendations for change that specifically address “teacher–student sexual misconduct in the elementary and secondary schools.”[8] This review supports five major arguments I make in this book by stating the following:

The vast majority of teachers are unquestionably highly dedicated and caring professionals who seek to ensure a safe learning environment.

There is no typical offence or offender in sexual misconduct cases. While sexual misconduct by teachers is perpetrated overwhelmingly by males, and overwhelmingly against females, it occurs in all combina­tions of gender. The popular conception that anyone who sexually abuses a child is a pedophile is simply wrong. In fact, teachers who engage in sexual misconduct with children and adolescents are not pedophiles in most cases. For example, terms such as “boundary violators,” “romantic-bad judgment abusers” or “situational offenders” have been used to de­scribe different types of abusers.

Students abused by teachers probably delay disclosure by reason of deference to an authority figure, embarrassment, guilt and fear—fear of retaliation by the abuser, fear that no one will believe them, fear of be­ing blamed and fear of some sort of punishment. A child’s desire to comply with the request

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