Are More Female Teachers Having Inappropriate Relationships With Teen Students?

Update March 25

Connecticut State Police Det. Mike Pirolli of the Sexual Offender Registry Unit says the reason why Christine Powell has yet to show up on the state's registry is she isn't required quite yet. 

"When someone is convicted and receives jail time, they have to register upon their release into the community," according to Pirolli.

Original story

When the former special education teacher accused of a sexual relationship with one of her teen students in 2012 accepted a plea deal earlier this month, she became part of a larger narrative about an issue in America some suspect may be on the rise. 

Christine Powell of Middletown entered a guilty plea on March 5 at Middlesex Superior Court. Prosecutors asked the judge for a five-year prison sentence, suspended after 18 months, followed by 10 years of probation. She is required to register as a sex offender, however a search on March 25 of the Connecticut Sex Offender list did not turn up her name.

Likewise, when Mary Kay Letourneau was imprisoned for having sex with her 13-year-old male student in 1998, the case captured national attention and outrage.

By the time she was released in 2004, she was less of a novelty: Female teacher-student sex offenses were being covered regularly by the media. So are more female teachers really having sex with their teenage students, or has there simply been an increase in reports on the issue?

Terri Miller, president of Stop Educator Sexual Abuse, Misconduct and Exploitation in Nevada, said it’s impossible to tell because the U.S. Department of Education does not require any kind of data collection on the issue from states.

“We do believe it is a growing trend, but we really don’t have current data on educator sexual misconduct in general,” she said.

But there’s no consensus. As Bonny Forest, a psychologist and attorney told Bill O’Reilly, “I think this is an epidemic. I don’t think it’s on the rise, and I don’t think females committing this kind of abuse is on the rise. I just think we’re willing to talk about it more.”

Experts agree social media plays a role in the increased prominence of these stories: whether it’s by making teacher-student relationships more informal, or by leaving a digital trail when teachers and students interact, or in making stories about teacher-student relationships (particularly those involving female teachers) go viral.

The Associated Press conducted an unprecedented nationwide investigation on the issue between 2001 to 2005, in which it found 2,500 incidents of sexual misconduct by teachers of both genders were reported to authorities.

According to a 2004 U.S. Department of Education report, about 4.5 million public school students, or 1 in 10 students, said they had experienced some form of inappropriate sexual attention from teachers or other school employees sometime between kindergarten and 12th grade. About 43 percent of those students reported misconduct by female offenders.

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