The number of inappropriate relationships between teachers and students is on the rise in a number of states, especially in the Southern parts of the US, with Texas, Alabama, Kentucky and Louisiana reporting the largest numbers of cases per capita.
Terry Abbott, the chairman of Drive West Communications has come out with a baffling report after his company analyzed and tracked all of the cases of such relationships that appeared in the media. The database that they have compiled for the year 2014 includes almost 800 incidents and the numbers seem to be on the rise, with 6 more cases being reported in Louisiana alone in the first 20 days of 2015.
The states that lead the country in these very negative statistic are Texas, Alabama, Kentucky and Louisiana; for some reason mostly states in the South. For example, in 2014, Texas had almost three times as many cases as California which is home to 12 million more people. When this is translated into per capita numbers, the trend is a frightening one for Texan students.
Other parts of the report that are interesting include the fact that the vast majority of these relationships are initiated by experienced educators who have been working in education for 10 years or more. Also, the percentage of male educators is noticeable higher than that of female educators who engage in such relationships with their students.
Finally, the report also states that the largest number of cases of such relationships start happening online, on various social media. This clearly raises an issue of making teacher-student contacts on social media illegal, which is something that most people involved with the issue are advocating.
