Twenty-seven years ago, Mary Kay Letourneau was a household name. In 1997, she was a 34-year-old married teacher with five children. She was on trial for child rape. Four years before, Letourneau had her eye on a little boy named Vili Fualaau.  When Vili reached the ripe age of 12, Letourneau began her sexual exploitation of the pre-teen. She had intercourse with Vili well before he could drive a car, or vote. She raped him well before he could think for himself.  

Twenty-seven years ago, Letourneau seemed to be an aberration. An outlier. An uncommon but raging sexual predator. Sadly, Letourneau is but a footnote now. Sexual predators posing as teachers are common now, and not predominantly male teachers creeping on high school teenagers but women offering themselves to teenage boys. Schools, and school districts, are doing their best to cover it up. 

In Gatesville Texas, an eighth-grade teacher named Christine Cockrell (who resembles someone's grandmother) sent photos of her breasts to a junior high student. Cockrell couldn’t recall all the social platforms she used. She was arrested when the teen’s mom found out. She admitted to creeping on another teen the year before.

Madison Bergman is a 24-year-old substitute teacher. She was trusted by the family of a boy she was teaching. She and the family traveled to Europe for a vacation. She promptly took advantage of the family’s trust, and the parents’ son, by “making out” with the 11-year-old. Bergman was engaged at the time. Bergman's photo looks like she just graduated from high school. 

In Los Angeles, home to some of the largest school districts in the country, and where teachers are treated with kid gloves, Business Insider published a startling report. Well, maybe not so startling.  

 Business Insider reported that a Los Angeles County school district routinely ignored allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation of children. One student reportedly was sexually abused by her tennis coach for years. A lawsuit was filed recently stating, along with other allegations that:

"sexual abuse by educators is rampant." [The District] ignored and concealed the sexual abuse of minor students."

The lawyer handling the suit said in a statement: 

“Our office has litigated against school districts for years. I've never seen another situation where, from top to bottom, the staff is trained in a way that violates the law," said attorney Michael Carrillo, who brought the case. "It's about protecting the interests of the school district over protecting children." 

Brandon Michael Bunney was a 42-year-old teacher in St Paul, Minnesota. He was teaching at Hmong College Preparatory Academy. He was “allegedly” found having intercourse with an underage “former student” in his car. She was a “former” student because the school claimed Bunney had been fired. But that wasn't true. 

Notwithstanding the school’s claim, Bunney’s contract was simply not “renewed.” He wasn’t fired. Thus the school avoids the reporting requirements regarding a terminated teacher for sexual abuse. Had Bunney kept his pants zipped, he likely could have found another teaching job.

Bunney’s “contract not renewed” isn’t a new way for school districts and unions to “discretely” deal with sexual predators. Much like the Catholic Church and its efforts to ignore that it had predators on the payroll, schools often try to avoid lengthy union pushback. They don’t renew contracts with a wink and nod to teachers unions. 

How do we “fix” this? I don’t know that we can. School systems are inundated with teachers sharing their sexual proclivities with students. Local school districts make “Pride Month” a yearly celebration. Teachers seem to be emboldened to creep on underage students knowing that generally, administrators will simply tell predators to stop or to be more discrete. 

With unions protecting creeps in the teaching ranks and schools willing to simply avoid the “scandal” by terminating contracts rather than exposing predators to the light of day, predators will keep targeting students.