Ex-middle school teacher Allena Ward has been sentenced for sexual misconduct with 5 of her students. Why are teachers such as Mrs. Ward violating students rights in this way, and what does it say about our United States school systems?

24 year-old Allena Ward, an ex-middle school teacher from Bell Street Middle School in Clinton, S.C., has been sentenced on Friday, September 19th, 2008 in relation with charges of sexual misconduct/abuse of three 14-year-olds and two 15-year-old students. Being an educator in middle school as well, I am deeply distressed by a trend that has develped over the last decade of sexual abuse being perpetrated upon students by teachers who, once caught, act like sad fallen angels.

These misguided teachers should of course be held thoroughly responsible for their acts of sexual abuse. So, too, should systems who hire them.

An argument can be made that many U.S. school systems have grown lopsided in their priorities, especially since the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act. This act, of course, emphasized the need of holding schools responsible for student achievement based on standardized test scores, and educators are increasingly hired on the basis of their ability to produce satisfying results in this area of education.

However, in an aim to achieve statistical improvements, school systems have often been persuaded to neglect the fact that quality educators must not only be able to prepare their students for a battery of standardized tests each year but must also exhibit a character that will protect the emotional growth of their students.

U.S.A. Today has cited that a "report mandated by Congress estimated that as many as 4.5 million students, out of roughly 50 million in American schools, are subject to sexual misconduct by an employee of a school sometime between kindergarten and 12th grade." Talk of severe misjudgement by our public school educators has become a staple of nightly news reports, alongside of coverage of school board discussions about how to increase our childrens' standardized test results.

What I remember most about my own years in junior high school, however, is not the dearth of standardized tests that I was expected to complete, but rather the social skills I sought to gather each day as I related with my fellow students and teachers. The best way for children to learn is not for them to be taught like robots, by teachers who are pressured to teach robotically. Children are better taught if they are allowed to live as healthy human beings by teachers who themselves strive to conduct their own lives in a healthy way.

By overemphasizing academic performance above these essential social skills, many U.S. school systems have placed their students' health and future in the wrong hands. Dr. Donna Schwartz-Watts, a psychiatrist who evaluated Allena Ward, has attributed her misconduct to "her strict, small-town upbringing". While it is impossible to deny that Ward herself is responsible for her own actions, even educators are not islands, and they can be influenced by the sometimes misguided priorities of their own communities.

Social development of both our students and teachers should be stressed as a priority in our public schools. National objectives should not distract our public school systems from nurturing the emotional health of the students they care for. By anticipating the need for more stringent measures of accountability, our system of edcation must also admit that emotional growth is as important as test scores.

Sources:
http://www.wyff4.com/news/15339113/detail.html
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2007-10-20-teachermisconduct_N.htm
http://www.foxcarolina.com/news/15342675/detail.html?rss=gsaa&psp=news
http://www.nea.org/esea/highstakesepsl.html