[NU Sports] PSU and how this could have been so easily avoided….

[Dennis W. Brandt]

<One of the biggest issues here (and in hindsight, perhaps the biggest 
issue) that was finally (and thankfully) addressed yesterday by the PA 
legislature, is that employees of state educational institutions are not 
mandatory reporters of sexual and/or child abuse to child services in the 
manner that doctors, therapists, Psy D's, police and EMT's are.

You are wrong as far as public school teachers are concerned.  They are 
required to report abuse in Pennsylvania.  College teachers I can't speak 
to.

There is a lot of sanctimonious first-stone tossing going on here.  Isn't it 
amazing how everyone knows exactly what should have been done - after the 
fact.

Let's say you're a third-grade teacher.  (I happen to live with one who 
looking forward to retirement at the end of the school year.)  She suspects 
abuse of a student and reports it to the principal.  Some time goes by, and 
she hears nothing.  So, she checks back with the principal, who tells her, 
"It's being handled."  Each time she checks back, the principal says the 
situation is under control.  Her legal responsibility has ended, yet she 
still sees the possibility of the child being abused.  What does she do? 
Should she go over the boss's head to the school board president or perhaps 
contact the police?  There's a real job risker, not to mention offering 
fodder for a potentially crippling lawsuit if she can't prove the 
allegations, which aren't her job to prove.  The law could help by 
protecting teachers if they report suspected abuse whether their suspicions 
are right or wrong.  (They may; I don't know, but when did that ever stop a 
mega-million dollar lawsuit.)  But what if the child isn't being abused, and 
the problem is something altogether different?  The teacher may be trained 
to look for signs, but she isn't a trained psychiatrist.  A "mere" 
investigation of sexual abuse could destroy lives.  Ask the McMartin family 
about that.

It's not quite so easy before the fact.