
Private schools, painful secrets - pmcpinto
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/05/06/private-schools-painful-secrets/OaRI9PFpRnCTJxCzko5hkN/story.html
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daodedickinson
"There is no research available on the prevalence of abuse at private schools
and whether it is more common than in public schools, where one federal study
found nearly 10 percent of students are targets of unwanted sexual attention
by educators in grades K-12."

Isn't it a moral obligation to look into that before making an article like
this?

It's like the end of Spotlight where the ending contradicts the title by
listing every place where priest sexual abuse was found, which is pretty much
everywhere. Shouldn't the spotlight be shined on wherever sexual abuse never
occurs so that such a place may be emulated? Or is there such a place? If not,
then research there should be starting point for fundamental change.

~~~
Vraxx
Sounds like they looked into it... and found that there was no research.
They're certainly not morally obligated to _conduct_ research on the matter.
This is a story about events that allegedly did happen, it is their
journalistic obligation to ensure the information they're reporting is
correct, but not to follow all possible research avenues.

~~~
IIlllIllIIIIlII
The whole _point_ of the article is that private schools get away with things
because they're private. If they want to make that claim, then they _do_ have
a responsibility to make sure that the facts back it up.

~~~
throwawaykeno
_> The whole point of the article is that private schools get away with things
because they're private_

You've built a fine straw man. But in fact, the authors explicitly identify
several hypotheses that aren't inherent to (but do correlate with) private
schools:

1\. _" boarding schools, in particular, present unique opportunities for
educators to have close contact with students"_ (yes, public boarding schools
exist.)

2\. _" The schools, many with rich histories and famed alumni, have often
struggled to balance the need to respond robustly to abuse allegations with a
desire to guard their reputations."_ (yes, public schools with rich histories
and famed alumni exist.)

So the authors specifically _aren 't_ saying that the schools "get away with
things" _soley because_ they're private. They're simply saying that abuse
happens at private schools. Which, _regardless_ of how it compares to abuse
happening at public schools, is worth reporting on.

 _> If they want to make that claim, then they do have a responsibility to
make sure that the facts back it up._

1\. Your strawman aside, The _actual_ claims made in the article are all well-
substantiated or else are clearly presented as hypotheses, not facts.

2\. Following this principle would effectively censor a lot of important
investigative journalism.

As far as journalism these days goes, this article is excellent. The writing
is nuanced but clear, the reporters report back hypotheses about underlying
causes that relate to the human side of the story but with minimal
editorializing, and the article is even accompanied by a hand-curated data
set.

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tokenadult
Alas, there is this problem at public schools too. What helps over the long
term is for families to have the power to shop, so each family can look for a
school that is affordable for their family with characteristics that are safe
for that family's children.

~~~
pavel_lishin
How do you shop for a safe school? It's not like schools advertise that they
only have a 12% molestation rate.

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mathattack
Not limited to New England. There's a massive scandal in one of Manhattan's
priciest and most exclusive schools.

[http://mobile.nytimes.com/2012/06/10/magazine/the-horace-
man...](http://mobile.nytimes.com/2012/06/10/magazine/the-horace-mann-schools-
secret-history-of-sexual-abuse.html?referer=)

The advisor at my temple's youth group went to jail for pedophilia. (He was
also a teacher) The predators hang out near the victims.

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davidw
I'm getting kind of tired of seeing 'outrage' stories here. They're kind of
like politics: a bunch of kids being abused is way more important than the
javascript framework du jour, or the latest startup. However, there are so
many horrible, outrageous things in the world that it'd be easy to keep the
front page of this site full of them.

~~~
rubidium
flag them and move on.

