HELP ALERT 04.08.08

House Democrats today emerged briefly from their sleepwalk and held a hearing to address, if only ceremoniously, the rampant sexual abuse in Oregon public schools.

Previously, House Speaker (and Senatorial Candidate) Jeff Merkley had expressed “shock” that Oregon schools were facing an epidemic of adult-on-child abuse, which is odd, since we have known about it, and published information about it for years.

Buckley started the hearing with a lengthy attack on those who had pointed out that the ruling Democrats had done nothing to address the problem of sex abuse by school employees, during the “special” session in early 2008 , when they could have actually done something about it.

Testimony was taken from:
Vickie Chamberlain, Teacher Standards and Practices Commission
Linda Guss, Oregon Department of Justice
Pete Shepherd, Oregon Department of Justice
Raul Ramirez, Oregon Department of Justice


It was mostly an exercise in deciding who, in the public school system, was required to report that students were victims of abuse, something most home school families would not think was a matter of dispute.

Perhaps the strangest moment in the hearing was when Representative Betty Komp made an impassioned defense of teachers accused of sexual abuse and demanded that they not be referred to as “trash." Komp herself is a public school employee so one would think she would have more insights into this problem than do most people. But, apparently not.

Her comments were a reaction to the phrase “passing the trash” which has come to be used to refer to the policy of schools who move sexually abusing teachers from their districts to others.

There is no question that no one has ever called all public school teachers “trash.”
The phrase clearly has only been used in reference to school employees who have sexually abused students. Komp's defense of them is incomprehensible.

Komp and Buckley were prominent voices in the 2007 session against home schooling. Komp was chair of the House Education Committee that held hearings on eliminating private schools and forcing children into public schools at an earlier age.