Stephen C. Satterly, II – Author

In the Guide for Developing High Quality School Emergency Operations Plans, the five parts of a school’s emergency plans were identified: Prevention, Protection, Mitigation, Response, and Recovery. Prevention and protection were previously covered, with regard to board policies that address all aspects of preventing educator sexual misconduct. The next concept for the collaborative planning team to consider is mitigation.


Mitigation means the capabilities needed to reduce or eliminate loss of life and property damage by lessening the impact of an event or emergency. In this document, “mitigation” also means reducing the likelihood that threats and hazards will happen. For the planning team, mitigation means examining the physical spaces predators can use to abuse students, considering the training needed for school administrators, staff, volunteers, students, and parents, and assessing how social media is used within your buildings.

As this process moves forward, it is important to keep all activities under the umbrella of one or more school board policies. If the team decides that a particular mitigation effort needs to be covered by a board policy that does not currently exist, there should be flexibility to create a policy as needed, with the school district attorney and insurance agent reviewing the proposed policy.

Physical Spaces

When creating a safe school environment, the planning team needs to consider visibility, access control, territoriality, and monitoring devices (CCTV). Environmental strategies will vary by organization. Strategies should also cover multiple sites, such as athletic fields or other spaces. The risk to the environment should be considered regardless of an organization’s physical space. If an organization does not control its own space, backup strategies should be used to ensure that youth and employees/ volunteers can be monitored.

Visibility

The planning team is encouraged to take a walk around the schools and any facilities to get a first-person glimpse of visibility issues. The goal of visibility is to remove as many private spaces as possible to prevent predators from engaging in their predatory behavior. The CDC, in Preventing Child Sexual Abuse Within Youth-serving Organizations: Getting Started on Policies and Procedures, recommends some strategies to increase visibility:
• Landscape to ensure open, visible spaces with no possible concealment.
• Have clear lines of sight throughout the building.
• Secure areas not used for program purposes to prevent youth from being isolated (e.g., lock closets and storerooms).
• Install windows in doors.
• Institute a “no closed door” policy. (Make sure you have a policy for this.)
• Install bright lighting in all areas.
(CDC, p. 15)

Access Control

When creating policies, the planning team should include access-control policies. Access to the school by students should be limited to a few doors, if not a single access point. This allows the school to more accurately determine which students are present in the building. These policies should also outline who has access to the school and where this access can occur. Access control should also include a policy requiring unused spaces to be locked when not in use.

In our thousands of school assessments, Safe Havens International has found that the best schools were those that limited the access that teachers’ keys gave their staff. A teacher has little need to access every door in the school. While there may be justifiable reasons for providing this access, it should be done through a deliberative process.

Territoriality

Territoriality is the process used by a school to establish its boundaries and and signals its influence. This is usually done via signage and artwork. Schools with high territoriality are often those in which students feel welcomed and at home. These students are more likely to come forward with reports of untoward behavior. With regard to educator sexual misconduct, territoriality puts forth a message that the school is cohesive, shares a common bond, and is not amenable to threats.

The Use of Monitoring Devices (CCTV)

CCTV systems can be an excellent forensic tool after an incident occurs. However, the planning team should be aware that the installation of these systems, some with some amazing bells and whistles like AI-generated scanning capabilities, creates a belief that the systems are used to help monitor situations around and within the building. How the planning team works to fulfill this implies promise can be helpful in the future, should the unfortunate need arise.

Training

Once all policies have been promulgated, training must be provided to everyone. All adults in the building need to know they are responsible for reporting all suspected educator sexual misconduct and how to conduct the reporting. Keep in mind that the training needs of various groups within the building will differ. School staff, school administrators, and the Title IX coordinator will all have different training needs. All training should be documented and conducted annually, at a minimum.

All School Staff

All school staff, whether volunteers or otherwise, should be notified of all school policies regarding educator sexual misconduct. This should include the definition of educator sexual misconduct, the fact that certain forms of educator sexual misconduct are illegal, and could lead to criminal charges and possible termination of employment.

Staff should be trained on the prevalence of these behaviors, emphasizing the lasting harm they cause victims. They need to be aware of who is considered a mandated reporter and what the policies say regarding the reporting of suspicious behavior. They need to know the consequences for failing to report and the protections provided for making a good-faith report.

To allay staff’s most common concerns, highlight the specific policy prohibiting intentionally false claims and the consequences for doing so. Let the staff know the school places a high priority on protecting the reputations of innocent staff members.

Time should be spent on recognizable patterns of behavior, using recent national or local cases, especially those in an educational setting. Scenario training is recommended, with open discussions of how to respond, guided by the policies. It is very helpful to focus on the “gray areas”, those behaviors that are questionable, but not necessarily criminal.

Staff should be made aware of what types of students are likely to be targeted, and what they can do to protect these at-risk students. Provide staff with a handout of the policies, and have them sign a form with their name clearly spelled out, sign that they have received and understand the policies.

School Administrators

Since they lead the school in preventing and responding to educator sexual misconduct, school administrators have different mandates and face different issues than other school staff. This should be reflected in their training. They should receive the all-staff training described above, as well as training specific to them, covering the following topics:

• State laws and mandates specific to educator sexual misconduct prevention and response
• Title IX policies and procedures pertaining to educator sexual misconduct
• Oversight of the Title IX coordinator
• Strategies for ensuring prevention and response compliance by other school personnel
• Complaint processes and critical communication protocols within the school
• The threat- and hazard-specific annex(es) relating to educator sexual misconduct
• Policies for placing alleged perpetrators on administrative leave, and maintaining confidentiality during internal and external investigations
• Guidelines for working with local law enforcement
• Measures to promote school recovery after an educator sexual misconduct incident
• Educator sexual misconduct recordkeeping, data management, and accountability
  (REMS, p. 31)

Title IX Coordinator

“School districts that receive federal funds must designate an employee to oversee Title IX requirements, act as a point-of-contact for sexually related complaints, and coordinate investigations (GAO 2014)” (REMS, p. 31). This individual is referred to as the Title IX Coordinator, and they are important for preventing and responding appropriately to educator sexual misconduct. This individual should not have a conflict of interest. Athletic Directors, deans, or anyone involved in considering the discipline of students, or appeals of disciplinary hearings. The GAO states the best way to avoid a conflict of interest is to have a full-time Title IX Coordinator (GAO, 2014).

School administrators and school staff should be made aware of who the Title IX Coordinator is and what their duties are. These includes:

• Overseeing the school’s response to Title IX reports and complaints
• Identifying and addressing any patterns or systemic problems revealed by the reports and complaints
• Understanding the requirements of Title IX, the school’s own policies and procedures on ASM, and all complaints that raise Title IX issues in the school
• Remaining trained on and informed of all reports and complaints raising Title IX issues, even if the report or complaint was initially filed with another individual or office, or if the investigation will be conducted by another individual or office. The school should ensure that the Title IX coordinator is given the training, authority, and visibility to fulfill these responsibilities
• Providing training to students, faculty, staff, and information to families and guardians on Title IX issues
• Conducting Title IX investigations, including analyzing the facts relevant to a complaint, determining appropriate sanctions against the perpetrator, and deciding on interim measures to protect the complainant when an allegation of ASM is made
• Ensuring that policies and procedures are in place for working with local law enforcement and coordinating services with local victim advocacy organizations and service providers, including rape crisis centers
  (REMS, pp. 31-32)

School districts should make this training mandatory and specifically document who took which training and when. The minimum frequency of training is set by state law, so schools should consult the school district attorney for guidance.

The GAO recommends interactive, scenario-based training that has participants practice their responses (GAO, 2014). There are numerous entities that provide online training. Care should be taken to evaluate such training to ensure it can be customized to your local needs. The advantage of such programs is that they often provide an electronic verification and documentation of who has taken the training, and when. This training should be part of an employee’s onboarding process if they are hired after the start of the year.

Once the training has been provided, the school administration should periodically conduct fidelity testing to assess whether employees can apply their knowledge of the policies in practice. This is as simple as providing an employee with a scenario involving a suspected educator sexual misconduct situation and having them explain how they would respond. This will help determine if further training is needed.

The planning team should try to anticipate any training challenges. Issues such as budgets, technology infrastructure, staff turnover, and even staff apathy may need to be addressed. But the training needs to be relevant, not just listening and signing off. The planning team should also develop training plans for parents and students, and should include the following points:

• Patterns of ASM behavior, including how they manifest in social media interactions and electronic exchanges
• The district’s ASM policies and procedures, including the following:
  o The steps for reporting incidents
  o How complaints will be heard and investigated
  o The role of the Title IX coordinator
  o How parents will be notified of outcomes

• Specific examples of the school’s efforts to monitor interactions between adults and students
• Age-appropriate talking points for discussing inappropriate adult behavior, privacy, personal boundaries, and online safety with their children
• Age-appropriate tips parents can share when teaching children about refusing and reporting inappropriate adult behavior
• A mechanism for parents to ask questions after the training
• Tips for online safety
  (REMS, p. 33)

Social Media

There are numerous ways for predators to access students online. Sexting, sextortion, and other forms of child exploitation are conducted online in ever-increasing numbers. It provides fertile grounds for predators to groom their victims, as well as provides the predators with various means to fuel their fantasies. Schools should take a very circumspect approach to providing their students with safe access to the Internet.

Children are sexualized in advertising and in the media. The movie Cuties, released on Netflix, stoked controversy for its sexualization of children. All of our students, and some of our younger teachers, have never known a time without the Internet or smartphone technology. This social context should be kept in mind as the planning team creates policies and in mitigation against illicit use. There is a host of software and hardware options available, but the best defense is proper supervision and education for students and staff on safe and unsafe uses of technology.

Sextortion is when a person entices a child to do something wrong on the Internet, then uses that incident as a lever to force the child into something worse. An extreme form of this is used by the “764 gang“. This gang, cult, or group heavily relies on sextortion to get students to self-harm, harm others, and even commit murder. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, NCMEC, is a wonderful resource for anyone interested in protecting children.

In 2015, NCMEC conducted an analysis of more than 800 sextortion-
related tips received to their CyberTipline between 2013 and 2015.
The results showed that the average age of a child at the time of
victimization is 15 years old. Female victims, who made up 78 percent
of children victimized, experienced their first sextortion incident as
young as 8 years old, compared to 11 years old for boys, who make up
12 percent of victims (NCMEC, 2015).

Students and staff need to be made aware of these threats and what to do when they occur. The National Strategy for Child Exploitation, Prevention, and Interdiction conducted a study in 2016. They found two results:

• Mobile devices have altered the techniques offenders use to abuse children and are used to target, recruit, or groom, and coerce children; and
• Predators are skilled at tricking and pressuring children who are online and often victimize youths in large numbers.

This can be alarming, but this underscores the school’s need to be sober and judicious in its planning. NCMEC advises, “The key to harnessing technology to enhance teaching and learning is to inform students, staff, and whole school communities of the risks; teach strategies for safer use of technology while taking steps to safeguard the tools and preventing misuse” (NCMEC, 2012).

As if another reason for preventing educator sexual misconduct online was needed, three girls sued their school in Oregon in 2015 and received a monetary settlement for not following the law when the girls reported sextortion by other students (Steele, 2015). NCMEC says that the key to harnessing the power of social media and the Internet is teaching staff, students, and parents about the potential risks, and the needed steps to address those risks (NCMEC, 2012).

What is needed is transparency. Grooming behaviors occur in the shadows, so schools should work with stakeholders to illuminate these online “gray areas”. Clear policies, guidelines, and monitoring software can help peel away the cover predators use to cloak their activities. A robust training program will help, as will fidelity testing of staff to see that policies and procedures are being followed.

Mitigation against educator sexual misconduct is a vital part of the planning team. Mitigation means examining the physical spaces predators can use to abuse students, considering the training needed for school administrators, staff, volunteers, students, and parents, and assessing how social media is used within your buildings. The resources listed below can be of use.

Resources

A Training Guide for Administrators and Educators on Addressing Adult Sexual Misconduct in the School Setting, Washington, D.C., 2017.
https://www.icmec.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/PreWork-Chapter-1-ASMTrainingGuide-USDOE.pdf

Government Accountability Office. (2014). Federal agencies can better support state efforts to prevent and respond to sexual abuse by school personnel. Retrieved from http://www.gao.gov/assets/670/660375.pdf

National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. (2012). An educator’s guide to online communication tools. Retrieved from http://cdn.netsmartz.org/tipsheets/GuidetoOnlineCommuncationTools.pdf

National Coalition to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation. (2012). National plan to prevent the sexual abuse and exploitation of children. (Rev. ed.). Retrieved from http://www.preventtogether.org/Resources/Documents/NationalPlan2012FINAL.pdf

Saul J, Audage NC. Preventing Child Sexual Abuse Within Youth-serving Organizations: Getting Started on Policies and Procedures. Atlanta (GA): Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control; 2007.
https://www.cdc.gov/child-abuse-neglect/communication-resources/PreventingChildSexualAbuse-a.pdf

Steele, Eric. “Ex-Clatskanie students get $75K over sextortion,” KOIN. Portland, OR, April 9, 2015. Retrieved from:
https://www.koin.com/news/ex-clatskanie-students-get-75k-over-sextortion/

U.S. Department of Education, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, Office of Safe and Healthy Students, Guide for Developing High-Quality School Emergency Operations Plans, Washington, DC, 2013.
https://www.fema.gov/sites/default/files/2020-07/guide-developing-school-emergency-operations-plans.pdf

Stephen Satterly, II, is a researcher, author, and expert witness in school safety. He can be reached at stephencsatterly2@gmail.com