America, the land of dreams is finding itself shamed many times for its oft-repeated cases of child abuse, by educators.
Sexual misconduct by the very teachers who are supposed to be nurturing the nation's children has now become a widespread problem.
Students in America's schools are fondled, raped, pursued, seduced and pathetically enough, some still think they are in love.
An investigation by the Associated Press found more than 2,500 cases over five years in which educators were punished for actions that ranged from bizarre to sadistic.
Across US, there are 3 million public school teachers. While most are devoted to their work, the number of abusive educators, nearly three for every school day, depicts a much larger problem in a system that does not favor the victims.
Most of the abuse never gets reported, while those cases reported often end with no action. Cases investigated sometimes can't be proven, and many abusers have several victims.
Till now, no one (neither the schools, courts, state nor federal governments) has found a foolproof way to keep molesting teachers out of classrooms.
These are the AP's findings after reporters sought disciplinary records in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The result was an unexpected national look at the scope of sex offenses by educators -- the very definition of breach of trust.
The seven-month investigation found 2,570 educators whose teaching credentials were revoked, denied, voluntarily surrendered or limited from 2001 through 2005 following allegations of sexual misconduct.
In most cases, young people were the victims, and more than 80 percent of those were students. More than half the educators who were punished by their states were also convicted of crimes related to the misconduct.