New school sexual misconduct guidelines reaction

TYLER – The Department of Justice (DOJ) has issued new guidelines to protect your children from on-campus police officers, after a South Carolina school resource officer admitted to sexually abusing two children according to our news partner KETK.

In recent years, school districts across the nation have added more police presence on their respective campuses to keep the students, faculty and staff safe. In fact, half of East Texas’ school districts have enlisted extra help from officers. However, the DOJ has now issued guidelines to protect your children from those same officers.

With roughly 20,000 police officers stationed at schools across the United States, these cases are becoming more common but remain unknown to most. According to a Washington Post investigation, from 2005 to 2022, 200 officers were charged with crimes surrounding sexual abuse. That’s something Avera believes is shocking and unacceptable.

“We are here to provide a safe and secure environment so learning and teaching can occur,” said Chief Bill Avera, president of the Texas School District Police Chiefs’ Association, as well as Jacksonville ISD’s police chief.

“It continually amazes me that educators and others are continually charged with improper conduct, educator, student conduct,” Avera said.

Incidents like these led the U.S. Department of Justice to release new guidelines for on-campus officers, targeting the prevention of these heinous acts.

“Many of the rules that are coming out are just intended to remind the districts and departments that you are dealing with people’s most precious asset,” Avera said.

Going forward, school resource officers will now be required to go through sexual misconduct awareness training, as well as learning to take reports of sexual assault from students. While Chief Avera said these acts are “intolerable,” he also believes parents checking in with their students at home, knowing who and what is coming across their social media feeds, can help alleviate these issues as well.

“All of the social media and all of the Internet and all of the predators out there. People have to be very vigilant and parents need to be parents,” Avera said.

Avera also gave advice to students, emphasizing how important reporting any sexual misconduct or abuse case can be when keeping these offenders accountable.