School Inaction Cause For Concern

A battle is shaping up at Coeur d’Alene High School. One side is lining up behind a lawsuit accusing counselor and coach Steve Milionis of a long-term affair with a student at another school where he once worked. On the other side are colleagues and friends of the popular educator, convinced their friend is the target of false accusations and a scandal-hungry media.

In the middle are parents, who wonder about the allegations and worry about the safety of their children.

With good reason. While the vast majority of the area’s teachers are dedicated, talented professionals, some teachers do sexually exploit their students. That much is clear from high-profile national stories as well as periodic local ones. Kids themselves noted the problem in a 1993 national survey: 25 percent of girls and 10 percent of boys said they had been sexually harassed by a high school faculty or staff member.

Part of that is made possible by school administrators who look the other way when rumors surface and when a questionable employee leaves the district. These offenders are allowed to go from school to school, preying on vulnerable students who look up to them as role models and authority figures.

Is that what’s happened with Milionis? The facts are in dispute. Dody Stewart filed a suit against Milionis last August saying she suffered emotional damage from an affair that started when she was in ninth grade in Wallace. She has letters, Milionis admits to writing some of them, that profess passion: “I need your embrace the loving arms that hold me still and let the love flow freely and silently between us.”

Milionis has said little publicly about the charges, except to deny them.

So what are parents to think? There certainly isn’t cause for confidence in the Idaho school system, where neither state nor local school officials are looking into the charges. The state’s Professional Standards Commission has yet to open a file on Milionis, waiting instead for the civil suit to be resolved.

That could take years. Delay may put children at risk. Even if Milionis eventually is cleared of the allegations, Idaho’s inaction shouts to potential abusers: Go for it; the state’s back is turned.

Parents and students need reassurance that schools are safe places, where learning is paramount and personal dignity is preserved. Idaho’s wishy-washy approach to this case does nothing but raise questions.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Anne Windishar/For the editorial board