WASHINGTON — Education Secretary Linda McMahon said Sunday that federal education officials have reviewed alarming data suggesting that up to 10% of students may experience sexual molestation before they graduate from high school.
McMahon said the Trump administration is intensifying its push to address sexual abuse in public schools, with a particular focus on districts she described as having weak safeguards or failing to properly hold offenders accountable.
“This stat will probably blow your mind. It did mine,” McMahon said during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “Statistics show 1 in 10 children before they finish high school will have been sexually molested in school.”
She singled out California as an area of concern, arguing that the state has seen troubling abuse cases alongside what she characterized as insufficient enforcement policies.
“We did a study. And it came from the general education statistics that were afforded to us. And so when we looked at that and we really looked at those stats coming out of California,” McMahon explained.
She claimed that, in some cases, educators accused of misconduct are not dismissed but instead transferred elsewhere, leaving parents and other schools unaware of the allegations. “Instead of firing those teachers, those teachers just get sent to another school. And it’s not part of their record or anything,” she said, adding that the issue could also involve other faculty or staff members.
“We have really been cracking down on that as well,” McMahon said.
The Post reached out to the Department of Education seeking the specific statistics cited by McMahon, along with details about how the study was conducted.
Last month, a California Post scoop revealed that the Golden State was at risk of losing $50 million in Title I federal funds if it failed to properly penalize abusive teachers due to a crackdown from the Trump administration.
Over two decades ago, a report for Congress found that over 4.5 million children endured sexual misconduct, ranging from physical abuse to inappropriate comments.
That study concluded that 1 in 10 children endured such misconduct, which ranged from unprofessional to criminal.
With school starting up all around the country, McMahon also grappled with the rise of artificial intelligence use in the classroom.
She stressed that while there are concerns about excessive screen time, she has seen it put to use effectively, in which AI gives students a “one-on-one tutor.”
“The teacher can monitor to see if a child is a bit behind and repeat information for them,” she said, citing a school she visited in Austin, Texas. “If a child is really excelling, then their programs get sped up a bit. So it’s a great tool.”
“I have seen it work so well in the introductions that I’ve seen,” she added. “It’s AI with guardrails. And as we introduce it, I think slowly in schools, it can be a very effective tool used properly.”
Famed social psychologist Jonathan Haidt later took issue with that, warning that the rise of social media and prior efforts to implement technology in the classroom worsened test results.
“Now they want to run a third experiment on younger kids, giving them all what already we know that it causes a detriment of learning,” he said of AI. “I’m extremely negative about the role of AI in education, especially in elementary school. And I say, let’s not do another uncontrolled experiment.
“Just keep it out of elementary school. That’s where kids need to learn basic skills. Don’t have them interacting with chatbots. And look, in high school we can experiment.”
