CHARLOTTE, N.C. - The recent arrest of a Charlotte-area teacher accused of sex acts with a student highlights what advocates say is a life-threatening issue to children throughout the country.
Cleveland County deputies arrested 25-year-old Emma Costner after they accused the former math teacher performed sex acts with a 17-year-old student.
"This is a school safety issue that's ignored," Terri Miller, president of the Nevada-based group, Stop Educator Sexual Abuse Misconduct and Exploitation, said.
She said there are no national database tracking cases even though the federal government promised to create one back in 2002 when No Child Left Behind was signed into law.
She said her group must rely on Google Alerts from news outlets reporting on arrests.
"In 2016, it was 540 [reports], and it spiked last year in 2017 to 698 [reports]," Miller said.
Of those 2017 reports, 62 happened in South Carolina, which is a 67 percent jump from 2016 when the state recorded 37 such reports.
Experts believe one reason for this dramatic rise is social media, which has made it easier for teachers and students to talk to each other one-on-one through text messages and apps like Snapchat.
Miller said parents should monitor their children's phones and social media profiles, and they should enforce a rule of no screen time before bedtime.
"Because you just don't know who's going to climb in bed with your children through that technology," Miller said.
For more information on the warning signs of educator misconduct, click here.
