Parents should know that there’s a greater chance of their child getting sexually abused by a teacher or coach than a stranger on the sex offender registry.

One only needs to scan the headlines to see Teachers getting caught having sexual relations with their underage students on a regular basis.

Here are some from just this past week:

North Boone teacher charged with sexual assault of a student  |  Catholic School Teacher Had Sexual Relationship With Student …  | Former Olean High teacher pleads guilty to sexually abusing student | Montague HS teacher jailed, accused of sex with student  |  KSP: Teacher Had Sexual Relationship |  Silverado High School volunteer volleyball coach arrested for sexual …  |  Teacher Accused of Sex With Student Is Pregnant: Cops  |  Report details sexual abuse at The Pingry School  | Recently married teacher ‘raped 13-year-old pupil and sent nude …  |  Former GBHS coach pleads ‘no contest’ on sex charge  | More former Edmund Rice teachers charged over historic child sex …  |  Ex-band director investigated for sending inappropriate texts

Last year, CBS News put out a story on the subject; “Texas on record-setting pace for inappropriate teacher-student relationships“, stating, Texas “had 188 investigations last fiscal year, marking at least the fifth year of growth in a row.”

A few years before, Slate.com asked How Many Kids are Sexually Abused by Their Teachers? Probably Millions. They estimated that, “4.5 million students currently in grades K-12 have suffered some form of sexual abuse by an educator, and more than 3 million have experienced sexual touching or assault.”

And over a decade ago, the New York Times reported, Teacher-Student Sex Said to Be Not Unusual. They quoted a study that found that study up to 5 percent of teachers engage in some form of sexual abuse of students, from inappropriate verbal flirtation to intercourse.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics. there are approximately 3.1 million public school teachers and 0.4 million private school teachers in the US. There are fewer than 1/4 as many registered sex offenders in the US.

Statistically, your child has a much higher chance of being sexually abused by their teacher than a registered sex offender and is 18 times more likely to be sexually abused by a family member or close acquaintance than someone on the registry.

So why does the government spend so much time and money punishing former registrants who have paid their dues and are so unlikely to re offend, instead of on prevention and education?

If you care about the safety of your children, this is something you might want to ask your legislator about.