WASHINGTON, D.C. – The pressure is mounting for lawmakers in the U.S. Senate to pass legislation designed to protect students in public schools from sexually abusive employees.

Media outlets, prosecutors, and state and federal lawmakers are calling on senators to pass legislation introduced by Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey that would require all schools receiving federal funds to compete background checks on every school employee and contractor, according to media reports.

Toomey’s bill would also prevent school and union officials from negotiating secret “passing the trash” deals with suspected abusers that allow them to quietly resign amid allegations in exchange for a letter of recommendation – a fairly common practice in public education.

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“We have heard too many stories of children being abused by those they should be able to trust – their teachers,” Toomey recently said in a prepared statement, according to Lancaster Online.

The most recent figures show 121 school employees have been arrested for sexual misconduct with children so far this year. The number is especially disturbing considering that the U.S. House approved legislation identical to Toomey’s last year, while the same bill has languished in the Democrat-controlled Senate.

That’s likely because the nation’s teachers unions are among the biggest supporters of Senate Democrats, and they’re not very fond of background checks for their members.

The National Education Association argued last year that background checks “often have a huge, racially disparate impact,” according to Lancaster Online. The American Federation of Teachers expressed concerns about how the bill would impact union job protections, as if that matters.

Many believe the union objections are holding up the bill in the Senate. Toomey introduced the legislation in the Senate Oct. 29, 2013 and it was assigned to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, where it has sat since. The same legislation passed the House the week before.

Several Pennsylvania prosecutors wrote to Philly.com to urge federal lawmakers to pass the bill to protect students. They’re also urging lawmakers in the Pennsylvania House to pass similar legislation that has already been approved in the state Senate.

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The prosecutors pointed out that an average of more than one school employee a day has been arrested for sexually abusing students so far this year.

“Twelve of (the educator sex abuse cases this year) were in Pennsylvania,” prosecuting attorneys Risa Ferman, Dave Heckler, Tom Hogan, Jack Whelan and Seth Williams wrote in an editorial. “They are horrific.

“One child’s abuse began at age 10 and only ended when, at age 17, she found herself pregnant with the teacher’s child.

“An 11th-grade English teacher was accused of performing sex acts with a teenager in her classroom.

“A 16-year-old girl was raped by her instructor in a classroom closet.

“And these are just the predators who have been caught.”

The bottom line is that the Senate needs to act on Toomey’s bill as soon as possible, for the benefit of all students.

Better federal background checks for all school employees and contractors, as well as ending the practice of “passing the trash” are “simple common sense, for Pennsylvania and all 50 states,” the prosecutors wrote.

“Last year, the U.S. House of Representatives passed this bill unanimously. The U.S. Senate needs to act – now.”