Professional Development Sessions

What sets The Elephant Alliance apart?

The most common training on this topic usually includes watching a short video and completing a multiple-choice quiz. This style of training is ineffective at best, and some studies show that it can even backfire, causing an increase in sexual misconduct.

At The Elephant Alliance, we have shifted the focus. Instead of focusing on “damage control,” we can proactively protect students.

The Elephant Alliance offers customized professional development sessions, in person or through virtual platforms.

These sessions were developed with the expertise of educators, psychologists, members of law enforcement, school administrators, and survivors of educator sexual misconduct.

Our Sessions

  • Sessions cover research on predatory teachers, include in-depth discussions on the grooming process and how to detect and report it, and offer guidance on how to create a “culture of safety” in every school.

  • This session offers your MDT a first-hand look into how the school environment is groomed by predatory teachers, and the implications for their student targets. We take a critical look at the investigation process and how to optimize communication between school administration and law enforcement.

  • Teachers in the first 5 years of their career face unique challenges with setting healthy student/teacher boundaries. Our goal is to offer research-backed guidance with real-life strategies so that every attendee is ready to navigate their first teaching job. This session also discusses how to detect and report grooming and misconduct.

  • Why do music teachers commit sexual misconduct with students at a higher rate than teachers in any other subject? After analyzing research on predatory teachers and the grooming process, we answer that question and take an in-depth look at how we can prevent misconduct.

Each professional development session is customized to fit the needs of your organization. However, there are several universal objectives:

  • Discuss the scope and scale of educator misconduct as a systemic problem

  • Explore the psychology of predatory teachers

  • Gain an understanding of the grooming process, and the specific ways it occurs in a school setting

  • Discover strategies for detecting and reporting grooming and abuse

Every attendee leaves with a clear understanding of their role in the system and the steps they can immediately take to keep kids safe.

  • “As a former educator turned social worker, this session was fantastic and I realized this subject WAS the elephant in the room at the schools I taught at that no one wanted to talk about.”

  • “I’ve been to 20+ years of [presentations] in my career. I cannot get over what a wonderful job you did at presenting a sensitive topic in an extremely professional, engaging, and detailed way.” - Leann, a Music Educator

  • “This training was very thoughtful and well put together. It also ensured it didn’t attack the profession but was offering ways to ensure abuse isn’t overlooked. It should be mandatory for all school staff to view.” - School Resource Officer

  • "This captured attention; our organization received countless pieces of positive feedback for programming this session, and requests to see it repeated and expanded in future years." - Public School Superintendent

  • “Excellent presentation. This information was extremely helpful to investigators who don’t work in the school setting but investigate cases that occur there. I really appreciated the way the presenters tailored the information to this specific audience.”