By Anna Schecter and Kate Snow
Rock Center
The day after a Rock Center report on the sexual abuse of high school foreign exchange students aired, the State Department’s Inspector General issued a scathing report that challenged spokesperson Toria Nuland’s assertion to NBC News that the Department has taken the necessary steps to protect students.
The IG report said an exchange organization had for years been placing high school students in the home of a convicted murderer. The Department did not terminate the organization from the program until a year after this information was discovered, the report said.
Watch the full Rock Center investigation HERE.
Some organizations that placed students in the homes of convicted felons continued for extended periods to operate as “designated sponsors,” according to the report. Those "designated sponsors" are regulated by the State Department.
The report cited 118 allegations of sexual abuse or harassment of high school exchange students in 2010 and 2011.
The new report’s findings contradict Nuland’s assertion on Rock Center March 14. She said in response to a 2009 IG report that was also critical of the high school foreign exchange program, the Department had significantly improved the oversight.
Furthermore, the IG found 15 of the organizations did not comply with regulations. They failed to complete criminal background checks on families, resulting in teens being placed in homes of sex offenders and other felons. Instead of shutting down or suspending the organizations as required by law, most received only a letter of reprimand.
The IG report accused the office in charge of the high school foreign exchange program of exaggerating their reform efforts to senior State Department staff, overstating how much they did to punish offending organizations.
The report also recommended more oversight for American students who go abroad to study in foreign countries.
“Although U.S. Embassies respond when there is a problem, they have no mandate to be pro-active or to conduct site visits that might forestall problems,” the report said.
The IG said the Department should establish a maximum fee that foreigners pay to participate. NBC News reported that parents of high school foreign exchange students can pay more than $10,000 for their child’s year in the U.S.
A spokesperson for the State Department said the timing of the release of the IG report was unrelated to the Rock Center report and that the agency "values the work of the Office of the Inspector General."
"We recognize that there are major issues that need to be addressed and over the last three years we have taken aggressive action to reform internal and external operations of the Bureau and its programs. There remains much room for improvement and we are fully committed to addressing the issues outlined in the report," a State Department spokesperson said.
The spokesperson reiterated that the Department has a zero tolerance policy for the abuse of exchange program participants.
More from Rock Center:
- Resources on the Foreign Exchange Program
- Critics blame State Department for turning a blind eye to sex abuse
- Foreign exchange students sexually abused in program overseen by State Department
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