Do you live in a bad neighborhood? I can think of tons of public places I feel more safe than I would at WDW. At my neighborhood park I allow my children to run around while I supervise from a bench. They can be a good distance away from me and I never once feel nervous. I wouldn't allow my small children to roam around away from me at WDW at all. Even in the play areas I follow right behind them.
I also feel safer at my mall or grocery store than WDW. They have thousands of people pouring in there daily and a if 2% are sickos(not just pedophiles) that is still a lot of people. If the average is 40,000 that is 800 walking around WDW on any given day. I'd guess in my day to day life I come in contact with on a bad day 10 if any at all some days. I feel much safer at every public place near and around my home than I ever would at a theme park. Doesn't mean I am walking around scared, but just on alert like I would at any other theme park I have visited. I feel no less or no more safe at WDW than any other large public venue.
I don't think this number is scary or alarming at all. Just sadly, the way the world is. People who are sick flock to public places to take advantage of people and I'm not sure why people would think WDW would be any different.
ETA that I have lived here for 10 years and not once has a teacher or staff member of our school district been arrested. I would be shocked if that statement was correct.
1- I live in a low crime suburb
2- I'm glad you feel safe in your local parks etc, so do I. I don't know if I feel any less safe at Disney. Fortunately the chance of something happen in your neighborhood or Disney is extremely low (that was my point).
3- The Disney employees arrested (could be any of our neighbors) were for trying to meet non Disney guests while not at Disney, while they were not working (as far as I know).
4- In regards to the schools. Our schools are county wide here 40,000 + students, obviously a large employee population. Even 1 arrest would give the local school district a higher % of employees arrested than Disney. I was saying this not to defend Disney as being perfect but attempting (poorly) to show the low % of employees arrested. Hopefully you don't have anyone in your school system. But if you have 1 pedophile in your town of 10,000 citizens your towns percentage is higher than Disney.
5- Any business or association or childrens rec, or sports, or clubs etc, etc.. that caters to children is unfortunately going to attract some bad people. That is why safeguards are in place, thats why church's have programs, why school systems in our area have detailed background checks and fingerprints prior to being hired. With all that said a parent still needs to be alert and watch their children.
Anyone who wants to condemn Disney has the right to and the right to feel unsafe if they do. I'm far from an expert on this but as I believe others have said abuse many times is by a person that the child knows.
