5 year old boy accused of sexual harassment...

[Virginia Dare]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/20/AR2006122001819.html


A 5-year-old boy sexually harassed a kindergarten classmate by pinching her buttocks, Washington County public school officials said.

The boy's father, who received a written notice about the incident, said he's at a loss to explain to his son what sexual harassment means.

"He knows nothing about sex," the father told the Hagerstown Herald-Mail for a story published yesterday. "There's no way to explain what he's been written up for. He knows it as playing around. He doesn't know it as anything sexual at all."

The boy definitely needs to be taught to keep his hands to himself, but sexual harassment?

:wtf:

[Wcross]

1. Ok, we have gone too far.

Everyone happy now?

[rodeodance]

2. I know lots of kids who go through a pinching 'stage"-- they outgrow it

sooner or later. they pinch any area that is accessable---.

good gawd---sexual harrassment. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[no_hypocrisy]

3. So if the same kid hits another kid, is this assault and battery?

Where are we going to draw the line -- it's KIDS!!!!

[Ellis Wyatt]

4. Will he be tried as an adult? n/t

[kestrel91316]

9. Oh probably. And he'll have to register as a sex offender for the rest of

his life. NO HANGING AROUND SCHOOLS FOR HIM!!

As for his formal education, well..............

Hm. Maybe his mom can quit her job and stay home to homeschool him. That's where she should be anyway.

[tsuki]

5. This woman needs to get a job far from children.

"But school system spokeswoman Carol Mowen said the pinching episode in a Lincolnshire Elementary School hallway Dec. 8 fits the State Department of Education's definition of sexual harassment as "unwelcome sexual advances, request for sexual favors and/or other inappropriate verbal, written or physical conduct of a sexual nature directed toward others."

Mowen called the reprimand a learning opportunity.

"It's important to understand a child may not realize that what he or she is doing may be considered sexual harassment, but if it fits under the definition, then it is, under the state's guidelines," Mowen said."

[kestrel91316]

10. Where's the "physical conduct of a sexual nature" here? Just curious,

since a 5-yr-old really doesn't have a clue about sexual anything.

Maybe I'm weird. I think the kid just needs a few lessons in The Golden Rule, from both parents and teacher.

[progdonkey]

6. to a 5-year-old, a girl's butt could just as well be her arm...

that is, a 5-year-old doesn't have any conception of the sexual meaning of touching someone's butt, so pinching that girl's butt should be treated just as if he pinched her arm: pull him aside and say, "That's not nice; now go apologize for pinching her." That's all.

And like Tsuki said, that woman needs to be removed from her job and placed somewhere that doesn't involve children. I guess she'd consider it "lewd and lascivious conduct" if her friend's 3-year-old wandered around the house naked saying, "I'm naked! I'm naked!"

[Vektor]

7. Right - maybe talk to the child about how pinching is a no-no.

In general. There was no deliberate sexual overtone to this child's mischief. He's FIVE for chrissake!

[MindPilot]

8. If the genders were reversed....

does anyone honestly think the situation would have played out the same way?

The accusation of harassment says far more about Ms Mowen's hangups than it does about a five-year-old boy's behavior.

[HuffleClaw]

12. imagine how it would have played out had it been a fundy teacher

and a boy had pinched another boy.

[LeftishBrit]

11. Nothing to do with sex FFS

There are always kids of either gender who will try pinching other people's bottoms, especially if they think (usually correctly) that it will get them some attention. I was at an all-girls' school at that age and I can still remember one little girl classmate who LOVED to pinch anyone's bottom if she got the chance. We all found her a great nuisance - but sexual harrassment, good grief! It's worrying that some people seem so inclined to attribute sinister adult motives to young children these days.