Charles Vallance, the boy's father, said he was unable to explain to his son what he had done.I am willing to bet that Miss Teach would not have applied the "sexual harassment" mark if the boy would have pinched another boy. Would she have marked it has harassment if it was a girl doing it to a boy?
"He knows nothing about sex," Vallance said. "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 incident was described as "sexual harassment" on the school form.
School officials consider a student's age and the specific action when determining what administrative action to take, Mowen said.
Lincolnshire Principal Darlene Teach and Mowen said they were unable to discuss he incident involving the Lincolnshire student.
Teach said any student, regardless of grade level, can be cited for sexual harassment.
"Anytime a student touches another student inappropriately, it could be sexual harassment," Teach said.
This is a much bigger issue than this isolated incident. The article goes on to mention a per-K boy who was suspended in Texas because he hugged a teachers assistant. There are numerous other incidents throughout the country that have little boys being accused of "sexual harassment" when they have no idea what the heck you are talking about.
This completely cheapens the real harassment cases. It is almost equating a 5 year old pinching a girls butt with a 25 years old male (ed...aren't the only harassers male?) who really harasses someone? Or a kid who brings in fingernail clippers with a 17 year old who brings a machete into the classroom?
I can't wait to see the letters to the editors on this and the follow up articles that will be required to come.
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