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Feb. 9th, 2006 10:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kokopellinelli...*siiiiiiigh*...
First Grader Suspended for Doing WHAT?
A first grade boy from Brockton, Mass., has learned the hard way about the meaning of sexual harassment. The child has been suspended for three days after he put two fingers inside a classmate's waistband, reports The Associated Press.
That's what school officials told the kid's mom, Berthena Dorinvil. The boy had a different story for his mother. He told her he only touched the girl's shirt--and that was only after she touched him. Dorinvil calls the suspension outrageous and is having trouble explaining to her son what he did wrong because he's too young to understand. "He doesn't know those things," she told The Enterprise of Brockton. "He's only 6 years old."
Can a first grader really engage in sexual harassment? Experts say it's very rare and only in quite troubling cases. "The connotation is you're getting some kind of sexual gratification, or wanting sexual gratification, or are putting pressure on for some kind of sexual gratification, when a 6-year-old doesn't have that capacity," E. Christopher Murray, a civil rights attorney who has handled school discipline cases, told AP.
Not everyone is convinced what the boy did is sexual harassment. Dr. Elizabeth Berger, a Philadelphia-area child psychiatrist, told AP this seems to be an overzealous attempt to ensure students feel safe in school after years in which society was not attentive enough. Brockton school officials will not publicly comment; however, the school system defines sexual harassment among students like this: "uninvited physical contact such as touching, hugging, patting or pinching."
...He's six. He doesn't know what "sex" means.
I guess we should be grateful he didn't get arrested.
First Grader Suspended for Doing WHAT?
A first grade boy from Brockton, Mass., has learned the hard way about the meaning of sexual harassment. The child has been suspended for three days after he put two fingers inside a classmate's waistband, reports The Associated Press.
That's what school officials told the kid's mom, Berthena Dorinvil. The boy had a different story for his mother. He told her he only touched the girl's shirt--and that was only after she touched him. Dorinvil calls the suspension outrageous and is having trouble explaining to her son what he did wrong because he's too young to understand. "He doesn't know those things," she told The Enterprise of Brockton. "He's only 6 years old."
Can a first grader really engage in sexual harassment? Experts say it's very rare and only in quite troubling cases. "The connotation is you're getting some kind of sexual gratification, or wanting sexual gratification, or are putting pressure on for some kind of sexual gratification, when a 6-year-old doesn't have that capacity," E. Christopher Murray, a civil rights attorney who has handled school discipline cases, told AP.
Not everyone is convinced what the boy did is sexual harassment. Dr. Elizabeth Berger, a Philadelphia-area child psychiatrist, told AP this seems to be an overzealous attempt to ensure students feel safe in school after years in which society was not attentive enough. Brockton school officials will not publicly comment; however, the school system defines sexual harassment among students like this: "uninvited physical contact such as touching, hugging, patting or pinching."
...He's six. He doesn't know what "sex" means.
I guess we should be grateful he didn't get arrested.
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no subject
Date: 2006-02-09 09:20 pm (UTC)....
Ok... if I ever have kids of my own, they're getting homeschooled. Sorry, but that's just... and it only gets worse as time goes on. Geeze.
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Date: 2006-02-09 09:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-09 09:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-09 10:03 pm (UTC)