Little kids are being labeled as sexual harassers for playground foolery, reports the Washington Post. School officials are filing police reports on elementary school children.
In his seven years, Randy Castro has been an aspiring soccer player, an accomplished Lego architect and a Royal Ranger at his Pentecostal church. He also, according to his elementary school record, sexually harassed a first-grade classmate.
During recess at his Woodbridge (Virginia) school one day in November, he said, he smacked the classmate’s bottom. The girl told the teacher. The teacher took Randy to the principal, who told him such behavior was inappropriate. School officials wrote an incident report calling it “Sexual Touching Against Student, Offensive,” which will remain on his student record permanently.
Then, as Randy sat in the principal’s office, they called the police.
The police didn’t follow up and school officials now say a “misunderstanding” led to the call. But they won’t clear Randy’s “permanent record.”
The little girl’s mother, “said that her daughter didn’t like being hit but that she quickly forgot about it. ‘We didn’t pay attention to it, because we know it’s just children playing around,’ she said.” Such common sense seems remarkable these days.
This stuff doesn’t even surprise me anymore, and that’s a sad comment on our schools and our society.
Thankfully no one who makes a difference in this child’s future gives a hoot about this stupidity being in his permanent record.
Okay, obviously this is craziness, and yet, if schools are going to be held responsible for not preventing sexual harassment as I’m pretty sure one lawsuit established that they would be, how should they handle unwanted touching of the buttocks?
Is there an age under which sexual harassment is impossible? It seems like it to me, but I bet a radical feminist would disagree. Do you interview the kids to see if there was a sexual intention?
I don’t know, but it’s going to be problematic whatever schools do.
“Thankfully no one who makes a difference in this child’s future gives a hoot about this stupidity being in his permanent record.”
Unfortunately, too many college admissions officers will give credence to it – and depending on how it’s placed on his transcript, it may not be clear when the incident occurred.
He’ll have to write an addendum to submit with his app. That’s not terrible, but who wants to write an essay about a 3rd grade playground event that your school considered to be sexual harassment – and the media circus that ensued?
My 9 year old was sexually harassed by a 10 year old classmate. I won’t go into the details, because they are vulgar and painful, but there was no doubt that the behavior was sexual harassment.
Sexual harassment isn’t a pleasant thing to be subjected to but this incident is ridiculous and over the top. No hands on policies are in at lot of schools but for this boy to have sexual harassment charge permanently on his record is crazy.
“Is there an age under which sexual harassment is impossible?”
My daughter’s best friend had problems in third grade with a boy who constantly grabbed her breasts. It was real sexual harrassment yet it was not on the headline news. I wonder if anything went on that boy’s permanent record.
grrr *harassment*
Though it may be hard to actually quantify, I am sure when a 7-year old grabs a girl from behind, his implications are far less disturbing than when, let’s say, a 40-year old man does this. The debate needs to be broken down and simplified into “innocence” vs. “inappropriateness.” While many people want to dismiss the ‘kids will be kids’ argument, the fact of the matter is that they are just being kids. Young children grab everything- boys, girls, dogs, toys, everything. It’s unsettling that we are classifying such young individuals as potential sex-offenders when all they are doing is playing. We’ve come to live in such a state of fear and panic that when any little thing happens in schools, a huge red flag goes up and a rash decision must be made, at the risk of upsetting the other individuals involved. My biggest hope (which coincides with my fear), is that these children will be able to grow up and lead normal, social lives, and not be damaged by their experiences in public schools.
Sweetchuckd. I’m with you. This incident doesn’t signal anything beyond being 7 years old and not knowing better. It happens. What I find amazing and frightening is that the adults don’t seem to know how/when to say–no, we don’t do that, and instead call in the police. What happens then is that you have a seven year old knowing that they must have done something REALLY wrong–but they don’t know what.
To MPH and Mollo: No offence, but you are both irrational fools. Any pre-puberty boy or girl who grabs any part of anybody else’s anatomy isn’t harrassing them, sexually or otherwise. To kids, grabbing a nose is the same as grabbing a butt or a breast. You can not seem to realize that you are transferring your adult awareness, motives and cultural conditioning onto innocent children. Using your logic, dogs should be imprisoned for barking and birds should be imprisoned for flying.
Dan:
To kids, grabbing a nose is the same as grabbing a butt or a breast. You can not seem to realize that you are transferring your adult awareness, motives and cultural conditioning onto innocent children.
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Well, actually, the media has already done a *bang-up* job at “transferring adult conditioning onto innocent children”.
When 5 year old girls are playing with Bratz dolls and wearing midriff-baring tops – and boys are hearing about the sexual pecadillos of sports starts and rap singers – it’s kinda hard to assume innocence by school age.
More to the point is that 5 minutes of actual discussion would have cleared up the kid’s motive/understanding, and how the action was taken by the “victim”.
“Any pre-puberty boy or girl…”
Let’s see, a ten yr old girl WITH BREASTS already is not pre-puberty. She’s early, but she’s already developing, already a young woman, and she felt harassed. Please don’t throw out her point of view as you try and defend this boy.
If a ten yr old girl can be into puberty development already, then yes, there are also ten yr old boys who have hormones causing them to be stupid too. In fact, I know two. You know, we mothers talk!
Sure you could have chalked it up to a misunderstanding, just regular ‘ol boy teasing girl, sat the boy down, and explained privacy to him. However, what do you call event #2 and #3? A double handed coincidence? How far will you keep defending him?
Please don’t throw out her point of view as you try and defend this boy should read, “Please don’t throw out her point of view as you try to defend this boy.”
This is the most ridiculous and embarassing statement i have ever heard. How can you possibly refer a smack-on-the-bum-by-a-seven-year-old as “sexual harrassment”! Just by bringing up the subject, the child is now open to the idea, which i am very sure had not even entered his little seven-year-old mind! Children are aspiring adults and have sexual feelings and urges as soon as they can coordinate their little hands and control their little muscles. They feel themselves, but that doesn’t make them masturbators! They are curious about their body and anatomy, and attracted to the opposite sex, and in some events, even the same sex! … that is NORMAL. The little boy sounds like he is normal, possibly a little outgoing or mischievous, but hardly a sexual harrasser.