Has claims of sexual harassment gone too extreme?

Question

Take a recent case of "sexual harassment" in a Hagerstown, Maryland, elementary school. Now, sexual harassment is serious business. But what if I told you the suspect in this case was still trying to master the alphabet? Last December a five-year-old boy pinched the behind of a girl in his kindergarten class and was cited for harassment. As the boy's father told a local newspaper, "He knows nothing about sex."

But school officials said that the pinch fell under the Maryland Department of Education's definition of sexual harassment and that a tough response would be a learning experience for the child. The incident will stay in the young boy's file for as long as he remains at the school. And he's not even the first to be treated this way: According to Maryland state data, 15 kindergartners were suspended for sexual harassment in the 2005-2006 school year.


http://www.rd.com/content/thats-outrageous-no-mercy-kid/

Thank you Kate. I feel better going into the New Year with no blocks.

Answer 1

Super Ruper said it the best. The abuse of sexual harassment laws is a major problem that I don't believe will be taken seriously or corrected, anytime soon. Political correctness and women's rights are serious business that not too many want to mess with or question. There needs to be serious legal consequences for the abuse of these laws. I believe the Duke accuser is still walking free without further complications?

Our culture needs to understand the seriousness of victimizing the innocent and wrongly accusing him/her of a crime. And we are now starting early from accusing little boys guilty of something they didn't do. Talk about moving into dark times.

Answer 2

Sexual harassment has been blown way out of proportion for years. Once it started getting used as a tool for getting ahead or revenge that is when we should have started to worry. Now that five year olds are being accused of it we should be in full panic mode. All of that because of a pinch?
Come on how simple have we gotten when we can't realize that a child that doesn't understand sex cannot have intent to commit a sexual crime. Under the law intent to commit a crime is very important or at least it used to be. We live in a time though that makes it abuse if a man watches football every Sunday. So go figure.

Answer 3

Well technically it is sexual harassment, however I think the school needs to take into account the child's age. He probably saw his dad do it to his mom, on TV or something of the like and didn't fully understand the meaning behind it. Now if he was in 3rd grade, maybe even 2nd, I could understand taking action upon it.

Its sad that it will be in his file, but I don't think many people will hold it against him...rather they will think "Who was the moron that forgot to take their Child Development class?"

As for the other 15 students, we really don't know what they did. If it was something similar to this I would begin to question the judgment of the administration in Maryland, however I have heard very young child say things like "Suck my _____" and truly know what it means...that is a reason to suspend a kid.

Answer 4

That example of idiocy doesn't equate to sexual harassment claims gone too far in the works place. There is a difference between what should be tolerable from little children and what is acceptable from adults. Apples vs. oranges.

I absolutely think that children should be taught about appropriate touching in school from early on, but there is no reason to involve the law.

Answer 5

Actually a lot of sexual harassment goes unreported, due to the work environment. For instance I was frequently sexually harassed on one of my jobs by a few different men, but I had to disregard most of it, because I knew those people would not be fired and that the environment would just get worse for me because the majority of my co-workers were also male, and it would create a hostile work environment for me. I needed my job, and I figured as long as someone was not grabbing my private parts I was not gonna make an issue out of it. Later I found out that some of my female co-workers had experienced the same scenario, and it didnt seem to matter the ages either, it was happening to everyone.

Answer 6

I don't think that this behavior should have been classified that way. They should have spoken to the boy about keeping his hands to himself and taught him how to respect boundaries. I am sure that the boy saw it on tv or something.

That being said, when I was in middle school, not so long ago, boys frequently would "depants" girls. Additionally, we used to walk around the school at lunch and certain guys would run around the school and stick their hands up our skirts and grab our butts. I had this happen several times.

We need to teach our children from a young age that these behaviors are unacceptable.

Answer 7

That was just stupid. Sort of a pyrrhic victory for the school board, so to speak.

The problem with citing a kindergartner for something like sexual harassment is that it can backfire and make him fear girls. Better to have the teacher tell him he shouldn’t do stuff like that, and to tell him that what goes around comes around. That would have been a better lesson to teach him.

Answer 8

yeah that is pretty dumb. and yes, the sexual harassment thing is being taken too far. i remember in high school, this woman came into our health class and talked about sexual harassment. according to what she said, staring, winking or telling a girl she's pretty(not in a sexual way) counts as sexual harassment unless the girl is ok with it.

Answer 9

They went too far, but I do agree that someone should have sat the child down and told him that you don't go around doing that, and that its not acceptable behaviour. You don't really have to go into any detail at that age.

Suspension though is taking it too far... The kid won't even know why, he just knows now that if you pinch a girl, you don't have to go to school... and everyone pays a lot of attention to you.

Answer 10

Whether he knows anything about sex or not, he should have known (or maybe did know) that his action would be inappropriate. But I don't know that a permanent mention of it on his school records was necessary.

Simply knowing that those 15 students suspended for SH in Maryland last year were kindergartners is not enough information. One's age is not of the slightest importance. What matters it the act itself, whether it was repeated, in what context, and whether the child knew it was wrong.