Sexual Harassment now inlcudes childhood “pinching.” — Oh brother.
A Maryland kindergarten student has been accused of sexual harassment and written up. The 5-year-old boy pinched a girl’s buttocks.
A spokeswoman for Washington County public schools says the episode in a hallway at Lincolnshire Elementary School earlier this month fits the state Department of Education’s definition of sexual harassment.
The definition in part describes sexual harassment as inappropriate physical conduct of a sexual nature directed toward others.
The spokeswoman says the reprimand is a learning opportunity for the boy even though he may not understand that what he is doing is sexual harassment.
I remember being a first grader when walked right up to Amy Manke and planted a kiss on her lips. I don’t remember her reaction, but I’m sure I’d be in jail now because of it.
Welcome to the world you helped create libs. They PC Police strike again.
What an overreaction! Punish the kid (appropriately) for the pinching, but for heaven’s sake don’t tell him it’s because this is sexual harrassment! That introduces a whole universe of concepts that a 5 year old is not ready to handle (IMHO). He can be told it’s inappropriate to pinch anybody anywhere, and leave it at that.
I thought the definition of sexual harrassment included the element of the harrasser being in a position of power or authority over the harrassee, something that is clearly not the case here.
Sheesh!
2,
I think you can thank the lawyers too… Any fool can come up with an idea… the real blame is on those that second, enact and enforce it…
But hey, if family value conservatives like Mark Foley and Haggart are your saviour, you don’t have much to brag about.
And by definition, harassment is a recurring action, not just a one time occurrence.
Its kind of a cycle:
1. Someone is ‘offended’
2. They get a lawyer
3. Lawyer sues
4. Person and lawyer get pay out
5. Others get nervous, and ratchet the rules up
6. Repeat
IMHO sexual harassment is like “Sleep with me or you’re fired, won’t get a raise, ect” or “Hey (insert name) nice ass. (Repeatedly)”
When my daughter was in 6th grade (a few years back) we had a similar incident when she and her friends were on the playground being chased by a bunch of boys; they started playing tag, etc. and one of the boys ended up getting kicked in the sack, well, that afternoon, the parents of all the girls were called, stating they had sexually harassed a boy at school and all were being suspended for 10 days!
I fought this one all the way to the school board and lost. Not one of the boys got any sort of reprimand.
Well, It isn’t bad enough that we take well-intentioned laws and bring them to a nonsensical level, but now we are inflicting our children with our nonsense.
#5 – Correct – it must repeat to be harassment. To help the lawyers out there: a one-time occurence is “sexual assault”.
This is all just more proof that the end is near (so I better have one more beer…)
7,
Getting kicked in the sack may not be harassment, but it sure as hell is cruel and unusual punishment! You could seriously fuck up someone’s future by doing that.
And why would the boys get reprimanded? Did they kick him in the sack, or in a girls privy?
#7,
What the girl did was assault. Assault is where a person physically strikes another in an attempt to injure or hurt the other, which is what the girl did. If there is no intent to injure or hurt, then there isn’t a problem, which is what the boys did. Pinching should fit into the same category, unless there was pinching of a sexual organ.
If you feel the punishment is that unfair, then ask to speak to the school board’s lawyer. If they refuse, hire a lawyer. From what you wrote though, I don’t think you stand much of a chance of winning in court if the boys didn’t do anything wrong.
2-
“Welcome to the world you helped create libs. They PC Police strike again. ”
Way to be inflammatory, troll.
Yes, it must be the ‘libs’ who are at fault here, right?
/shakes head
Sorry to upset your utopia Brian. See any conservatives advocating for this?
13,
No, but as I mentioned before, we see some prominent conservatives advocating for bumping little boys and doing meth with their homosexual prostitutes… Homosexual prostitutes are ok if that’s your thing, but don’t pretend you’re a family man with squeaky clean morals.
No one is the moral compass for us all… except maybe Jebus.
This is the best idea since banning water bottles from airplanes so that the vendors can sell more drinks! Let’s teach 5 year olds about sex so that when they’re 6, they can know only to grope each other when they’re both into it.
1. Mark Foley never touched anyone under 18 (unlike Gerry Studds (D-MA)) and he got just what he deserved, a boot out the door. Studds got reelected 6 times and 3 standing ovations.
2. Haggard also got the boot, which he deserved and personally I dislike Bible beaters in general even though we agree politically much of time.
3. Conservatives are not the hypersensitve crowd that liberals are. People need to loosen up, and in this case, use common sense for crying out loud.
Ron,
You haven’t clue one what you are rambling on about. If you have something substinative to add, then add it. Otherwise you are just another foaming at the mouth right wing jack-off who just parrots the Sean Hannity paint by numbers version of the jingohead view of the world…
Please note I’m not attacking conservatives here. Real conservatives don’t have quite such a knee jerk reaction to every abberant, untypical, wholly unimportant local Mayberry event that ever happens. This story isn’t about liberals or conservatives. It isn’t about sexual harrassment or anything sexual of any kind. It’s about a big fish in a small pond who got a little full of themselves one afternoon and did something stupid.
Like you are doing now.
15-
“3. Conservatives are not the hypersensitve crowd that liberals are. People need to loosen up, and in this case, use common sense for crying out loud.”
So you’re saying only ‘liberals’ are hypersensitive and persue these lawsuits? Are you really sure about that, or has Faux news rotted your brain into seeing those you agree with as ‘conservatives’ and those who you disagree with as ‘liberals’? Come on, the world really isn’t that simple – no matter how much you’d like it to be.
This isn’t a ‘liberal’ or ‘conservative’ issue – it’s a result of a society that’s become far too litigous, far too eager to resolve things via the courtroom than with common sense.
Please knock it off with the overuse of the ‘liberal’ tag.
17. Wow, does the left get upset when someone rocks their little boat. It’s not my fault you don’t like what I have to say.
And by the way I’m not ‘right wing’. I’m American, I believe in what this country was founded on, small government and freedom. It is you Marxist lefties who showed up in the 1960’s, planted yourselves so far on the left and called everyone else right.
You want a knee jerk reaction? How about this story right here. It is not conservatives who act like this, and it isn’t conservatives who go around telling those who they disagree with to shut up and start name calling. And if you consider me a big fish in a little pond, then you are just sad. It is also not the first time I have told you that. Maybe you can threaten me some more. Small man leading a smaller life.
Which party is for tort reform and which isn’t? I forget.
Welcome to the world you helped create neo-cons. They PC Police strike again.
Ron-
it has nothing to do with not liking what you have to say. It has everything to do with your throwing around of old, tired cliches like ‘liberal’ and whatnot when you have no idea what you are talking about.
‘Maxist lefties’? When your debate goes to hell, I guess the name calling comes out?
Look, the original article has nothing to do with political persuasion – it’s people like you who insist on making EVERYTHING an ‘us vs. them’ issue instead of owning up and taking some responsibility.
I don’t know if these people are Conservative or Liberal or just scared of lawsuits.
But the one thing I do know is that the school didn’t use common sense. Show me a 5 y/o sexual predator please, of either gender. We love to vote for and champion anything that is for the **children**….except apparently the right to BE children. I don’t care how we want little Johnny and Sally to act, they don’t come pre-programed with all our silly rules and regulations downloaded into their little hard drives.
People just need to let life happen.
I was trying to explain how this type of incident comes about. I am also the one who said people need to loosen up. This incident is the typical of crap you get when you place bureaucrats in charge of things that used to be left up to common sense. This is what an overly litigious, PC, over regulated society gets us. This began to show up in the 1960’s, it was not the traditional ‘liberal’ (Nat Hentoff, Joe Lieberman, Scoop Jackson, Jack Kennedy, ect.) who brought us this. If people would chill out, most of this would be avoided.
What’s that sound you hear? Oh it’s the sound of ron backpedalling.
Look, it’s not any political persuasion that’s at fault, it’s the fault of overeager lawyers ready to capitalize on every opportunity, it’s the fault of a society which refuses to accept responsibility and blame for it’s problems, it’s the fault of parents who are more than ready to make excuses for their shortcomings.
Next time you feel the need to rail against political ideals that aren’t your own, please make sure it’s appropriate – because it sure as hell doesn’t apply here.
From my experience, school administrators (including the staff who hand out punishments like these and the school boards that make inflexible rules) typically are more conservative than the average teacher. These boneheaded issues are popping up more and more frequently now in an era that is dominated by a stubborn conservative mindset fixated on “the war on terror/crime/drugs/etc.” When I was in high school, I could have been suspended simply for carrying aspirin in my backpack (or gotten well-intentioned teachers fired for providing me Tylenol for my headaches).
I’m about as liberal as you can get, and I’d be the first to say this sort of punishment is ridiculous.
And Ron, how exactly is the “liberal” responsible for this? Please provide evidence and citations where applicable. (Somehow, I get the impression Ron irrationally views liberals in a manner reminiscent of Borat’s “The Running of the Jew…”)
I see Ron has already been thoroughly punished, but…
Lets lay the blame for this where it belongs. This type of extreme school child punishment started after some gun nut at a gun show in Colorado sold a couple of teenage boys guns. Then the boys shot up their school. It wasn’t until then, that we started seeing the crazy punishments for this sort of minor infraction. Never mind the school shooter drills that kids are forced to endure.
So lets be clear, the gun nut loons caused this.
#18
My suspision confirmed… You are a sock puppet with Sean Hannity’s hand shoved up your….
Also, I just got a hold of my bonus check
emoting: lighting a cigar with a burning 20 dollar bill.
You can see it here:P
http://www.flickr.com/photos/62968623@N00/329516805/
28-
Did you get your numbers mixed up?