We reported on the 6-year old boy who was suspended for “sexual harassment” for kissing a girl in class on the hand and cheek.
The school has since downgraded the charge, and dropped the “sexual harassment” claim. That always was a ludicrous charge given the age of the students involved, and likely the result of federal guidelines putting funding at risk for districts that do not address sexual harassment.
James Taranto has an extensive column about that:
Clearly buffoons are in charge of the school and the district, but what does that have to do with Obama? The answer is that these buffoons are following orders from Washington.In April 2011 Russlynn Ali, then assistant education secretary for civil rights, issued a directive in which she threatened to withhold federal money from any educational institution that failed to take a hard enough line against sexual misconduct to ensure “that all students feel safe in their school.” The directive’s preamble declared: “The sexual harassment of students, including sexual violence, interferes with students’ right to receive an education free from discrimination and, in the case of sexual violence, is a crime.” …”If a school knows or reasonably should know about student-on-student harassment that creates a hostile environment, Title IX [of a 1972 civil rights law] requires the school to take immediate action to eliminate the harassment, prevent its recurrence, and address its effects,” Ali wrote. The music teacher and other school officials were faithfully if ridiculously executing that command when they investigated the tip from the kids who tattled.
Now the girl’s mother is speaking out, defending the school district. She took to Facebook to insist the conduct was sexual harassment (emphasis added).
Jade Masters-Ownbey Not once but over and over… not with her allowance, sneaking up on her, not without warning and consequences prior to suspension. There were 2 boys originally and they kept her from playing with other kids and fought with each other. I had to put restrictions on her about who she was allowed to be around at school. Ive had to coach her about what to do when u dont want someone touching u but they wont stop. Her big brother has even felt he needed to protect her at school. Elementary school, a boy kissed a girl on the cheek and the response of other kids is oooooooooo…. so y do the other kids rush to tell? Because they’ve seen it over and over, they’ve seen the boy repeatedly get in trouble, they’ve seen the girl repeatedly tell him to stop, they know its wrong. I seriously hope people r not going to start bashing the school that is doing a good job protecting my child from what IS SEXUAL HARASSMENT.
She also gave a local television interview:
Seems to me what we have here is a little boy who may have behavior issues that should be dealt with, but not by labeling him a sexual harasser.
That’s just a politically correct way of addressing somethign that was not sexual, and a reflection of how school administrators — as in Zero Tolerance “gun” cases — have lost touch with reality.
We also have some reverse sexism going on. If the roles were reversed, and a little girl repeatedly kissed a little boy, would the school district have reacted with sexual harassment charges? I doubt it.
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