Criminalizing Preschoolers
A few days ago, I posted one of my Sherlock Holmes send-ups. I use those to point out absurdities. In this case the subject was a British school's decision to investigate a four-year old boy as a "racist." Today's Washington Post has an op-ed written by Yvonne Bynoe that should send chills down your spine. Because it describes what is happening here in this country to preschoolers. Some of them are being accused of sexual harassment - and that label becomes permanent.
Consider these egregious examples: In December 2006, a 4-year-old boy in Waco, Tex., was punished with an in-school suspension after a female aide accused him of sexual harassment. According to a television station there, the child had hugged the woman while getting on the bus, and she later complained to administrators at La Vega Primary School that the child had put his face in her chest. School officials later agreed to remove sexual references but refused to expunge the "inappropriate physical contact" charge from the boy's school record.
In my home state of Maryland, state data show that during the 2005-06 school year, 28 kindergartners were suspended for sex offenses, including 15 for sexual harassment.
Last December, a kindergartner was accused of sexual harassment after he pinched a classmate's bottom at Lincolnshire Elementary School in Hagerstown, according to the local paper, the Herald-Mail. The charge will remain on his record until he enters middle school. "It's important to understand a child may not realize that what he or she is doing may be considered sexual harassment, but if it fits under the definition, then it is, under the state's guidelines," school spokeswoman Carol Mowen told the Herald-Mail. "If someone has been told this person does not want this type of touching, it doesn't matter if it's at work or at school, that's sexual harassment."
In fact, the Maryland Department of Education defines sexual harassment as "unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors and/or other inappropriate verbal, written or physical conduct of a sexual nature directed toward others." I am alarmed that Mowen's statement appears to imply that schools will find a child guilty of sexual misconduct even if the child doesn't understand the implications of his or her actions.
Money may be at the root of these school suspensions. A 1992 Supreme Court ruling set the stage for school districts' having to pay damages in sexual harassment cases. In Franklin v. Gwinnett County Public Schools, a high school student, Christine Franklin, was sexually harassed by her male teacher.
Close on the heels of a story from the Associated Press that found numerous cases of real sexual misconduct by teachers and alleges that the situation is often covered up by school officials, this becomes even more absurd. They are criminalizing the behavior of toddlers and covering up the behavior of some of their own? Is that the way we want this country's schools run?
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Those Darn Kids « The Van Der Galiën Gazette — Monday, 22 October , 2007 @ 10:45 am
By skeneogden, Tuesday, 23 October , 2007 @ 9:40 am
Unfortunately our education establishment is steeped in 60’s leftist philosophies whose adherents continue to chair the education departments at our colleges and universities allowing the inculcation of a new generation of teachers who further their damaging agenda.
Parents are getting more adept at spotting these leftist / PC tendencies and are moving their children out of public schools when they can afford to and if they can’t afford that option are sending them to charter schools that more reflect their values.
Too many of our public institutions have been co-opted by a group whose ideology does not reflect mainstream American values. I’m hopeful that time will heal what is wrong with our public education system.