1st Grader Accused Of Sexual Harassment

[Xue Sheng]

Tez

Although I agree with you that you need both sides of the story before you make any judgments you also need to know that many schools here in the USA are on a Hyper-political-correctness level brought on by fear of law suits and there are many that are simply just over sensitive these days. Also in some states teachers have been under attack by state and local governments and vilified for the current fiscal issues that states and local governments are having when in fact they really don’t have all that much to do with it. And yes, I have a lot of teachers in my family

But could a 9 year old be using the wordcould be said to be sexual in nature, is that he likely hears it at home and does not even know why it is an issue.

But with that said I once was engaged to a kindergarten teacher,in a private Catholic school, who had a student in her class, a young boy (a 5 year old), that had been expelled form at least 2 schools, one for threatening a teacher with a knife. One day she had to call the parents in for a conference because this child brought in pornographic pictures to show the other children. Result; they were dad’s pictures and although he did not realize his son took them, he thought it was funny and saw no problem. As for the mother, these aremy ex-fiancée’s words, not mine…”she was an oblivious idiot”.

EDIT

I should also add to be truthful I feel that there are always at least 3 sides to every story. What person 1 thinks happened, what person 2 thinks happened and somewhere in between there is what actually happened

 

[Tez3]

Tez

Although I agree with you that you need both sides of the story before you make any judgments you also need to know that many schools here in the USA are on a Hyper-political-correctness level brought on by fear of law suits and there are many that are simply just over sensitive these days. Also in some states teachers have been under attack by state and local governments and vilified for the current fiscal issues that states and local governments are having when in fact they really don’t have all that much to do with it. And yes, I have a lot of teachers in my family

But could a 9 year old be using the wordcould be said to be sexual in nature, is that he likely hears it at home and does not even know why it is an issue.

But with that said I once was engaged to a kindergarten teacher,in a private Catholic school, who had a student in her class, a young boy (a 5 year old), that had been expelled form at least 2 schools, one for threatening a teacher with a knife. One day she had to call the parents in for a conference because this child brought in pornographic pictures to show the other children. Result; they were dad’s pictures and although he did not realize his son took them, he thought it was funny and saw no problem. As for the mother, these aremy ex-fiancée’s words, not mine…”she was an oblivious idiot”.

EDIT

I should also add to be truthful I feel that there are always at least 3 sides to every story. What person 1 thinks happened, what person 2 thinks happened and somewhere in between there is what actually happened

If this is the case with the schools it's the parents or at least the adults fault for suing them in the first place, you can't blame them for being extra careful can you if that's the case, they are stuck between being sued and people saying they are being draconian or ridiculous. Everyone is assuming the schools are at fault but from what you are saying it could easily be the parents who went to the press looking for payouts. Blaming schools and saying they are stupid is ... well stupid and unfair.

 

[Xue Sheng]

Could be the parents or it could be the teacher or it could be the school too, hard to say.

Could be the parents wanting to gain public approval or they could actually be rather shocked at the whole thing. Could be the school is equally as shocked by the accusation of the teacher and they are in damagecontrol mode. Could be the school has incredibly bizarre rules based on being overly politically correct and it is in reality an incredibly silly thing forthem to have done.

Like you said, we only have one side… But then like I said there are at least 3 sides to every story

 

[Nomad]

"Zero tolerance" policies have been put in place at many schools, and almost invariably lead to big problems... like the kid who's expelled for bringing a weapon to school (it was a plastic knife with his lunch), or those who have been suspended for drug possession (including OTC Tylenol or asthma inhalers... and I seem to remember one case where it was chapstick).

Zero tolerance policies really equal zero thought or judgement on the part of the administration. They say (and this one I've heard directly at my daughter's old school) that pointing your finger at someone and saying "bang" is the same as bringing a gun to school. I'd much rather that the principal and administration actually did their jobs and investigated who did what and why, and judge punishments based on the actual transgression, rather than the appearance that there might have been a transgression, which automatically triggers the harshest response possible (as certainly appears to be the case with both of the referenced stories).

 

[Carol]

There may be three sides to every story......but whatever hasn't been said is going to have to be pretty damn convincing in order for me to see a young Irish kid fighting in South Boston as anything other than ... stop me if you've heard this before ... a young Irish kid (gasp) fighting in South Boston.

 

[Tez3]

Sounds like it's all got caught in a Catch 22 situation now, parents sue so schools over react, the media jumps in and it ends up a big mess.

 

[oftheherd1]

"Zero tolerance" policies have been put in place at many schools, and almost invariably lead to big problems... like the kid who's expelled for bringing a weapon to school (it was a plastic knife with his lunch), or those who have been suspended for drug possession (including OTC Tylenol or asthma inhalers... and I seem to remember one case where it was chapstick).

Zero tolerance policies really equal zero thought or judgement on the part of the administration. They say (and this one I've heard directly at my daughter's old school) that pointing your finger at someone and saying "bang" is the same as bringing a gun to school. I'd much rather that the principal and administration actually did their jobs and investigated who did what and why, and judge punishments based on the actual transgression, rather than the appearance that there might have been a transgression, which automatically triggers the harshest response possible (as certainly appears to be the case with both of the referenced stories).

Zero tolerance benefits the school system. You don't have to make decisions, nor really investigate past there was an incident that can be stretched in some way to show a violation. Then you send the kid home. Easy. I doubt all teachers or administrators agree either, but they are stuck with it. They just then sit back and leave it to the parents to make deals, or involve the courts. The last is the worst. We have come to depend too much on the courts, and too little on common sense.

In the two cases mentioned, I still think their aren't enough facts to be certain, but a case can easily be made that the actions don't raise to the level taken by the schools. But they could just as easily be errant boys that need correction.