Wednesday, December 20, 2006
5-year-old Hagerstown boy accused of sexual harassment
A 5-year-old Hagerstown Lincolnshire Elementary School boy pinched a female kindergarten classmate on the butt. Principal Darlene Teach has accused the boy of sexual harassment. The accusation will remain on his record until he moves to middle school. Which ironically will be about the time he enters puberty and will be able to put the concept of sexual harassment into some sort of context.
Teach said any student, regardless of grade level, can be cited for sexual harassment. “Anytime a student touches another student inappropriately, it could be sexual harassment,” Teach said.
Really? That’s interesting because Washington County Public Schools defines sexual harassment as something different.
Washington County Public Schools spokeswoman Carol Mowen said the definition of sexual harassment used by the school system is, “unwelcome sexual advances, request for sexual favors and/or other inappropriate verbal, written or physical conduct of a sexual nature directed toward others.”
The word “sexual” was used in every single definition of what sexual harassment is. Just how is one five year old pinching another five year old considered sexual?
If he had pinched her on some other part of the body such as an arm or shoulder or the big toe, would that be sexual harassment too? What if he had pinched another boy on the butt, would that too be considered sexual harassment?
Is a five year old boy pinching a classmate on the butt inappropriate? Of course it is. Five year old boys do inappropriate things all the time. They sometimes don’t finish their vegetables. They often don’t color within the lines. Sometimes they even get the alphabet wrong. They have even been known to not wipe their feet when they go inside even when they are told to do so by their mothers.
Some even play ball in the house.
People shouldn’t go around pinching each other. It could lead to bruses and civic anarchy. We don’t want anarchy. That doesn’t mean pinching is sexual. It shouldn’t be labeled as sexual harassment especially when the pinching is committed by someone who is only five. The whole issue was blown way out of proportion by Principal Darlene Teach and it trivializes real sexual harassment.
Personally, I find it more then just a little creepy that Principal Darlene Teach looks at one five year old pinching another as something sexual.
School accuses 5-year-old of sex harassment [Herald-Mail]
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Talk about overkill!
I’m glad they are finally doing something about these 5 year old sexual predator. If it were me, I would throw his ass in jail for at least 5 years, time enough to understand what he did and learn from it.
But seriously this is the second most idiotic thing I have seen. I say second because earlier this December there was an even stupider story with a 4 year old boy: http://www.kxxv.com/Global/story.asp?S=5785699
This was posted on a blog that I read every now and again. It appears to be an open letter to the Principal.
Darlene…
I read this evening on The Drudge Report, about the courage you showed by writing up a young student for “sexual harrasment” at your Elementary School.
Darlene, YOU DESERVE A MEDAL OF HONOR! It is a great day in America when we finally have principled, women principals like you who see the injustice of a pinched buttocks for what it really is: EVIL, NASCENT, TESTOSTERONE-LADEN MANHOOD in sheep’s clothing.
Children from 2 month olds to 6 year olds, all over this country have been getting away with these abhorrent activities for far too long. I myself was once a 5 year old Kindergartener and I distinctly (and shamefully) recall how easy it was to “cop a feel” on my female classmates… In my late 20’s now it is a great regret of mine as I recall how many times as a 3 year old I squeezed the pillow-like mammary glands of my daycare nanny. I regret, every day, those horrific actions of my infancy.
Had there been a courageous, simple-minded woman, like yourself, in those formative years, who would have stood up to me and my horribly inappropriate behavior, perhaps I could have become the testosterone-less, limp-wristed, a-sexual, liberal-democrat that the Maryland Public Education system strives so hard to create today.
Thank you Darlene….
Thank you so much!
Yours Truly Yours
Brandon Bluth
P.S. Darlene - don’t let negative media attention dissuade you from your decision. Stick to your guns just as I stuck to the fluffy guns on my daycare nanny so long ago…
I heard the girl was dressed in very revealing diaper and jumper. She was practically asking for it.
I can not believe how innocent acts from our children are being turned into something like sexual harasment. My 6 year old daughter came home from shcool yesterday upset and told me she had a letter from her teacher. When I read the letter I was very upset, the teacher said my daughter was getting in trouble and may be suspended from the 1st grade for sexual harasment. The letter went on to explain that my daughter and a little boy were playing at recess and she tried to kiss him on the cheek. And because she did this they are considering suspending her for an innocent kiss on the cheek. My daughter does not even know what sexual harasment is, and does not understand why she is getting in trouble. The other kids parents live in the same neighborhood as we do and we have talked about this situation and they feel that the school is being riduculus for the whole situation, and the other student even admitted that he asked my daughter to kiss him on the cheek cause they are friends. If they suspend her then she will have on her perminant record that she was suspended for sexual harasment. We have always explained to her that you can not hug or kiss someone without their permission or someone she did not know, but she thought it was ok because her friend asked her to kiss him. We have a meeting with the teacher and the principle tomorrow to see what will happen with my daughter, but if they suspend her I will not let it go there because I do not feel that someone that young can even comprehend what sexual harasment is.