Update: CNN Report Experts speak out!
Brockton - A first grader was suspended for sexual harassment because he put two fingers in the waistband of a female classmate. The mother of the six year old boy said her son doesn't even know what sexual harassment is.
What is going on here? This is political correctness gone amock! Some so-called liberals need to stop being knee-jerk reactionary political correctness freaks. The teacher should have said honey, that is not appropriate touching and continued with class. And if the mother of the girl threatened to sue, the teacher should have said bring it on they are 6 years old!
This story brings up another pet peeve of mine. Both conservatives and progressives alike need to realize that children are sexual. Yeah, I said it. Children are sexual. I know it's hard for people to read or accept, but we are sexual beings from the moment we are born. And if children and teens are so closely monitored and sheltered that they are never able to explore their sexuality, they will surely end up repressed and troubled adults....One more reason why we need to provide accurate science based sexuality education to young people, so that when they are exploring their sexuality they make informed decisions.
4 comments:
While I agree that in this case, the suspension was over the line, I don't want to dismiss the very real acts of sexual harrassment and even violence that take place among school-aged children. When I was seven a classmate physically forced me to show him my genitals. Yes, we were seven, but that's still pretty bad. I just don't think you should portray children's sexual play as exclusively innocent/harmless, because that's not always the case.
Spork,
That's a really good point, it certainly is not always harmless. Hopefully that boy was told that is NOT okay and was punished appropriately so that he learned from the experience. And hopefully you were able to get over and learn from the experience too because after all you were 7, and I think that we all go through traumatizing events like that during our childhood. I certainly did as well.
It's a tricky age, first grade. Some children are at the point where they know boundries and ways to express themselves with words really well. And others are less able to figure those things out yet. I think a lot of it depends on how their parents raised them from the beginning, if they have a lot of anger built up, etc.
I also think its unfortunate that there is a possibility the insane amount of sexism in this culture made that little boy think it was just fine to force a girl to show her genitals. Goes to show how much work we have to do as social justice minded folks.
We've all played doctor haven't we? And if you haven't you musta been the reject kid.
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