Mark CurranLast month, 7-year-old Mark Curran got into a fight on the school bus on the way home from his South Boston school. According to him, another student had taken his new gloves and choked him. To save himself from the bully, he says he kicked the kid in the groin.
Not that violence is okay, but sometimes you have to defend yourself, right? Wrong says the Boston Public School system, and not only is it wrong, it's actually considered sexual harassment because of where his kick landed. The state Department of Children and Families was even called to report the incident.
Talk about sexual correctness gone crazy.
His mother, Tasha Lynch, said she was shocked when the school called to tell her. "Your son kicked a little boy in the testicles. We call that sexual harassment," she told WBZ. Later she got a letter saying he could be suspended or transferred to another school because he violated "codes of discipline related to sexual harassment and endangering the physical safety of another student."
If they had wanted to give him a detention or other punishment for fighting, that would be one thing, but to put a label on a kid as someone who has committed an act of sexual harassment is ridiculous. He's only 7 years old. His mom told WBZ the first-grader doesn't even know what sexual harassment is.
I have an 8-year-old and if he was in a flight with someone, I have no idea where he'd swing. I wouldn't be surprised at all if it was the groin area he went after, because boys know it hurts when you get struck there. Just because contact is made with someone's clothed genitals doesn't mean there was any sexual intent. It's yet another example in which the specifics of a case need to come before big, blanket policies.
The school wouldn't comment on the details, but told the Boston Globe that a full investigation is underway -- which is good. If it was my son who had been kicked, I would want that too. Hopefully, they will come to the sensible conclusion that this was simply a case of boys being boys -- boys who maybe should be punished, but not for sexual harassment.
Do you think it's ridiculous to consider a 7-year-old hitting or kicking another student in the groin as sexual harassment?
Image via YouTube
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Comments 28
"If they had wanted to give him a detention or other punishment for fighting, that would be one thing"
NO. It wouldn't be "one thing". It would be WRONG.
Nearly every week, we are hearing stories about kids killing themselves because they're being relentlessly bullied. Just yesterday, a child's YouTube video was discussed - he claimed to be bullied because kids claimed he was gay. He included in that video that he was considering suicide.
Why? Why are so many kids falling victims to bulies?
BECAUSE WE ARE HELPING THE BULLIES!!!!!
We see no problem with punishing a child for defending himself. Somehow, striking out in justified self-defense has become equally - if not more - egregious than the original crime!
In this story, this boy kicked his ATTACKER in the 'nads because his ATTACKER was CHOKING him. And you have no problem if the school had chosen to suspend him, or issue some other discipline?????
That's just as bad, in my book, as supporting the school for busting him for "sexual harassment", which is simply asinine.
STOP helping the bullies. STOP IT!!!
My son is the biggest sweetheart ever, so much so that I fear he could be an easy target. Since he started school this year, he's only had one incident he told me about that someone on the playground had grabbed his coat and wrestled him to the ground. I have since instructed him that no one is ever allowed to touch him, and if they do he needs to push them away as hard as he can and if they hit him he needs to hit back harder. I don't care what anyone thinks about this, unless you want to be bullied your entire life you need to stand up for yourself, I'm glad this child hit his bully back, I bet the kid won't bully him anymore and if these ridiculous laws are protecting bullies then it won't be long before more people will be homeschooling.
While I think that labeling what happened on the school bus sexual harrassment (I mean, really!). I also think that the word "bully" is terribly overused. Guess what? Kids are ALWAYS going to fight, they are ALWAYS going to say mean things to one another, they're kids, it happens. But now, every time there's a fight involving school aged kids, be in on the playground, the schoolbus, over Facebook, etc... someone is labeled a bully. I think that society overall needs to get a grip and accept that sometimes fighting with your peers is part of growing up. That isn't to say that bullying doesn't happen, I absolutely believe that it does. But where's the line? If my kid gets mad and says something mean to a classmate I don't call that bullying, just like if my kid came home and said someone kicked him I wouldn't automatically assume he was being bullied.
Enough is enough.
PrettyGirl, I agree with you, to a point. "Bully" does seem to have become the latest buzzword, and it's easy to label any rabble-rouser a "bully" to make a point or to garner immediate sympathy for one side of an argument, however...
This school had the prime opportunity to keep a "bully" from developing. Strangler may not have ever done anything like this before, but now he has been given the power. His victim is the one being punished in this situation. I can find no documentation about any punishment the Strangler is receiving. Even the bus driver is noted as "shrugging his shoulders".
Which means that Strangler is being given the message that what he did was ok... that he can pick on, steal from, even assault another student, and if his victims fight back, THEY will be the ones facing punishment. Especially if he doubles over and acts hurt. (not saying that he *wasn't* hurt, but kids tend to exaggerate)