As a man let me apologize

[IdaBriggs]

41. From what I read (and I have not read *everything* on the topic)

she *did* ask that the phrasing be changed, and escalated through the local chain of command before going public.

The fact her child is young and adorable (yep, I am prejudiced - lol!) I believe really cemented the ridiculous nature of the *adult* charge. Again, this is not to say he should have been misbehaving so badly, but as I said, the *next* kid will hopefully not have to deal with that label, either. (How many others have it in their file because people were too embarrassed to kick up a fuss? We'll never know.)

Hopefully this will be a brief "thirty second story" in his own life (where his mother stood up for him) and he begins to behave appropriately.

I personally believe the misuse of "sexual harassment" both minimizes it when it occurs, and twenty years from now could have been used against him (based on the craziness of surveillance and privacy issues). Letting something like that stand in a document kept in public records would have been, in my opinion, more of an inappropriate thing to do by the mother than a few minutes of local news / internet fame. One can hope he remembers that people can make a difference, and again I believe the policy was examined by the local district and sanity restored.

I think treating elementary students as if their actions are criminal ("5 year old throws temper tantrum/ends up in hand cuffs"; "7 year old throws spitball/ends up in jail"; "6 year old chews sandwich into shape of gun/gets suspended"; etc.) is not good for anyone from the general members of society to the children involved. Some of my own horror is shaped by the over-reaction (especially in Florida - no idea why so many of the crazy stories seem Florida centric) in these situations, along with my "give me a break!" belief on the topic.

I have 6-year old twins; my daughter has been "engaged" and has multiple "boyfriends" (insert eye roll), while my son is completely on a different level socially, and spent a crazy amount of time in the last few months gleefully using "foul and inappropriate language" once he discovered it made adult heads explode. This phase was embarrassing to us, but since he usually indulged when he was *not* in our presence (and had not hit the ability to understand long-term consequences, which his sister had figured out a while ago) there were definitely some "parental challenge" moments involved. But if someone wanted to put "sex offender" in his file because he was using "foul and inappropriate language" at age 6 (when he doesn't even understand what the words mean), well, I can see this momma going crazy, too!

Teaching and parenting challenges are sometimes just about personalities, and opinions vary. Everyone gets to screw their kids up in unique and special ways.

I am going to stick with "not sexual harassment" - I've met a lot of pre-school/kindergarten/first graders at this point, and I just don't see *that* as an issue. Bothering, annoying, torturing, driving people around them crazy -- yup. "Sexually harassing" - uh, no.

Again, your opinion may differ.