Did a Colorado
elementary school go too far when labeling a 6 year old child’s actions as
sexual harassment? The 6 year old was suspended because of “sexual harassment”
when he kissed 6 year old girls hand. First-grader Hunter Yelton made national
news from this incident. After a meeting with the 6 year olds parents and the
superintendent, it was changed from sexual harassment to misconduct. Hunter
Yelton’s mom described the incident and said it all happened because Hunter had
a crush on the girl and he kissed her on the hand during a reading group. The
little boy had gotten in trouble before for rough housing and kissing the same
girl on the check, which does make sense that he got in trouble. But is what he
did really sexual harassment?
The
little girl’s mother agreed with the schools punishment. She says Hunter tried
over and over to kiss her daughter without permission from her. Her mom had
this to say: "I've had to coach her about what to do when you don't want
someone touching you, but they won't stop,"
The
school says that they don’t label things with sexual harassment on the first
offense, and asks to look at the situation from their point of view. However,
does a 6 year old know what they are doing isn’t right? Is suspension the real
way to resolve the problem? Many young kids have crushes and I;m sure this type
of things happens every day at some other school. It is not labeled as sexual
harassment in other schools though.
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