Elementary parents question suspensions

pittsburghlive.com ^ | 4 26 04 | Liz Zemba

[freepatriot32]

Parents of some second-graders at a Mount Pleasant Area elementary school are questioning whether a 10-day ban from school is appropriate punishment for youngsters accused of sexual harassment in the classroom. The suspensions were handed to five second-grade boys at Norvelt Elementary School after four girls accused the boys of touching them inappropriately, according to parents of some of the boys.

Daniel Landy, Norvelt Elementary's principal, did not return phone calls seeking comment on Thursday.

Superintendent Dr. Donald Tylinski would say only that an investigation is under way. Tylinski declined further comment, citing confidentiality concerns.

[freepatriot32]

The girls' mothers said unwanted kisses don't compare to groping and derogatory comments.

nope no double standard here

[freepatriot32]

Becky Gordon (left), Jason Pirl and Robin Pirl pose with a notice they received of their child's 10-day suspension from Norvelt Elementary. Tribune-Review News Service

[Mears]

Second grade boys? Sexual harassment?

GIVE ME A BREAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[momfirst]

Second that! My daughter's in first grade - they don't even know the concept of sexual harassment at that age. Next they'll be stooping to call "boy cooties" sexual harassment, or does it only apply to "girl cooties"? This is absolutely rediculous.

[Hodar]

Parents of two of the girls allege the harassment has been ongoing for months. They said their 7- and 8-year-old daughters reported the boys repeatedly touched them on their breasts and buttocks.

The boys also are accused of directing derogatory sexual remarks at the girls, and of repeatedly attempting to expose the girls' chests by tugging on their shirts.

Funny how the facts change the story a bit. No child should be forced to put up with months of this behaviour.

[Hodar]

This is absolutely rediculous.

I would encourage you to read the complete story, before rushing to judgement. Innocent kisses between boys and girls is nothing new. But, this goes well beyond that.

[cherry]

sorry, mom.....these girls had reported the teasing and the pulling at clothes and the touching of the breast area repeatedly.....now, it seems it has gone too far...

do a research and you will find an unsettling number of cases of young grade school boys raping a lone girl....

If you don't make it clear to these boys now, and impress on them the seriousness of their behavior, I can forsee a felony assault in a few years....

in freeperland, people long for men to be men and boys to be boys, and we all wonder why they aren't doing so well in school as girls, why they are not attending college like girls, why girls have surpassed boys in the historical men's profession of law and medicine...

well, can we please start in grade school teaching boys and girls what is proper behavior and stop shielding kids from punishment?

"back in my day" passing notes was about as naughty as boys and girls would get.....now we have boys pulling at girls shirts? BTW...in the inner city neighborhoods, at pools, this is a common practice, for boys to go up and half strip the girls of their suits.....is that what people really want to be the standard?

[momfirst]

Ahhh, I see...for some reason when I tried to read the full article my ancient computer didn't load but the first couple paragraphs - second try, loaded now, haven't read yet, but will. If the quip you wrote above is true, there needs to be some school-to-parent intervention. Again, haven't read it fully, give me a sec.....

[momfirst]

My second appologies - (see #8) I really do need a better computer. Have read the full article now.

This is a bigger problem than the first few paragraphs indicate. At the point the school found out about this (which, again, where was the teacher?), there should have been more discussion with the parents, with the kids, with a qualified therapist/counselor. If the boys truly didn't think anything was wrong, that has to be addressed asap. Where did they learn such behavior? (media? family? friends?) You can't just kick the boys out of school and leave the girls as is. Damage control, education and prevention need to be done. Does that make sense?

[Paleo Conservative]

This is absolutely rediculous.

I would encourage you to read the complete story, before rushing to judgement. Innocent kisses between boys and girls is nothing new. But, this goes well beyond that.

After all this is the post Clinton era.

[iconoclast]

these girls had reported the teasing and the pulling at clothes and the touching of the breast area repeatedly

Hellooo! They don't HAVE breasts!

[Reddy]

After reading the article, I get the impression the little girl was going to be disciplined for striking one of the little boys (bruises on her hand), so she quickly came up with reasons why THEIR crime was worse than HERS.

Little children chase and pull on each other's clothing all the time. There is nothing sexual about it. It sounds like there needed to be a no-touching-whatsoever policy when this first happened; keep you hands to yourself is easily understood and enforced. Where was the teacher during all of these months of "sexual" harassment?

[EggsAckley]

Hellooo! They don't HAVE breasts!

Uh, sorry to disagree with you, but at that age little girls are extremely aware of where their breasts are (will be) and any kind of teasing about breasts is very upsetting and embarassing to a girl of that age.

[Arpege92]

"their children are having nightmares and exhibiting other behavior seen in victims of sexual harassment."

Bull$hit....these girls didn't even know they were "victims" until mommy and daddy stepped in. I'm the mother of a 5th grade boy and it's been my experience that the girls are far more aggressive than the boys. My son went out of his way to avoid any contact with a girl who had a crush on him. I thought it was kind of cute, but my son didn't. Boys this age generally HATE girls....except for mom's and grandma's of course.

The parents of these girls are doing their children more harm than good. They are teaching them to be the perpetual victim and God help any man who crosses them when they become older.

[Valpal1]

All humans have breasts (and nipples!) duh! We're mammals.

Little girls just have undeveloped ones, however many have nipples beginning to "bud" out at 8 or 9, especially if they are chubby. The average age of puberty is getting lower due to improved nutrition (and possibly excess calorie consumption).

Scary, I know. I have a lot of daughters and not enough guns.

I homeschool my kids, but they are involved with sports and dance and I am continually shocked at the behavior of their age peers. It comes from unrestricted t.v. and movies IMO. Their parents let them watch anything and provide no supervision and discuss nothing about the world, life and morality with them.

Not to mention that many come from broken or never formed homes and have watched their mothers and fathers play musical partners since infancy.

The liberal cultural elite have been trying to sexualize the youth of this nation for a long time. The sexual liberation that ravaged the Universities in the sixties has now trickled down into the kindergartens and it is pretty dang sick and sad.

[Arpege92]

"sorry, mom.....these girls had reported the teasing and the pulling at clothes and the touching of the breast area repeatedly.....now, it seems it has gone too far."

According to this article:

"the girls didn't report the behavior out of embarrassment."

"Parents learned of the alleged harrassment only after one of the girls suffered a bruised hand while striking out at one of the boys."

The girls didn't report anything on a constant basis. If they were so traumatized as these parents are saying they are, then the symptons would have shown before the parents found out anything.

[Meldrim]

One of my admin staff is student teaching in an old New England Mill town now overrun by immigrants from Central America. Bottom line, she has fourth graders whose home environment had boyfriends and older brothers watching "The Spice Channel" in front of the kids. Any wonder folks why the parents from decent homes want nothing to do with the public shools?

These little boys may well be doing to the little girls what they watch the big boys doing on the cable porno their Mom's boyfriend watches after school.

[SendShaqtoIraq]

"The average age of puberty is getting lower due to improved nutrition (and possibly excess calorie consumption)."

More likely caused by the hormones fed to our meat supply. One day my cousin was talking about her 4 daughers, none of whom have breasts. If you put them all together, you might come out with one pancake. I told her to stop feeding them home grown meat and start buying it at the supermarket. (just wanted to insert a little funny, here).

But the hormones in the meat is true.

[iconoclast]

All humans have breasts (and nipples!) duh!

Thanks for the physiology lesson (duh)!

I think most people got my point.

Another example of hysterical overreaction, much like yours.

[Valpal1]

I've heard the hormone in meat supply claim before, but I don't necessarily believe that is true.

One, the average age had already begun to drop long before the use of "hormones" and two, the use of "hormones" in growing meat animals isn't happening on a widespread basis. It is banned in chicken and pork and tightly controlled in beef.

I'm afraid this is a popular arguement of the eco-nazis but as usual it is based on fear, bad science and a deliberate misunderstanding of the truth.

http://www.useu.be/issues/BeefPrimer022699.html

It is also European propaganda to keep our meat out of their markets. Ours is better (and cheaper) and we would kick their butts on a level playing field.