No children should have to put up with that. These boys behavior was completely unacceptable. I don't think I saw anyone here saying otherwise.
Those boys needed to learn that such behavior would not be tolerated and that it was wrong, and they should have been punished to a reasonable extent as well to dissuade others from doing such things as much as to make sure they don't do it again.
I can’t believe that you think that they should just have to duke it out.
They shouldn't. They shouldn't be punished if they choose to defend themselves from such unwanted behavior, but they shouldn't have to do so.
However, why call the cops? Why not call the school? Why not call the kid's parents?
This is not a new problem. This has been happening between young teens in schools for a very, very long time. They might be getting a bit bolder because of the decay of dignity in our society, but it is not a new problem.
You should be able to call the school, and the boy should get punished through detention and / or suspension, and maybe having to do some work around the school or in the community. The boys parents should be called and they should be involved in his punishment.
If that fails, then I guess you would have to call the cops. However, do you really have much faith that our criminal justice system and prison will rehabilitate these boys?
I am glad your are teaching your girls self respect, and I hope that they never have to deal with such actions from schoolmates. If something like this does happen at their school, I hope the teachers and administrators correct that behavior immediately. However, calling in the cops is not the right way to do that unless other reasonable options have failed in dealing with these boys in the past.
What I heard is that the girls did try to get the school to stop it, but the school didn’t stop it. Hence, the cops were called.
As I’ve said before, what they did met the legal definition of sexual assault. As for any defense that the acts were not intended to be sexual in nature, I suspect that the dry-humping would put the lie to that.
I don’t think that sexual assault is trivial just because it was committed by 13 year olds.
I’m just astounded that there are so many here defending it, and acting as if it’s just a situation of “boys will be boys.”