Sep 24, 2007 11:00 pm US/Eastern
Questions Surround Kids' Sexual Harassment Charges
By Maggie Mulvihill, I-Team Producer and Joe Bergantino, I-Team Reporter
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
Between 70 to 100 of the state's youngest school children are suspended each year for sexually harassing their classmates, state education records from 2003 to 2006 show.
The disciplinary tactics are prompting concerns from parents, educators and academics about the appropriateness of charging young children with sexual harassment.
"They cannot understand what it means. They're too young. They're just babies," said Linda Burke, whose grandson attends the Downey Elementary School in Brockton.
Brockton is among the most aggressive school districts in the state when it comes to disciplining its youngest students for sexual harassment.
An I-Team review of incidents in recent school years indicate students are being punished for using foul language, fondling or exposing themselves on the bus, pinching other kids or requesting to touch their private parts.
Districts with the highest rate of discipline of first through fourth graders also include Springfield, Fall River, Wareham and Lawrence, state records show.
Charter schools have also taken action against their youngest children, among them Boston Renaissance, Holyoke Community Charter School and Sabis International Charter School in Springfield.
Educators defend the discipline.
"It's relatively small numbers compared to the overall population," said Acting Department of Education Commissioner Jeffrey Nellhaus, who said there are roughly 75,000 students in each grade level.
The DOE defines sexual harassment as:
"Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, other physical or verbal conduct or communication of a sexual nature, including gender-based harassment that creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive educational or work environment."
"Some kind of sexual advance . . . could be as innocent as snapping someone's clothes," Nellhaus said, adding: "We are asking districts to use common sense."
Still, the DOE allows each school district to devise its own sexual harassment policies, resulting in a lack of statewide uniformity surrounding the controversial issue. What is labeled sexual harassment in one school district may not be considered offensive behavior in another part of the state.
Disciplinary action for sexual harassment has serious consequences for a child. The suspension becomes part of the student's permanent school record. And because school personnel are mandatory reporters for child abuse, the state Department of Social Services will frequently be notified.
Schools are required by a 1999 U.S. Supreme Court decision to take action if sexual harassment is suspected or risk losing federal funding.
Educators like Fall River School Superintendent Nicholas A. Fischer also want to stop bad behavior before it escalates as the child ages.
"It leads to bullying. It leads to harassment in different forms and it can lead to violence," Fischer said. "Educators are stepping in at the earliest grades to stop it in its tracks."
But critics of the discipline in Massachusetts said schools take quick action against even the youngest pupils to avoid being sued.
"School administrators are afraid of lawsuits," said Wellesley College senior researcher Nan D. Stein, who devised the first school curriculum for sexual harassment in Massachusetts. "You've got this rush to judgment: 'Oh, we're going to call it sexual harassment and we'll be off the hook."
That has not been the case in Brockton, where school officials are accused of going too far. The district is now fighting a federal lawsuit alleging it violated the civil rights of a six-year-old boy last year. The boy was suspended for three days for pulling the waistband of a female classmate during circle time.
School officials reported his family to DSS and contacted the Plymouth County District Attorney's office, which chose not to prosecute.
"My son said to the principal 'the girl touched me first' so he touched her back," his mother told WBZ-TV in an interview following his suspension.
Neither school officials nor the child's family would discuss the case citing the pending lawsuit.
But in documents filed in U.S. District Court in Boston, his family claims he was "still obviously a child incapable of forming criminal intent . . . and obviously immature sexually from both a physical and psychological awareness standpoint."
Members of the Brockton School Committee would not discuss the case, citing advice from their lawyer. That attorney, Elizabeth A. Houlding, declined comment.
School Superintendent Basan N. Nembirkow declined requests for an interview. But the I-Team caught up with him earlier this month as headed to a school committee meeting.
"The previous administration had a very rigid definition of (sexual harassment) and a couple of years ago we went through and reviewed our policies and made some adjustments to more accurately reflect the kind of incidents," he said. The number of suspensions in Brockton declined between 2005 and 2006.
Nembirkow denied that first graders were being disciplined despite statistics his district has provided to the DOE.
"First graders, obviously we don't anymore because of the age and the circumstances," he said.
Brockton is far from the only school system taking action against young children.
During the 2005-2006 school year, a fourth grader at Boston Renaissance was suspended for five days for using a camera phone to take a picture under another's student's skirt, school officials said. A second grader in the 2004-2005 school year was suspended for ten days for exposing his body parts in the classroom more than once.
In Springfield, a first-grader at the German Gerena Community School was suspended in the 2003-2004 school year for exposing himself to students on the bus. Another first grader at the Brightwood School was suspended for four days for pinching a classmate and stating: "I want to kiss your private parts and smack your behind," school officials said.
While both Springfield students were special-education pupils, the majority who are disciplined are not.
For example, during the 2004-2005 school year only 297 of the 799 students in all grades found to have committed sexual harassment were special education students. Most students disciplined are white males, state records show.
Labeling certain behavior in young children "sexual harassment" is creating national headlines.
Last month, in Oregon, a judge threw out sexual abuse charges against two 13-year-old boys who were accused of swatting girl classmates on the buttocks and touching two girls on their breasts.
The boys, after being arrested in February, were shackled, handcuffed and jailed. They were barred from their school for the rest of the year and assigned probation officers.
Cases such as those in Oregon and Massachusetts are also costing taxpayers.
In Maryland and Texas parents of kindergarten students last year complained their childrens' classmates were sexually harassing them, leading to costly litigation for taxpayers in those states.
In Oregon, the boys' families plan to sue the school district for unlawful prosecution and four of the girl victims reached out-of-court settlements with the school for unwanted harassment.
In 2005, a former elementary school student won a $190,500 out-of-court settlement, claiming her Seattle school did not protect her from sexual harassment when she was a second-grader.
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