This is something kids do. I remember being 4 and looking at penises in the bathroom.

When I was five, boys used to moon us on the playground.

Good times.

What is the happy medium between Brave New World-esque "erotic play" and this reactionary... erm, overreacting? We can haz that?

And this is why Europeans still laugh at us for our stupid Puritan roots.

I think I'm such a slut now bc I was sexually harassed all through elementary school... can I sue?

I remember playing "doctor" at about 5, just a little looking and touching. Trying to figure out the differences and all...

Smacking, biting, and roughhousing is what little kids do...if you tell them to stop, they will once they recognize its "wrong." But labelling them as a "Sexual Harrasser" will only make the situation ten times worse.

that poor kid - teaching him now that he's a "harasser" is really going to fuck up his future sex life

I saw a little boy tell a girl she was pretty. He's doing 3-5 upstate right now.

While I think you have a point, Dodai, about exploring the boundaries and such, I also have to wonder to a point what this kid is learning at home.

Is he calling himself a "bad boy" in a Diddy context, or "I've done something wrong" context? I think that makes a difference.

This brings back memories. I was the main reason (well not the main reason but one of the reasons) why the principal at my elementary school decided to start showing sex ed videos - I pinched a cute classmate in the butt because he stole my notebook. Even back then I was horny (joke). Is it weird that the "cute classmate" (a guy)is gay now?

These are kind of shrill and illogical over-reactions that leech the credibility from actual cases of in-school sexual harassment.

Also I distinctly recall hiding in the bushes with a boy- to play genital show and tell.
And YES, I was the instigator- which makes me a sexual harrasser then.

@honeybunchesofoats: Or improve it in a sick-serial-rapit kinda way?

Maybe we instead so be working to keep children from getting sexualied so young.

Randy smacked a fellow student, so he should be disciplined for hitting. Period. Unless he also reached down her pants, I doubt there was sexual intent there.

Man, I guess that makes the second-grade WVG a total Demi Moore in "Disclosure" type. Yeah, I forced Billy Owen into a corner and kissed him. And I don't regret it. Should I go register as a SO now?

@Meangirl: Well Said!

When I was in elementary school, some of the boys would run around on the playground and flip up girls' skirts. Annoying, yes, but the only thing the girls would do in defense of it was to wear shorts under skirts. Much easier than tattling. Stupid boys.

I don't really think that 6 year olds understand sexual boundaries in the same way as teenagers and adults. Hitting is obviously not good, but its something children inevitably will do and while it should be punished, I dont think that amongst first grade peers a slap on the ass is THAT different than a slap on the arm. He should be disciplined for the slap, but I dont think they should oversexualizeit. Whats next? Saying that if a boy pushes a little girl on the playground he was "touching her breasts?"

If there were a sexual comment and a slap on the ass, I think this would be reason to talk to the boy's parents about where he was exposed to this kind of treatment of women that is inappropriate for such young kids. That doesnt seem to be the case though- this seems innocent enough.

@honeybunchesofoats: Oops I meant rapist..

@BowlingForDollars: He thought he was going to prison. So bad boy as in "everyone is disappointed in me now."

We use to always do "the nasty" with neighborhood boys, it was the norm.

@Leiakat: Maybe we instead should be working to keep children from getting sexualized so young.

@tell Dolly Parton again: I would like to say we don't do that but... yeah... in these cases we do. Though in the last 10-15 years The Netherlands has gotten MUCH crazier and puritanical as well. They always say we emulate the States in everything, so I guess it's only a matter of time. *sigh*

When I was in kindergarten, a boy used to try to look up all the girls skirts. He tried to do it to me, and I punched him in the nose. Problem solved.

Dude...we used to slap each other's asses all the time in elementary school.

And I still slap my friends' asses.

I am a very bad girl. :-(

@Dodai: Then, yes, it's too extreme. Poor kid.

Sexual harassment, in my book, requires intent and an ability to understand the impact of one's behavior. I think this pretty much rules out a second grader being a sexual harasser.

Also, like Meangirl said, going after cases like this takes focus away from serious cases where wrong-doing is actually happening.

Isn't it possible that he was trying to "discipline" her? I mean, when I was 5 I tried to spank my 8 year old sister when I thought she had done something wrong. It usually ended badly for me, but I had learned from my parent's reactions to me when they were upset.

What concerns me most is that if this child is exhibiting "inappropriate behavior" he's learning it from somewhere. Instead of labeling him a harasser, the school should look into what is causing him to do such things. A kid won't just start doing something for no reason. What if someone's being inappropriate with him and he's just acting out in the only way he can?

Boys will be boys, y'all!

I think that the adults are the ones turning this into a sexual issue.
Remember when we were little girls and we held hands on the playground? I'm sure that is now not only sexual harassment, but also homosexual in nature.
That little boy probably meant nothing sexual by his butt pat..and as far as where he saw it? How about Monday Night Football, cause those dudes are some ass-patters.

Um, hai? The bugs on this site are out of control today. Plz make stop. Kthxbai.

This is getting out of hand. These are children and labeling a 7 year old just causes harm to that child.
There does not seem to be any intent on the part of this child to actually sexually molest the other child.

I remember when I didn't even wear a seatbelt in my mother's Duster while STANDING on the front seat with the window rolled down.

We're going too far here. Maybe we can arrest more johns and stop harassing children.

@Jerseylicious: NICE

He shouldn't have a label but he should be told that it's wrong in a way that makes him understand the seriousness of it. Just because it's not innocent looking, it was a HIT.

Sounds like most people agree this is absurd. But I wonder why it happens. Maybe it's partly due to our adjustment to recognizing more subtle forms of sexual harassment and harassment in general. For example, a parent now knows that slapping a coworker on the ass at work is not only wrong, it's reprehensible and extremely degrading. So when they hear that their child was slapped at school they immediately think the act was reprehensible and degrading and want justice. The system is still figuring out the difference between acting out repressive "learned" social behavior (harassing adults) and "learning" appropriate social behavior (kids).

Or maybe kids are terrible. That's another option you know.

When my brother was in first grade, they took a trip to a museum. Soon there after he was drawing pictures in class and one of the guys he drew had a penis and he said he saw it at the museum. A girl copied him and they got sent to the principal's office. This was in 1985. Dumbbbbbb.

When you're little, you really have no idea what "sexuality" means. You're curious about your body, about your friend's body, you can be aggressive with it - you're figuring things out. It's totally natural.

Yay! I love when we put labels on children. Now if the little girl had enjoyed it, we could send her to the principal's office and stamp SLUT on her file.

So when I was ringleading "playing Doctor" at 4 years old was I the harasser, harassed, or pimp-in-training? Jeezuz this politcally correct gets on my last nerve.

@Workinggal: I just had a flashback to when I drew pictures of stick figures having sex (missionary boy/girl sex, as that's all I knew), and my mom found them and made me write "I will not draw dirty pictures" about 20 times.

I also got called a lesbian in fifth grade because we were reading a play out loud in class, and I was playing the romantic boy to a girl playing a girl, and I couldn't stop giggling and feeling nervous about it.

I totally believe that even a child this young can be a 'harasser.' At the very least, children like this are obviously engaging in behavior that can only get worse and more alarming as they get older if it's not addressed. when I was in elementary school, this boy in my class was borderline violently sexual with girls; he would chase, tackle, and pull down skirts, pants, or undergarments. Now, at 22, he's in jail. I believe that if someone had stopped him then, life would have been very different for him.

@Kittenish: @RyanB: Yup, I was a bad, harassing kid, too. My best friend and closest playmate in kindergarten and first grade was Jimmy Miller. I once peeked in the door when his mom was helping him change clothes (I was curious!) and once when we were goofing off in the car, I tickled him on the crotch - my crotch felt funny when I touched it, and I was sorta curious if his would feel the same way.

I suppose that makes me a Class A sex offender. I really should never be allowed around children again.

@BowlingForDollars: The mixed messages we send to children are horrible. Punishment is not a substitute for education. This kid is going to connect sexuality and "badness" for a long time, and that's sad.

And now this kid's picture and name are all over the internet and news so he will never live it down. Awesome. Little kids are just weird and curious. I'd have gone to little kid jail then, because there wasn't a butt in school that I wouldn't pinch in 1st grade.

@shiningstar: sure, it can happen, but a one time butt slap is not the same

My son is in first grade, and a girl in his class kissed him (on the cheek) at recess. We had a talk about age-appropriate behavior, and I explained that he was too young to be kissing. I never even thought of contacting the authorities to have her labeled as a "sexual harasser" and locked up!

Christ, get a grip! Discuss why we don't hit people, change his card from green to red -- or the school's equivalent -- and move on to math.

@beatrice3000: But isn't that what most children go through as they explore and deal with issues about gender/sex.

So if a 5-yr. old boy showed me his wee-wee at recess, should he be arrested for indecent exposure?

That's what kids do. All the time. Everywhere.

I tried to kiss a boy in kindergarten. I also tried to shove some peas up the same boy's nose during lunch a week later. I don't seem to recall police involvement. I also haven't thought about either of those incidents since they occurred. I guarantee that if I had been told I was a sexual harasser, that would have stuck with me.

That same boy was also later disciplined for trying to get two girls to kiss and asking another boy if he was gay because of the shoes he was wearing. I don't know if these boys are picking this kind of behavior up from television or what, but it is totally disrespectful and will be considered sexual harassment when they are older.

These days there seems to be too many assholes popping out hordes of asshole offspring, and not enough awesome people having little awesome kids. But for me, part of being a feminist is raising my son to be respectful to EVERYONE. /rant off (sorry)

@feathernotdot GO BRUINS!!!: Thats a valid point and if he is inappropriate in more direct ways (language, touching genitals, etc) that should be investigated. Im not so sure where butt slapping falls though... a kid who hadnt been exposed to adult subject matter could still have learned that from loving parents who gave him a spanking once in awhile.