7-Year-Old Accused Of Possible Sexual Harassment For Kicking Boy In Groin

CBS in Boston reports:

A 7-year-old boy is being investigated by his South Boston elementary school for possible sexual harassment after kicking another boy in the crotch.

The first grader’s mother, Tasha Lynch, says she was shocked by the school’s decision.

“He’s 7 years old. He doesn’t know anything about sexual harassment,” she said.

Lynch’s son, Mark Curran, said the boy that he kicked had been bullying him on the school bus ride home from Tynan Elementary last week.

“He just all of a sudden came up to him, choked him. He wanted to take his gloves, and my son said, ‘I couldn’t breathe, so I kicked him in the testicles,’” said his mother.

Read more on CBS.

Once again, it seems, a school may have gotten it so very very wrong – although to be fair, we are only hearing one side of the story.  Assuming that the parent’s reporting is correct, then instead of re-framing this as a “sexual harassment” issue, why doesn’t the school really deal with the issue that a child was left to his own instincts and 7-year-old judgement as to how to protect and defend himself from another child?   What would they have had him do in that situation?

And what would anyone of them have done in the same situation as an adult, if they were assaulted on a street?

Update: The Boston Globe has a fuller version of this news report.