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.

 

Bizarre outbreak of Tourette syndrome-like symptoms baffles school district

An upstate New York school district has a medical mystery on their hands: at least six students suddenly erupted in Tourette-like tics and the district doesn’t know why or what has caused it.

Geoff Redick reports:

Officials in the LeRoy School District are still uncertain what exactly is causing a number of students to display sudden symptoms, similar to Tourette’s Syndrome.

Superintendent Kimberly Cox tells WBTA News today that medical personnel continue to investigate the case, in which several students are apparently displaying “tics” – twitches or vocal exclamations that the sufferer cannot control.

The “tics” are commonly associated with Tourette’s syndrome, though a neurologist tells WBTA News there many be many other causes for them.

[...]

In a statement on the LeRoy website today, Cox says no apparent connection has been found between the students.

Other coverage can be found on MPN and WKBW.

Curiouser and curiouser. The neurologist is quite right that there are a number of possible explanations, and I would be that they are all being pursued right now.

U.S. Department Of Education To Offer Schools Guidance On Restraint, Seclusion

Michelle Diament writes on Disability Scoop that the U.S. Department of Education will offering guidance to school districts on restraint seclusion, with the guidance being disseminated before the start of the next school year:

The U.S. Department Of Education plans to offer school districts guidance on restraint and seclusion before the next school year begins, officials said Thursday, even as Congressional efforts on the issue continue to appear stalled.

Alexa Posny, the Education Department’s top special education official, told a federal autism advisory committee Thursday morning that her agency will issue guidance to schools this fall around the same time it releases the first ever national data on the use of restraint and seclusion in schools.

Read more on Disability Scoop.

For those who might think this is good news, it’s not. “Guidance” has no force of law and is not enforceable. Guidance will not prohibit what needs to be prohibited, it will not impose mandatory notifications, transparency, and accountability, and it is not a substitute for a strong federal law.

Florida school district places additional restrictions on use of prone restraint

Jason Schultz and Allison Ross had an article in the Palm Beach Post last month about the use of prone restraint, which is probably one of the most – if not the most – dangerous techniques to use:

After months of wrangling and impassioned pleas from parents, the Palm Beach County School Board voted unanimously Wednesday evening to approve an update to a policy governing the use of a controversial face-down restraint technique on special-needs children.

With no board discussion, the policy update makes a technique called “prone restraint” a last resort that school staffers can only use if a special needs student is acting out in a manner where they might hurt themselves or others. It’s meant to be used only if a long list of verbal techniques and less restrictive holds have failed.

The updates to the district’s restraint policy for special-needs children stopped short of the complete ban on the use of prone restraint that some parents have wanted in Palm Beach County schools for years.

Read more in The Palm Beach Post

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Teen suicide: More schools bring issue out of shadows

A news report by John Keilman shows how some schools are trying to reduce teen suicide by increasing awareness about it and screening students:

The paper handed to each freshman at Oak Lawn Community High School recently was filled with blunt and uncomfortable questions. Had they lost interest in everything? Did they feel they weren’t as smart or good-looking as most other people? Were they thinking about killing themselves?

A squad of counselors stood by to interview those who, based on their answers, might have been struggling with depression or contemplating suicide. By the end of the day, more than 50 teenagers had come to see them.

Read the full article in the L.A. Times. As the article makes clear, it is not whether this type of initiative is really effective in reducing the suicide rate and there are significant privacy concerns to consider that require allowing students or their parents to elect not to participate.

That said, and as uncomfortable as it may be, I am generally in strong favor of teaching students about teen depressions, its signs, and what to do if they feel that they are depressed or that a friend is depressed.

If your teen’s school hasn’t provided information, feel free to download these 2001 handouts for teens from the National Institute of Mental Health: What To Do When a Friend is Depressed and Let’s Talk About Depression. The articles are in the public domain and you can reproduce them and share them with others or use them in class to start a discussion.

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