6-Year-Old US Boy Suspended For Kissing A Girl’s Hand

DENVER – The suspension ofa 6-year-old boy for kissing a girlat school is raising questionsabout whether the peck shouldbe considered sexual harassment.The boy’s mother said officialsat Lincoln School of Scienceand Technology in Canon City, aColorado city of 16,000, areover-reacting. Jennifer Saunderssaid her son was suspendedonce before for kissing the girland had other disciplinary problems,and she was surprised tofind out that he would be forcedout of school again for severaldays.First grader Hunter Yelton toldKRDO-TV that he has a crushon a girl at school and she likeshim back.”It was during class, yeah. Wewere doing reading group, and Ileaned over and kissed her onthe hand. That’s what happened,”he said.Saunders said she saw nothingwrong with her son’s display ofaffection. She said she punishedhim for other problems inschool, including rough-housing.She was shocked when theschool’s principal brought upthe term “sexual harassment”during a meeting.”This is taking it to an extremethat doesn’t need to be met witha six year old. Now my son isasking questions. what is sexmommy? That should not everbe said, sex. Not in a sentencewith a six year old,” she said.District superintendent aRobinGooldy told The AssociatedPress on Tuesday the boy wassuspended because of a policyagainst unwanted touching.”The focus needs to be on hisbehavior. We usually try to getthe student to stop, but if it continues,we need to take actionand it sometimes rises to thelevel of suspension,” he said.He said officials have not heardfrom the girl’s parents, and nolegal action is anticipatedbecause it was only a violationof school policy.In recent years, Colorado andother states have been movingto relax zero-tolerance disciplinarypolicies blamed for increasingthe dropout rate and givingstudents criminal records forrelatively minor infractions.However, those policies havedealt mostly with safety issues,such as students fighting orbringing a replica gun to school,not sexual harassment.