Boy sticks out tongue, is suspended
David Crowder
El Paso Times
Do you have any idea of how many stories I read about this type of nonsense?
Santana
Sal Santana II, a 12-year-old Magoffin Middle School student, said he stuck his tongue out at a girl who declined his invitation to be his girlfriend. School district administrators viewed the incident as sexual harassment, suspended him for three days and are considering placing him in an alternative school.
"This is crazy," said Sal's mother, Silvia Santana. "It's a shame that a guy trying to be cute with a girl can get himself into this much trouble. I don't think he even knows what sexual harassment is."
El Paso school district spokesman Luis Villalobos said no one with the district can comment on the case, but he said the events leading to Sal's punishment were witnessed by a teacher at the Northeast El Paso middle school.
"This is a real sensitive issue, but nonetheless one that is covered in the student handbook, which we enforce," Villalobos said. "He's facing the discipline measure that's appropriate for the offense."
The school district has received four other reports of sexual harassment at the middle- and high- school levels this year, two of which were substantiated, Villalobos said.
Last year, four incidents -- two from middle schools -- were reported. Villalobos could not say what disciplinary actions the district took in any of the cases.
Silvia Santana and her husband, Salvador, have a meeting today with the district's director of student services, Gloria Boyer, who has the authority to set aside the planned disciplinary measures in Sal's case.
Salvador Santana said they will appeal to the school board if necessary and will probably sue the district regardless of what happens.
"It's got to be done because God knows how many other kids have been involved in something like this," Salvador Santana said, adding that his son has had no disciplinary problems in school this year.
He said the family received a detailed account of what allegedly occurred during a meeting last week with Magoffin Principal Rose Rios and a district representative.
"The teacher said he stuck his tongue out and moved it back and forth and waved at her like you were patting someone on the back and that that constitutes sexual harassment," Salvador Santana said. "She said the girl was upset and scared."
The district's student code of conduct states that "sexual harassment of a student by another student includes unwanted and unwelcome verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature, whether by word, gesture or any other sexual conduct, including requests for sexual favors."
Sal said he doesn't remember receiving any instruction about sexual harassment in class. But Villalobos said Rios reported that there have been at least two training sessions for students this year.
Psychologist Karen Gold said it is not only important that students receive sexual harassment training in the sixth or seventh grade, but that they understand it, as well.
"There's a question mark: Was the lesson properly taught and learned?" Gold asked. "There's also a question here of the punishment fitting the crime."
She suggested that Sal should have been given an opportunity to apologize to the girl if his behavior was inappropriate.
"Not being able to make amends does not give the child the chance to learn the appropriate behavior," Gold said. "The school should be a training ground, not an arena for punishment. Teachers are there to teach, and kids are there to learn."
Sandra Lloyd, chairwoman of educational psychology at UTEP, said schools need to be sensitive to young students and careful in judging their actions.
"That's particularly true at that age when boys and girls are just beginning to get interested in each other," Lloyd said.
But, she said, "I have heard of some terrible examples of harassment at this age level, though this doesn't seem to sound like one.
"Sometimes the punishment may seem extreme, but on the other hand, if we don't have some kind of policy in place for this, then that is also a problem."
Some parents of seventh-graders at Magoffin Middle School were surprised to hear last week that a student was being disciplined for alleged sexual harassment.
"That's something new to me. I never heard of it," Eduardo Marquez said. "It's ridiculous to do that to a little boy. If he touched her or looked up her dress, that would be different."
Marquez said he knows from his son that there is a lot of pressure to have a girlfriend or boyfriend at the school.
"It's stupid," Mercedes Nolan said of Sal's punishment while waiting for her seventh-grade daughter. "But at 12, kids have no business going out on dates or anything. They should be studying."
Sexual harassment cases at high schools and middle schools in the area's three largest school districts:
* El Paso: Five cases reported this year and four last year. No information was available about the disposition of the cases.
* Ysleta: Information unavailable because the district has no specific category for sexual harassment complaints.
* Socorro: Two students placed in alternative school this year. No cases of students suspended or sent to an alternative school last year.
borderlandnews.com |
