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Thursday, December 12, 2013

Kissing 'Girlfriend's' Hand Gets 6-Year-Old Colorado Boy Suspension and 'Sexual Harassment Label

This is for the good grief file.

6 year-old Hunter Yelton is a cute young kid from Colorado who has a little girlfriend. As young lads are wont to do, he gave his little girlfriend an innocent kiss on her hand at school one day. It seems some fellow young 'uns tattled to the music teacher at a Cañon City school and Hunter landed a two day suspension for 'sexual harrassment'. That's right, sexual harassment!  The school planned on keeping that label on his school record- forever- but have since dropped the sexual harassment angle to 'misconduct', but still.  The little girl likes Hunter, so why would this qualify as sexual harassment? And a kiss on the hand?  Yes, he kissed her on the cheek on another occasion, but so what.

Hunter explains what happened:

"It was during class, yeah. We were doing reading group and I leaned over and kissed her on the hand. That's what happened."
Now the boy thinks he's done something wrong, and that a kiss on the hand is something terrible:

"They sent me to the office, fair and square. I did something wrong and I feel sorry."
Where are they, Saudi Arabia?

Hunter's mama, Jennifer Saunders, was furious that her son was labeled a sexual harasser, and that he's now questioning her about sex when those kinds of things should be far from his mind at that age.

"This is taking it to an extreme that doesn't need to be met with a 6-year-old. Now my son is asking questions -- 'what is sex, Mommy?' That should not ever be said, sex. Not in a sentence with a 6-year-old."
If he groped her in inappropriate places, or if she told him to stop and he didn't, sure, go ahead and punish the kid, but that wasn't the case.

What is happening to this country?!

According to this psychologist kissing is normal behaviour for kids that age, and that the suspension could have a negative impact on the child.

You can read more on Hunter, with video footage of the cutie here.

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