A couple of weeks back, I wrote about the grand jury indictment of Jerry Sandusky and in particular the sad husk of a man, 28 years old, who watched Sandusky sodomize a ten-year-old boy in the showers and then went home to consult with his dad about the proper procedure for reporting any potential concerns he might have about child rape. And I concluded:
A land of hyper-legalisms is not the same as a land of law… When people get used to complying with micro-regulation, it’s but a small step to confusing regulatory compliance with the right thing to do — and then arguing that, in the absence of regulatory guidelines, there is no “right thing to do.”
Among much of America’s hideous educrat monopoly, the Golden Rule is that regulatory compliance is always the right thing to do, no matter how stupid and wicked it is. This news item — “First Grader Accused Of Sexual Harassmen” — came to my attention with the important qualifier “if we are to take this Boston Globe story at face value.” But, if the facts are as the Globe reported them, then a seven-year-old boy is about to have his life destroyed for kicking a schoolmate in the groin — as boys have done to each other throughout human history. One can understand that a school board might wish to discourage such activity, but not that it is so irredeemably, obtusely perverse as to categorize such an act as “sexual harassment.” The response of the official school board spokesmoron, one Matthew Wilder, is not encouraging:
“Any kind of inappropriate touching would fall under that category,’’ Wilder said. “The school administration is conducting a full investigation that has not concluded yet.’’
The mother said she spoke with the principal, Leslie Gant, who supposedly told her:
It doesn’t matter who hit who first… He said he hit him in the testicles. That’s assault. That’s sexual assault.
There may be “another side” to this story, but it’s hard to foresee any version of events in which a first grader can plausibly be guilty of “sexual assault.” Nevertheless, if found guilty, Mark Curran when he turns 18 will be placed on a “sex offender registry,” and his life will be ruined. If officials of the Boston public-schools system genuinely believe that when a seven-year-old kicks another seven-year-old in the crotch that that is an act of “sexual harassment,” then they are too stupid to be entrusted with the care of the city’s children. If, on the other hand, they retain enough residual humanity to understand that a seven-year-old groin-kick is not a sexual assault but have concluded that regulatory compliance obliges them to investigate it as such, then they are colluding in an act of great evil.
Sometimes societies become too stupid to survive. If you’re wondering how a candidate’s presidential campaign can be derailed by allegations of “gestures” of “a non-sexual nature” that made women “uncomfortable” two decades ago rather than by his total ignorance of foreign policy and national security, well, this stuff starts in kindergarten. The loss of proportion and of basic human judgment in the American education system ought to be an unnerving indicator.
Roshambo
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAny parent who sends a child to a public school in Massachusetts (or in any other insane liberal polity) should be summarily charged with child endangerment. In my book, mommy and daddy are to blame, as they knew the risks associated with exposure to the satanically decadent public school bureaucracy. If you can't afford a decent private school, home school is the only rational alternative.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMark, this is one big reason to teach your own kids. However, what is the mainstream counter movement to this madness? Is this schools position really the mainstream?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOnce again you hit the nail right on the head Mark. The sad thing is that virtually everything you say would have been considered so obvious as not to merit mention just 20 years ago. Keep fighting the good fight sir, but I agree that it is possible Western Civilization is getting to a point where too many of us are too stupid to deserve to live. This might not bother me (I very much believe in people and nations getting what they deserve - here on Earth at least) except for the repugnant idea that the West may be supplanted by the scourges of Chinese Communism and Islamist Fascism.
Haven't we defeated Fascism and Communism already? How often do we need to repeat this cycle?!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhy does it seem that so many of those in charge of administrating our education system apparently lack the ability to think. That's what zero tolerance is all about. Instead of looking at a situation and considering the circumstances, common sense, or anything else, they simply consider the "input" and produce an automatic "output". Vouchers please.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt is not that they lack the ability to think, it is that they are too scared to think. Zero Tolerance is nothing more than cover your a** against lawsuits
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseVouchers will not help here. The problem is legalism. The best legal defense is to color by the numbers within the proscribed lines of the laws, regulations and lawyer approved procedures. If there is a bad outcome they can say: "Here is the law, its regulations, and the lawyer approved procedure. We followed them to the 'T'; how can we be liable?" However, to use judgement is to color outside of the lines or is the use a different color. If something goes wrong the plaintiff's attorney says to court: "Here is the law, its regulations, and the lawyer approved procedure. They failed to followed them to the 'T'; how can they not be held liable?" Under such a morally vacuous legal system eventually everyone must lawyer up, and every smart lawyer will tell her client:"Let me draw up procedures for you to follow to the 'T'."
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIf you think this is confined, or even exemplified, by bureaucrats in education, then you haven't been paying attention.
Bill Clinton has recently being singing the praises of strong government. Funny how for folks on his side of the political divide government always needs a little more strength before utopia can be birthed - and childhood stomped under the jackboot of Orwell's nightmare toward the goal of perfecting humankind.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWe have to have rigid systems *because* they lack the ability to think. That's the whole point. Give them some leeway and 5 years down the road everyone in this thread will be demanding rigid rules that don't depend on the judgment of the lazy, stupid communists running our schools.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseBut what to do about the fact that the rigid rules are being dreamed up by the lazy, stupid communists running our schools?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThat, of course, is the precise problem. We let them take over our educational system and they've made it into exactly the sort of mess they always promised to make it into.
This began as part of a plan to do America in from within. Now it's morphed into something that they actually believe in.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI'm reading After America now and stuff like this makes me wonder why I even bother to care about anything instead of just tuning out and drinking myself to death? We have become such a therapeutic society that repealing these idiotic advancements in touchy-feely nonsense horrifies people. "If we don't make rules against junk-kicking little boys, then what's to prevent little girls from being raped? We can't allow a single preventable victim to occur, so steps must be taken." Unless the victim is being sodomized by a coach at a Real Important Football Program, that is.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWow I am tired of hearing this said, like Penn State was OSU or USC.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseRemember when "racist" meant something horrible, before anything and everything became "racist"?
Pretty soon "sex offender" will mean absolutely nothing - because ignorant, lazy people are allowed to misuse nuclear weapons without penalty.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhen "offenses" like this are jammed into the category of "sexual abuse" the term goes even further down the road to meaninglessness.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe choking thief student needs to be suspended. The bus driver needs to be terminated. And the whole district needs some common sense.... oh wait, this is Boston. Right.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhy do you people keep sending your kids off to this government-facilitated depravity and neglect?
Even if your school is one of "the good ones", you're still supporting the system -- your participation enables the system to continue to destroy the lives of millions of American children.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt's not a great thing being kicked in the crotch, but as mentioned here, when I was growing up it was a common thing to do and to have done in return. Kind of what boys did.
Not only is the public education system in this country indoctrinating our children with leftist clap trap but they are working to insure that whatever it means to be a boy is eradicated.
You have to wonder when the inevitable wars with the heavily populated Muslim nations come how our young men will fair against their young men. This will not be just East meets West but liberal secular ideology against hard core aggressive religious fanaticism by people who don't give a jump how politically correct or how sensitive one is.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbusePerhaps even more outrageous, is this story about a nine-year-old boy suspended for telling another student that a teacher was "cute":
External Link
I remember back in late 1960s, when I was in third grade at a Catholic school, we had a slender, attractive "lay" teacher, probably in her early to mid-twenties, who liked to wear fairly tight sweaters. I remember that sometimes we boys in the class would show our appreciation of her by, when saying the Pledge of Allegiance, hold our right hand about three inches from our chests.
I also remember some girls in the class chasing "cute" boys at recess, so they could give them a kiss on the cheek.
Lucky for us, that was a more innocent time, when little boys could be little boys, and little girls could be little girls.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseRegarding Mark's aside about Herman Cain, it's hard to top the headline The Onion is running: "Rumors Of Extramarital Affair End Campaign Of Presidential Candidate Who Didn't Know China Has Nuclear Weapons."
We are doomed. Doomed.
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