"Longstanding consequences for the alleged victims"? What nonsense! Unless the boys slapped the girls' faces with their penises, I seriously doubt any horseplay in middle school can ever lead to a permanent scar on anyone's psyche. Let's all get some perspective here. Let me tell you what long term consequences are: being put on a sex offender registry for life for a teenage misbehaviour. This is not rape, this is not a brutal, violent sexual attack. If this happened to my son I would have no qualms about destroying the life of that idiot prosecutor.

I previously reported about a 4 year old who was suspended for "sexual harassment" after the boy hugged a teacher's aide, read Young Children cannot be sexual predators. What kind of sick pervert thinks young children should be charged with sexual harassment for hugging? What we need in this country is for our young children to hug each other more, otherwise they will have no outlet for their emotions other than coming to school one day with a gun and blasting everyone in sight, which now I am beginning to understand more and more each passing day.

By the way, hugging is perhaps one of the only acts that unite us with the animal kingdom. Cats do not write letters to each other, nor do dogs make phone calls to their loved ones. But they do hug.

I fear that we are turning our students into unfeeling zombies. They can't hold hands, they can't flirt, they can't kiss, they can't hug. Then they eventually finish school and go into the workplace where they can't meet anyone of the opposite sex for fear of sexual harassment. That so many young men turn eventually into sex abusers is no surprise to me.

And oh yeah, bring back dodge ball to gym classes; our boys are being brought up as sexless pussies. No wonder half the country is filled with defeatist cowards.

Related:

AOL News,
25 Jul 2007,
Boys Face Trial Over Slapping Charges

The arrests, critics said, reflect a trend toward criminalizing adolescent sexual behavior. Between 1998 and 2002, juvenile arrests for sex offenses other than rape or prostitution rose 9 percent -- the only kind of juvenile arrests that rose during that time, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

"More and more, they are criminalizing normal adolescent or preadolescent behavior," said Chuck Aron, co-chairman of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers juvenile justice committee.

There is a happy ending though: Thirteen-year-olds Cory Mashburn, center, and Ryan Cornelison talk with their defense attorney in court just before their case was dismissed in McMinnville, Ore. The controversial case lasted for six months.

The News-Register newspaper of McMinnville reported that a "civil compromise” reached by prosecutors and the defense called for both boys to apologize, to pay each of the four girls $250 and to complete a "boundaries education” program.

Here's a video interview of the two boys: click here.

---

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Perri Nelson's Website, DeMediacratic Nation, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, Webloggin, Leaning Straight Up, The Amboy Times, Conservative Cat, and The Yankee Sailor

[Click on image(s) for larger view]

---

For more of my articles like this see Politics, -Politically Correct

---