From zero tolerance to zero judgment

Washington Post:

In his seven years, Randy Castro has been an aspiring soccer player, an accomplished Lego architect and a Royal Ranger at his Pentecostal church. He also, according to his elementary school record, sexually harassed a first-grade classmate.

During recess at his Woodbridge school one day in November, when he was 6, he said, he smacked the classmate's bottom. The girl told the teacher. The teacher took Randy to the principal, who told him such behavior was inappropriate. School officials wrote an incident report calling it "Sexual Touching Against Student, Offensive," which will remain on his student record permanently.

Then, as Randy sat in the principal's office, they called the police.

"I thought they were going to take me to prison," Randy said recently. "I was scared."

Prince William County school officials would not comment on Randy's case, citing student confidentiality. They said the call to police was the result of a misunderstanding.

Randy is only one of many children to be dealt with harshly as schools across the country grapple with enforcing new zero-tolerance sexual harassment policies and the fear of litigation.

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Good grief! Just tell the kid it was inappropriate conduct and not to do it anymore. That is part of the learning process. Treating a kid like a criminal is just sick. And, just what kind of misunderstanding leads someone in school to call the police over an incident like this. I suspect they were just trying to terrorize the kid.

BTW, Woodridge is in northern Virginia just south of Occuquan Creek and north of Quantico where Marine officers are trained. It is beautiful country. During the Civil War the creek was crossed many times by both sides.