QUESTION

Can I sue the school district for accusing my 6 years old son of sexual harassing

Asked on May 10th, 2020 on Sexual Harassment - California
More details to this question:
My son was in first grade when he was 6 years old. The incident was at lunch time, when the kids were sitting on the bench and having lunch, my son tried to catch/snap/slap the bee and ended it up touching the boy crotch when he saw the bee was flying and landing on the boy crotch whom sitting next to him. The boy reported to the teacher and when the teacher investigated and questioned my son, that is how he told the teacher: "He tried to catch the bee which landed on the boy crotch whom sitting next to him" and the teacher said to my wife "She doesn't think so, she doesn't think how that happened and think he touched the boy on purpose" And without the official meeting, the sexual harassment was posted on his school record web site which we did not find out months or year later. My son now in middle school and he is 12 years old now Can I sue the school for accusing the 6 years old boy of sexual harassing the other boy? At what age sexual harassment can be applied?
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1 ANSWER

Personal Injury Attorney serving Laguna Hills, CA at Law Offices of Foroozandeh, APC
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Good afternoon, First and foremost, there is only one correct statement that the shool has made and that is "the touching was intentional".  Of course it was, since your son was trying to help his friend, it intended to swat the bee.  That does not mean that your son intended to touch his friend sexually.  Intent to bring about sexual conduct differs from intent to swat the bee, same intent but two different reasons.  "Acquiring an understanding of intention is an important development for children for at least four reasons (cf. Flavell, Miller, & Miller, 1993). First, it helps them understand how people and other animates differ from objects. Unlike the case with objects, much of the behavior of persons is caused by their intentions. Many of their actions are voluntary and willed, generated and impelled by their intentions. Second, an understanding of intentions is necessary for understanding morality and responsibility (Shantz, 1983). Children must learn that people merit praise or blame in good part as a function of whether what they did was intentional or unintentional. Third, some understanding of intention would appear necessary for an understanding of plans and planning, because plans consist of intentions (Bratman, 1987); such understanding may also help children formulate and carry out plans.  Finally, learning about intentions and how they are causally related to other mental states and to behavior is a significant part of their general theory-of-mind development, an area of cognitive development that is currently of great interest to developmental psychologists, philosophers of mind, and others; for reviews of work in this area, see, for example, Astington (1993), Flavell and Miller (1998), Lewis and Mitchell (1994), Moses and Chandler (1992), Perner (1991), Wellman (1990), and Wellman and Gelman (1992). The purpose of the studies reported in this article was to find out when children begin to acquire this understanding."  [Young Children's Understanding of Intention, Cognative Development, 14, 463-489 (1999) ISSN 0885-2014, 1999 Elsevier Sicence Inc. It would be at best very difficult for the School District to substantiate Intent on the part of your 6 year old son.  I am wondering if you were ever contacted by the district, interviewed by any of the school personel, or perhaps a school police officer.  Never-the-less, you should strive to remove the reference to the incident from his file sooner than later and do not want to have this in his educational records.  they may be resolved by a letter from your attorney, or may take a bit of work, but should be done. I hope this was helpful to you.
Answered on May 12th, 2020 at 4:01 PM

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