'Sexual harassment' dropped from boy's record

12/12/2013

CANON CITY, Colo. — Officials at a Colorado school where a 6-year-old boy was suspended for kissing a girl dropped the term “sexual harassment” from the boy’s record, instead calling the behavior misconduct after his parents and the principal met to discuss the issue.

The girl’s mother, Jade Masters-Ownbey, told the Canon City Daily Record (http://bit.ly/1f7z0Vw) on Wednesday that the school district did a great job protecting her daughter from repeated harassment from the boy.

First-grader Hunter Yelton was given a two-day suspension, with a sexual harassment infraction on his discipline record. The boy’s mother, Jennifer Saunders, insisted the punishment was too harsh, and school officials agreed to reconsider.

The incident stems from when the boy kissed a female classmate on the cheek and later kissed the same girl on the hand.

The boy was placed on suspension for the first incident, his mother, Jennifer Saunders, told the Daily Record on Tuesday, and he was placed on a two-day suspension last week for the second infraction.

Both instances were originally categorized as sexual harassment.