that because some jerk of a mom demanded a girl be arrested -- for, at 12, pinching her son's butt -- the school and cops complied

Ordinarily, I would agree with you on this. BUT...this foolishness will continue until women/girls feel the burden. This is classic punch back twice as hard.

Besides, 6 weeks from now the girl could have claimed he was the malefactor and demanded official retribution.

Unlike that poor sod from UMass-Amherst who was sexually assaulted by a woman when he was blind drunk and she gave him a hummer. The poor sod who was expelled because he was judged to be in the wrong.

Shoe. Foot. Other. Some assembly required.

I was reminded of this today: if you really want a bad law/precedent overturned, you must enforce it on all with as much zeal as you can possibly muster.

When all feel the pain and see the stupidity that caused that pain, the stupidity will stop much more quickly than if the mechanism is used to punish only the unfavored class(es).

Don't see a way around assholes being assholes.

Hope teachers use this as a 'teaching moment' on several levels.

Yes, the magnitude of punishment is ridiculous. The problem is, as I R A Darth Aggie implies, is the fact that it wouldn't seem so ridiculous if the roles were reversed.

Third wave feminists would want this guy's head on a pikestaff. (And most of them probably still do, since obviously he must be at fault in some way if she pinched him.)

I will wager good cash money American that the boy is being raised by his mother only.

Poor kid - he will forever be known as 'that little punk whose mommy called the cops because he got his butt pinched'. The therapy bills alone will be awesome. Can't she see what effect her actions will have on her kid? I guess she can't.

Although the process and suggested punishment is wildly, insanely disproportionate, and the prosecutor who allowed this to go forward, along with the school administrators who let it get that far, need their heads examined. However, there is a really good lesson here for the hundreds of students to know about this first-hand, namely, that 'equality' is a two-edged sword and that the state and its minions are a) stupid and b) very-likely to screw up your life, given half a chance. If it makes them despise their temporary jailers, that's a good thing.

llater,

llamas

"...cash money..."

Redundant.

" . . good cash money . . ."

It's a quote. From 'True Grit'. The real one.

llater,

llamas

Let me paint an alternative universe.

Girl pinches boy. Boy pinches back. They have fun. Boy grows tired of girl, stops pinching back. Girl gets angry at boy, accuses him of holding her down and pinching her. Starts carrying a mattress at school to bring attention to her plight, as well as the school's lack of discipline.

Girl gets invited to White House for a summit on the War on Women. Boy is eventually cleared of the charges, but the Internet remembers all, his reputation is trashed and he is forced to change his name and move to another state.

Sounds ludicrous, right? like it should be a plot for a short story from a dystopian reality?

I prefer good hard yankee dollars, myself.

Tho I hear this "bitcoin" is a thing. Since we're quoting movies, fuck me gently with a chainsaw.

I'm a gal. When I was in 6th grade,I was at my locker getting books when a boy pinched my posterior.

I was really upset and went to the Principal. The thing that upset me was, without growing eyes in the back of my head, I felt vulnerable by going to my locker after that.

The boy, I believe, got a stern talking-to.

I felt better, but not 100%. I wanted his head on a plate (at the time), but knew it wasn't reasonable.

But he also didn't do it again.

I learned that you can't rely upon people being good/nice and paying attention to one's surroundings is really important.

So while it still gives me that crawly feeling in the back of my neck (did I mention how unsavory this guy was?), I actually think it ended up being a net positive. I got to practice standing up for myself and learned a tiny bit about life.

Shannon:

So while it still gives me that crawly feeling in the back of my neck (did I mention how unsavory this guy was?), I actually think it ended up being a net positive. I got to practice standing up for myself and learned a tiny bit about life.

And of equal importance, this young man hopefully learned a valuable lesson about keeping his hands to himself. Had you not asserted yourself, Shannon, this creepy individual would undoubtedly go on to do it again to someone else, making his habit that much more intractable.

A couple weeks ago some woman tried to have my 3-year-old arrested for assault for something that happened at preschool. Her son was restraining mine and pulling his hair so my son pushed him and the kid fell down the slide. No injuries. The mother insists her son is "special needs" and can't understand or control his behavior so it's not his fault that he's been bullying my kid (and a couple others) since he started there. Yeah, okay, whatever lady. I'm still shocked that she thought she could have a 3-year-old arrested. To his credit, the cop that showed up laughed at her and told her she was out of her effing mind.

Interesting, BunnyGirl. So, if you're assaulted by a "special needs" (a problem that seems to be epidemic these days) child, you no longer have the option of defending yourself. So, you're only recourse is to run away, or, if that's not possible, you must simply endure. But defending yourself gets you charged with "assault."

So, if I get attacked by a severely mentally retarded adult, my only recourse, if I can't run away, is simply to allow myself to be hurt.

By the way, this "special needs" child's mother doesn't seem to know what assault is. Pushing someone down a slide is battery not assault. Assault is the threat of violence; battery is any contact with a person or the person's effects that a reasonable person would consider offensive.

A couple weeks ago some woman tried to have my 3-year-old arrested for assault for something that happened at preschool.

UNBELIEVABLE! 3-year-old in jail?

If her "special needs" child is unable to understand or control his behavior, perhaps he needs some help before he's mainstreamed.

Thank goodness the cop laughed.

As we see from this story, not all do.

Amy Alkon: If her "special needs" child is unable to understand or control his behavior, perhaps he needs some help before he's mainstreamed.

And it seems, based on his mother's judgment, that he inherited his "special needs" from her.

I'm generally on the same page as everyone here, but it's important to remember that 2 or more people can hold defensible, but diverging, viewpoints. Sometime's shit's gonna happen, best just to be prepared.

Case in point: a few years ago that kid in Australia snapped and beat the crap out of the much smaller kid who had been tormenting him. IMHO, the smaller kid deserved to get his ass kicked. Problem was, the kid who snapped was much bigger, was characterized as a "good kid" and was extremely lucky that he didn't seriously injure or kill the punk. What he did might have brought him and a whole bunch of us some warm fuzzies, but that wouldn't matter a bit if he wound up with a criminal conviction.

Typo: We were supposed to sweep up and she wasn't sleeping.