When a nine-year-old boy from Florida wrote a "love note" to his crush, gushing about "how she wears the same uniform and how her eyes sparkled like diamonds," little did he know that it would be blown out of proportion and he would be threatened by school authorities with sexual harassment charges.
Even his mother could not believe things escalated to that level. "He's nine," his mother told ABC Action News. "What little kid doesn't write love notes?"
The boy's mother said her son only pass a sweet note to his crush, but when their other classmates found out about it, they began teasing her son about wanting to see his crush naked.
"That's when the principal proceeded to tell me that it wasn't appropriate that he was writing the note and that if he writes another note, they are going to file sexual harassment charges on my nine-year-old," she said. "My nine-year-old doesn't even know what sexual harassment means."
The Hillsborough school district said the situation did not involve authorities, but the young boy has already written more than one note and it was always unwanted, so it already borders on harassment. The real problem, school officials said, is not really the notes but the teasing and disruptions they have caused.
"It may be something he thought was very sweet and innocent," observed Dr. Valerie McClain, a licensed psychologist in Tampa. She does not believe the act constitutes sexual harassment, but she encourages the boy's mother to teach her son about boundaries, particularly in a school setting.
"What needs to happen is education needs to be provided about how to relate to this young girl or how to stay away from talking to her, if that's the goal," McClain said.
Spokesperson Tanya Arja has already advise teachers to be on the lookout for kids passing notes in class because it inevitably causes disruptions such as this.
