Like Ebonics? As i-if?

[David Casseres]

I wrote

>>Yup, another case of the media's wretched slide into Limbaughism, just 
>>like the highly falsified story of The Little Boy Who Got Suspended For 
>>Sexual Harrassment By Politically Correct Liberal School Teachers After 
>>He Kissed A Little Girl.

Ken Jones replies

>As someone who abhors Limbaugh (just as nature abhors the vacuous) and holds
>a healthy skepticism toward journalism (Steely's excepted), I have no idea
>how the media highly falsified this story. The little boy was suspended for
>more than an attempted peck on the cheek? Perhaps he fondled the little girl
>while Michael Irvin held a gun to her head? Or was he suspended for sexual
>harassment by politically correct conservative school teachers? Enquiring
>minds want to know.

In actuality, there were two different incidents in two different places, 
separated by a few days.  In the first incident, a 6-year-old boy kissed 
a little girl after she had told him not to.  The school authorities 
called this "unwanted touching" (accurately enough), and since there is 
an explicit rule against that the little boy was disciplined by being 
sent to another room for an hour, which meant that he missed an ice-cream 
party.

In the second incident, a completely different little boy pawed and 
grappled with a little girl, violently enough to tear her dress.  It was 
the latest of several similar offenses by the same boy, and the school 
authorities had talked to his parents about it with no improvement in his 
behavior.  In this case they finally called it "sexual harrassment" and 
the boy was suspended for (I think) a few days.

The geniuses of the media turned these two stories into "A little 
6-year-old boy kissed a little girl and got suspended from school for 
sexual harrassment," leading to many a fatuous tirade against "Political 
Correctness," liberalism, etc.  My source is a column by Ellen Goodman of 
the Boston Globe, who asked "How old does the girl have to be before no 
means no?"


Cheers,
David