Legal Question in Sexual Harassment in California

Re: Ninth grade Son gets accused of sexual harassment by friend

In spite of my criticism of your son for grabbing

the girl's arm (because she was turning away from

him instead of answering his question!), I must say

also that the 'touching' does seem innocuous and the

school may have blown the matter out of proportion,

either because he displays an 'attitude' perhaps, or

more directly because of the supposedly false harassment

claim already made against him. By the way, when someone

retracts a claim that it is entirely believable, you

have to question the retraction; it's possible that he

did exactly whatever she said he did but she decided on

her own not to pursue it (for a variety of good reasons).

Anyway, good luck.

Re: Ninth grade Son gets accused of sexual harassment by friend

1) Never touch someone; if they turn away, let them.

That's a lesson for all children to be taught. Legally

it is a "tort", called battery, an unwanted OR offensive

touching; criminally it is also called battery or sometimes

"assault and battery". Of course, when someone is friendly

with someone else and that someone else isn't concerned,

touching that person's arm is not 'illegal'.

He should have known better than to touch her. And if

he doesn't talk to her either, (or make gestures or

send her notes or whatever) he can avoid charges of

sexual harassment.

I don't think the officer had a charge of sexual harassment,

by the way, just that 'assault' (battery). Usually, by the

way, the latter is a more serious charge anyway, but

in these days of heightened awareness of sexual harassment,

it carries a stigma and can hurt his reputation.

Good luck. He's probably not going to be a good listener

to you, is he? People who feel they can demand answers and

expect to get them (except parents!!) are often not good

listeners and they need to learn or be taught some

humility. Good luck getting the point across to him.

You might want to take steps to clear the record that he

wasn't suspended for sexual harassment and get the word

out to that affect. Get it on record, written, also, that

the girl said she was just kidding around, if you can.

Frankly, though, I doubt it and I suspect she may have

been just trying not to prosecute and make a big deal of

it, for which I don't blame her anyway. But he probably

said something inappropriate and in some way sexually

oriented; find out from him what he said and chew him out

for that ... after all, she's somebody's little girl,

just like he's still your little boy, if a little bit

mischievous.