10-year-old student may face battery charge after hugging school counselor
A 10-year-old boy was suspended from his Florida elementary school and faces a charge of misdemeanor battery after he was accused of inappropriately touching a school counselor during a hug, an allegation his family denies.
The counselor at Holly Hill School in Volusia County alleged that she was visiting a classroom on Oct. 24 to discuss something when the fourth-grader approached her for a hug, according to a police report and a copy of his suspension letter provided by attorneys for the boy’s family. She said she “turned sideways to give a side hug,” the letter says, and the child put one arm around her shoulder and with the other hand “reached and grabbed her left breast.” The counselor said she removed his hand and he walked away, the letter says.
The child’s family disputes the counselor’s version of events. Attorney Rawsi Williams said the boy says it was the counselor who initiated the hug. “All he did was go up to hug her. It was nothing more than that for him. He then went back to his desk, talked with his other football playmates,” she said.“The next thing he knew, the teacher calls him up and accuses him of having groped this lady. [The child] denied it, but even with him denying it, they still suspended him. They still called the police on him. The [counselor] still told the police that she wanted to pursue criminal battery charges against this 10-year-old kid.”
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Wouldn’t the Registry only come into play if the case was waived into adult court?
Unfortunately if this does go to court and lands on the bench of a judge with common sense and would see it for exactly what it is his hands have been tied by the legislature who think they know better than the judge who has the person right in front of him
Very good point. More and more bills are being submitted and signed into law that strip judges of every last shred of discretion. Case on point: There is a bill working its way through the legislature in TN that if signed into law will not allow any charge of aggravated rape of a child (molestation of any child 8 years of age and under) to be pled down to a lesser charge if there is eyewitness testimony to the event.
In TN the penalty of aggravated rape of a child (which prior to 2019 was reserved for the sexual abuse of children 3 years of age and under) is mandatory life without the possibility of parole.
Another provision over which judges lack discretion is sex offender registration.
instead of filing charges on a child need to stop employing incompetent school staff. typical of the new american propaganda and indoctrination system
The race angle was completely unnecessary to add t the idiocy of this story. This woman shouldn’t be in education if she reacts like this to a simple hug and what was likely an accidental brush. Even if deliberate, there are any of a number of better ways to handle it than to call LE and press charges.
I hope she finds another profession. She clearly doesn’t have the temperament to work with young children.
Dustin
When I was around 11 years old, I lived in Charleston South Carolina (That was where my Dad was stationed in the military at the time).
The school I went to back in the early 70s was really rough and they at the time were allowed to use paddling as punishment. (They still might)
You got a choice of 3 licks with the paddle or 3 days suspension. They did not need your parent’s permission. Most of us took the paddling because parents were not notified so they did not know you got in trouble. Unless of course you took the suspensions.
I got jumped by a boy way bigger than me but instead of realizing I got jumped, we both got the paddle for fighting. There was no fight, I got my attacked twice. One by a bully student, then by a bully teach/coach. And no this was not a ping pong paddle. These were full sized oak cutting boards with holes drilled in them. I had to stay home for 5 days anyway because after that I could not walk.
The lesson I learned was trust no one, do not talk to anyone and stay to myself. And my point of this was, we have gone to spanking kids to sending them to jail? I would take the paddle anytime over that.
That is the problem with this country. The government wants to dictate how we discipline our children, saying spankings are abuse. I strongly disagree. There is nothing wrong with spanking a child so long as you don’t cross the line into abuse. My daughter has had plenty of spankings. Never left bruises of course, but they served the purpose, and she knows better than to try to report us to the police.
I don’t know where the verse is, but even the Bible says “Spare the rod and spoil the child”.
I think most of these kids that are out running the streets and being disobedient to their parents would wise up very quickly if the parents would start meting out spankings.
So very well-said, Disgusted in Michigan. Kids have no fear of being physically and verbally abusive to teachers in this day and age. They know they cannot be effectively punished and they smear it in the face of every authority figure who should by right be able to “wear their butts out” whenever and wherever they behave in a disrespectful, insolent, or dangerous manner.
You sound like one of my generation. I’m 53 (will be 54 in March). I remember the days when a kid throwing a tantrum in the store over being told no would get his or her butt spanked right there in the aisle in front of God and everybody. Or worse yet, do you remember this? Dad firmly grabs your arm and tersely pulls you close and whispers in your ear, “Wait till I get you home!” In that bye-gone era, the kid KNEW his butt was going to get “beat” when he got home. The anticipation of the expected spanking was sheer torture. The kid may have had to wait from morning until evening to get back home and receive the punishment “Wait till I get you home!” stands for.
WC_TN
When I was a boy in Charleston, South Carolina, you were allowed to be paddled in school with cutting boards without a parent’s consent. You got 3 licks (Whacks) with the paddle and sent back to class, or the other option was 3 days suspension with a letter sent home to the parent(s).
Most of us took the paddlings because at least at my house, if I got suspended, once my dad read that letter, I got beaten anyway. Didn’t matter if it wasn’t my fault, he didn’t want to hear it. So, we took the school’s beatings because that was not reported to the parent. We just had to come up with an excuse as to why we were suddenly walking funny.
Also, back in the days of our parents and grandparents, in rural U.S.A. everyone knew each other in these little rural tight-knit communities. If you acted ugly and a neighbor caught it, they would tan your hide and then call your Mom and Dad and tell them they whipped you and why. If it was bad enough, the neighbor might whip your butt and then grab you by the arm and firmly march you home to your parents and report you in person. THEN you REALLY GOT IT GOOD. Back in our parents’ and grandparents’ day, embarrassing your parents with bad behavior in public was something that was not tolerated to the least bit. This same thing held true for the school staff and teaching faculty. They knew your Mom and Dad by name and face. Word travels quickly. Get my drift? If you acted a fool at school and got sent to the office, parents found out through the grapevine quickly and you had some explaining to do when you got home. Some kids lived under the promise that if they got paddled at school, they got another whipping when they got home. Back then, parents didn’t dare tolerate their kids misbehaving in school. Back then when the new school year started, parents mostly told teachers “If he acts up, you don’t have to call me. Take him to the office and paddle him.” Tell me when I’m lying.
This thread went from “… there are any of a number of better ways to handle it than to call LE and press charges” to condoning physically beating children. Really guys??? Physical abuse is just that, it’s physical abuse and by condoning it you present the real chance how some of us later on used anger to commit our sex crime. I did. Anger and jealousy motivated me to commit a “sex” crime against my own child. There was no sex assault, there was no rape, there was no sex motivation… it was all anger and jealousy. Please stop it with thinking physical beatings on a child is OK. It wasn’t OK when we grew up and it’s not OK now.
A grown-up counselor who feels groped by a pre-pubescent child, tries to get that child arrested for it.
You’d have to be pretty bad at your child counseling job to do something like this.
Sounds to me the counselor might be the at fault , think about it this way why would this boy initiate the hug ? If as he says the counselor initiated it as he comes up she turns sideways and he was not expecting her to do so that would end up with his hand in the area of her breast hmm sounds like a counselor trying to get attention to me. But as well know SHE says he initiated the hug and in flaw I duh if its he said she said then she wins