Are We Really Talking About Branding a 4-Year-Old a Sex Offender?
A disturbing story out of Osceola County raising questions about just how far society is willing to go in response to allegations involving children and sexual abuse. According to reports, parents whose young daughter was allegedly abused by a classmate at a private school are suing the school and pushing for measures that would ensure the accused child’s history follows him if he transfers to another school.
The parents claim their 4-year-old daughter was abused on school grounds by a 4-year-old classmate. The classmate has since been moved to another school. They argue that schools should be required to share information about the incident so that future schools and parents are aware of it.
Every parent understands the instinct to protect children. No one wants to unknowingly place their child into a dangerous environment. But are we now talking about labeling a four-year-old child a sex offender?
At four years old, children are barely out of toddlerhood. They don’t understand boundaries, impulse control, empathy, and even basic concepts of appropriate behavior. It’s not uncommon for young children to do inappropriate things out of curiosity. It’s so common that the phrase “playing doctor” was coined to describe it.
Yet increasingly, society seems eager to apply permanent labels earlier and earlier to the point where people are seriously entertaining the idea that a preschool-aged child should carry a warning label from school to school.
There’s no question that inappropriate behavior needs to be dealt with, but is creating a registry-like framework for preschoolers the right way to deal with this?
Florida has spent years expanding registration laws and public notification systems in the name of “public safety”. FAC has consistently warned that once society accepts the idea that labels are more important than rehabilitation, the line will continue to move. Today, that line appears to be moving toward preschoolers.
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How does a four year old deserve this? The logic confuses me that a four year old knew what he was doing but the other four year old didn’t? It doesn’t make sense.
4 years old is a toddler. What do people that age know the difference between right and wrong? No child that young really cannot fathom that they did something bad. Now this is going to scar both children, one as a so-called victim, the other not knowing why they are being punished. Both lose in this situation.
I do not even remember being four years old. Kids are going to be kids, even if it is something wrong. Raise your hand if when you were a kid you never did something wrong. There are consequences, but something is off about this situation.
If behavior is a problem, fix the behavior. Get the kid therapy. But to ostracize a 4 year old is over the line by a mile.
WOW!! I have no words. Once again the fear mongers are up in arms. This is not a reason to expand anything. Why not start with helping this little guy out first as a preventative measure rather than placing the family in a situation that further isolates and frustrates them. In this case help and support is needed.
Florida is getting ridiculous with this registration stuff. They are abusing thd system put in place to protect kids yet they are doing this kind of thing. The entire registry needs evaluated and have people in there that actually hurt the ones were trying to protect then they make it almost impossible for anyone on the registry to survive because can’t get a job cant find places to rent because your turned down over the charges. This is going to mess that 4 year old up for life along with his parents life and thats not right. Its a shame what this has turned into now.
An internal school to school system, not publicly posted for the whole world to see, might actually be the help that kid needs before he commits a real crime as an adult.
Ruining his permanent school record is the concerning part, but an internal system paired with REAL intervention might be a good thing.
“might actually be the help that kid needs before he commits a real crime as an adult.”
So kids playing Doctor & Nurse will now be branded? for christ sake this kid is 4 years old doesn’t even know what is going on and in 20 – 30 years will most likely never remember any of this most likely even sooner! and depending on what happened find out investigate where the kid learned this behavior. parents allowing the child to consistently watch tv geared towards older teens / adults if so arrest the parents for not being parents