9-Year-Old Student Suspended for Saying Teacher Is ‘Cute’

December 5th, 2011 - By Brande Victorian

Brookside Elementary in Gastonia, NC, has really stretched the meaning of sexual harassment with its two-day suspension of 9-year-old Emanyea Lockett. A substitute teacher heard the boy tell another student that a teacher was cute and when she told school officials they inflicted the suspension.

The boy’s mother, Chiquita Lockett (get past the name), told WSOCTV she doesn’t agree with the punishment. “It’s not like he went up to the woman and tried to grab her or touch her in a sexual way, so why would he be suspended for two days,” she said.

Suspension of any kind seems extremely unfair for a comment that was not said directly to the teacher and not overheard by the teacher to whom the comment pertained. A district spokeswoman said she could not go into detail about the case, but said Emanyea was suspended for “inappropriate behavior” after making “inappropriate statements.”

The district’s Code of Conduct doesn’t list “inappropriate behavior,” though. The closest behavior would be “disruption of school,” punishable by five days of out-of-school suspension, but I would hardly qualify the boy’s comment as  that.

Should Emanyea’s comment be considered sexual harassment? Do you think his punishment fit the act or should disciplinary action have been taken at all?

 

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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  • Rudolfcromartie

    For a teacher to tell on a child that made a positive statement about another teacher,and seek to get
    that child in trouble is not only mind blowing,our tax dollars are paying this tattle tale. The teacher should be fired. And as for the principle that punished the child, lets just say he ,she or it (which ever
    applies) should probably see an Exorcist, because the Devil surely had to make him do it.

  • Love_Sexy

    This is silly…I can remember as a child saying the same thing about some of my teachers….The comment was harmless and had he said it in a more derogatory way ( adding profanity, slang etc…) I think it would need to be address…..Suspension is too harsh…How about just sitting the child down and talking to him explaining why it was not appropriate (which again I see no harm)………There are other important issues going on in the American school system that need to be address…..Our society is so messed up its really pitful.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_AE332VZJBOER5P22LIDGAQYCWE Bella

    This is crazy. When i was that age, kids had crushes on their teachers all the time! Calling a teacher cute is not the same as saying she’s ‘a hot piece of a$$’ or anything. This school is sending the wrong message.

  • FEDUPAMERICAN

    How many YOUNG boys fall in love with their teachers while in grade school…TONS! My 5 yr old grandson tells his teacher how beautiful she is and how much he loves her…IS HE TO BE LABELED TOO -ABSOLUTELY OUT OF CONTROL RIDICULOUS!!  Taking our COUNTRY BACK…PARENTS SHOULD BE Picketing this school…and SHOWING UP IN DROVES [100's] at the NEXT SCHOOL BOARD MEETING TO CHANGE THIS POLICY! SHAME SHAME SHAME ON THIS SCHOOL AND THIS RULE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • nsf

    I think the teacher should be put on leave until she can come back ugly. If the don’t want students to have these feelings, maybe all teachers should be required to wear paper bags on their heads! Geez! What is the Country coming to!!!

  • Hismes-sengerr

    Foolishness just pure Foolishness the things we need to deal with is not being concentrated on down right foolishness…..

  • Msmykimoto2u

    Now is he has said she was ugly, she would be pissed….

  • SillyRabbit

    They can suspend kids for saying a teacher is cute but they can’t suspend them for harassing another student. The school system really needs to look at it backwards policies.

  • http://twitter.com/Jaye_Vibes Jillian ♡

    this is ridiculous. school officials today hand out extreme punishments to students way too often, and rarely do they ever address the actual issue or seek any sort of positive corrective measures. How can you legitimize punishing a student for having an honest, non-threatening opinion? THe school may think that a two-day suspension is no big deal, but these kinds of senseless punishments have been shown to negatively impact not only a child’s performance in school but his overall respect for authority figures throughout the course of his life.

    Think, people!

  • Jmagic26

    So white kids get to go all the way with there teachers before anything is done,but a black kid gets his brakes cut before he can even make it that far.White teachers are sheltered,which is why they take things to far. 

  • http://twitter.com/ljezell Lataurean J. Ezell

    WTF!!! If he was talking to friend IN PRIVATE then who the he!! is he disrupting. –__– The principal, the substitute teacher, and anyone else that approves of this punishment need to kill themselves.

  • IllyPhilly

    Is this to draw attention away from the terrible state of the public school system?

  • Treacle23

    There is more to the story I believe. I wonder what kind of behaviour could the boy have done to warrant tarnishing of his school record with a suspension. Is it that he made gestures when he told his friend that the teacher was cute? …………anyway, if all he said was that the teacher is cute then the punishment is over the top harsh. So far only the mother’s side has been released due to the fat that the principal refuses to release any details.

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  • L-Boogie

    The boy was not wrong.  I agree with his mother.  Too harsh of a punishment for a school boy crush.

  • Guest

    Cute kid.  This is so ridiculous.

  • Bigbaby

    What message does that send to that child? Tragic

  • Elle

    I hate to play the race card but had this kid been white he would have been praised not punished for his comments the only crime here is the names… Chiquita and Emanyea? 

    • Elisafaith13

      UNTRUE!!

  • N~ T

    So now kids can’t have a their own opinions or make private comments to friends without there being an issue….We are sending a dangerous message here to impressionable kids. I wish that as Adults we make better decisions so that we don’t traumatize or confuse these kids. This is getting way out of hand.

    • Peaceful1979

      I was feeling the same way.

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