Some responses can be predicted before a situation is even posted about.
I wish we had more information. Without it, we’re just conjecturing.
And she playfully stabbed him with scissors. It was just a prank. Girls will be girls.
She was charged with aggravated assault. If the authorities had thought it was self-defense, she would not have been charged.
And the authorities are wrong. She shouldn’t have been charged with anything for defending her bodily integrity.
So if it had happened in home ec class and she had a knife in her hands, you would be fine if she’d stabbed him to death? Or beaten him senseless with a heavy book? Really?
She didn’t stab him to death or beat him senseless. He put his paws where they had no right to go, and she stabbed him in the hand. I’d be happy to see more of this.
Defending one’s bodily integrity covers a lot of ground. So a boy who is patted on the butt by a girl has the right to slug her? What about a boy who snaps a towel in the locker room at another boy? Does the second boy have the right to slam the kids head into the wall?
My point is the action has to be in self defense and proportional to the touching.
Seriously disappointed to see so many adults advocating violence. It doesn’t solve a thing, and escalates the situation. He grabs her dress, she stabs him, he pulls a gun and shoots her. Really, is that what we are encouraging? Without knowing more of the facts, we have no way of knowing if this was proportional, or even effective.
I think Phys Ed should include lessons in self defense, for girls and boys.
And students should be allowed to use the techniques taught to defend themselves from assaults on school property, including sexual assault, without repercussion.
Sexual harassment = unwanted sexual advances
Sexual assault = force, threats, intimidation, rape
We don’t know all of the facts but as typical to the internet, cyber judgement is here with little information. From what I have read (and their may be more to the story) this is NOT sexual assault but it IS sexual harassment. She could have held the scissors in a threatenening fashion, but swiping it wildly is not the answer. Sure she only gave him a small cut but one wrong swipe and we are reading a different story.
The boy deserves punishment, but physical harm is not the answer.
I had my uniform dress lifted by a boy in elementary school. I wish I had scissors on me then. I still remember the other kids laughing. Nothing happened to the boy who did it.
If you don’t want your son to get stabbed, teach him to keep his damn hands to himself.
Some adults here are acting like she became homicidal and stabbed him repeatedly. He didn’t even go to the doctor.
Out of curiosity, is there any adult poster who would react this way if the event happened at work or on a city street? I would not unless I truly felt my life was threatened, and I would tell my kids not to either. Report it to HR, the police, make a scene, embarrass the perpetrator. But stab someone? No, that is unwise. Who know how he could react.
Really, most life situations require measured response, “not too little, not too much”. What’s wrong with this? If somebody rudely pushes you in a crowd, you don’t go after him with a weapon, but you might swear at him or even elbow him back. Bullying can be a terrible thing but neither shooting the bully nor suffering in silence is good.
I’m seriously disappointed to see so many adults minimizing and shrugging off a sexual assault (or even harassment for those that seem to think only rape is assault) who are more bothered by the scratch the girl gave him as she defended herself.
Maybe if we lived in a society that didn’t think a high school boy lifting up a girl’s dress in a classroom was just being playful or joking around, girls wouldn’t need to defend themselves with the nearest available weapon.
Maybe if we lived in a society that didn’t reward “locker room talk” with the greatest available statuses available in our country, we wouldn’t have girls needing to defend themselves.
Maybe if we lived in a society where if an unconscious girl is raped behind a dumpster, and people weren’t more concerned with the rapist’s life not being ruined and declaring them “both at fault” then girls wouldn’t need to go on the attack to keep boys from lifting their dresses in classrooms.
I was curious what my son and his friend thought about this situation, so I read the article to them. They thought the boy got what he deserved. A minor hand wound did not seem over the top to them. Neither threatening to expose a girl nor trying to expose her seemed remotely playful to them. They were unsure about charging either with a crime.
I ride the bus frequently and if some guy tried that I would smack him and loudly demand that he keep his hands to himself and follow it up with a report to the bus driver. I’ve advised my teen daughter to do the same. I don’t generally carry scissors on the bus, so the perpetrator would avoid hand injury.
I do have scissors at work and if a coworker, supplier, or customer tried that while I was holding the scissors, I honestly might stab the offending hand with the scissors, then call a supervisor to report the incident. That is unlikely to happen because there is a lot of protocol and training in place to keep it from happening in the first place, but all the protocol and training can fail. But seriously, if a grown man tried to lift my skirt, I’d assume the worst and defend myself. What grown man thinks it’s a joke to try lifting a woman’s skirt.
Not all events are equal, momto2girls. We do no service by lumping all acts together as “sexual assault” without differentiating the harm done. As a victim of physical sexual assault, I resent how my experience is lumped with this-an embarrassing, boorish and rude act that deserves to be punished but isn’t anything close to my experience, and we shouldn’t act like they are morally equal. Nuance is important in a civilized society, and most civil adults can distinguish between gradations of offenses.
If the girl was acting in self defense, then the judge will acquit her or dismiss the charges. If it was revenge after the event, there may be another outcome. Likewise, the boy’s intentions are unknown by us, but hopefully a judge will figure it all out. Just too bad it couldn’t all have occurred without police too.
More conjecture, but we’re all doing it…
She swiped at him several times before she “got him”. Had he retreated at the first swipe, it might have been over. The first one was a warning of sorts. But if he was still on the offensive, and tried again (even if he thought it was funny), then what?
Funny, I was kind of thinking that stabbing him in the “family jewels” would have been more appropriate.
I tried to kick the guy who grabbed and groped me forty years ago, missed and he laughed at me as he ran off. He went on to do the same to several other women on campus and as far as I know, was never caught.
If I could time travel, I’d happily bring scissors with me and do my very best to stab him.