What if the roles were reversed?

Parent Cafe
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<p><a href=“http://www.winknews.com/Local-Florida/2011-06-01/Online-video-shows-Fort-Myers-boy-being-bullied[/url]”>http://www.winknews.com/Local-Florida/2011-06-01/Online-video-shows-Fort-Myers-boy-being-bullied&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Three 8th grade girls assaulted and ripped the clothes off a 5th grade boy in the middle of the day.</p>

<p>If this was a story of three older boys ripping the clothes off a 5th grade girl while physically assaulting her, the boys would probably go to jail for years and be labeled as sex offenders.</p>

<p>Also, the mom does not want to press charges. Are there grounds to make the legal argument that this parent is not acting in the child’s interest?</p>

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<p>I’m surprised that the mother can legally choose not to press charges.</p>

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<p>You’re right, soccerguy - this would (unfairly) be seen as a more major offense if the genders had been reversed. I think it was quite serious and I too am surprised that the victim’s mother can make the decision not to press charges. I believe the girls should face legal action.</p>

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<p>I agree with Frazzled. There still is this discrimination. I had to deal with it when I worked with middle school kids after school for theater. We had an incident that was really initiated by a girl. The boy was punished much more severely. I had some discussions with the headmaster about this and the rationale was tyahoo mailhat the girl was a guest student whereas the boy was ours. Also it was more important for the boy to understand the severity of the transgression because should he find himself in this situation when he is older; in college, for example, he could be in big trouble. The fact of the matter is that a girl would not be. Not at all likely.</p>

<p>I’ve known situations where young women playing around have undressed a male who is a willing victim at young adult level, say at a beach or other such place, and no one even looks twice. If it wer a girl, it smacks of assault and sexual harassment. It’s just the reality fo the situation. I still think the girls should have been disciplined in this case. What they did was truly wrong and was assault. The age difference is an issue too.</p>