Kindergartener Pulls Down Pants, Forced to Sign ‘Sexual Misconduct’ Confession

A kindergartner who
pulled his pants and undies down on the playground
after another kid told him to do it was hauled off to the
principal’s office and forced to sign a “sexual misconduct”
form.

If only he couldn’t write his name yet! But little Eric
Lopez of Surprise, Arizona (yes, what a name), knows his letters.
So now he has a label and file that will follow him for the next 12
years. What he did not know—and of course, no one told him—was that
he had a right to have his mom present. She didn’t find out until
after the forced confession, however, and has since filed a bunch
of paperwork trying to appeal the label of “sexualized
minor.”

(The other child who had instructed Lopez to pull his
pants down had given the boy no choice, by the way: He had told him
that he would pull Lopez’s pants down for him if he did not
obey.)

The Dysart Unified School District insists that it was simply
following standard procedures in the case of “indecent exposure,”
which is why at this point I must recommend everyone read Philip
Howard’s new book, “The
Rule of Nobody.” It talks about how we got to the point
where officials believe they truly must follow protocol, even when
they know it makes no sense, because this is only “fair.” That’s
the outlook that has given us zero tolerance, three strikes and
you’re out, and mandatory minimum laws, as well as principals who
think their only recourse when a five-year-old pulls down his pants
is to label him a sexual deviant. Why is there no official form for
labelling someone a “protocol fetishist?”

To watch an interview with Lopez and his mother,
go here.

For more stories like this one, check out Lenore
Skenazy’s Free-Range
Kids blog.