BROCKTON, Mass. (AP) – The family of a first-grade boy who was suspended for allegedly sexually harassing a female classmate at his Brockton elementary school is suing the city and the school committee.
The suit, filed earlier this month in federal court, is seeking unspecified damages from the city for violating the civil rights of the boy, who was suspended from the Downey Elementary School in January 2006.
The boy, 6 years old at the time, was suspended for three days after the principal said he had violated sexual harassment policy by putting two fingers inside the waistband of the girl’s pants. The family said it was nothing more than innocent horseplay and the girl had poked him first.
The boy was later transferred to another school at his parents’ request and the school’s sexual harassment policy was modified to be more age appropriate.
“Still now, it’s a nightmare to me,” Berthena Dorinvil, the boy’s mother, told The Enterprise of Brockton.
“This lawsuit was filed because of the outrageous treatment of a 6-year-old by administrators and staff of the Downey School and the subsequent indifference of administrators in the City of Brockton,” said John Pavlos, the family’s attorney.
School Superintendent Basan Nembirkow did not respond to messages left by the newspaper, but said after the original incident that the school’s response was an “overreaction.”
The school informed the district attorney’s office, which did not bring charges because state juvenile criminal laws do not apply to those under age 7.
The lawsuit says the boy was “still obviously a child incapable of forming criminal intent under our common law, and obviously immature sexually from both a physical and a psychological awareness standpoint” when suspended.
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