Sexual Healing

...except really just the opposite.

We had a little incident at 7th grade lunch today. The activities' director (a late-30s/early-40s blond woman) was one of the supervisors and as she walked past a group of boys one of them said to her, "Hey, baby," at which the activities' director became (rightly) ensconced and attempted to explain to him what sexual harassment is but had to take a moment to cool off. She asked the school police officer to escort this boy to the office and that she would be with him in just a moment. Evidently, these lewd comments have come from that table of boys before. After that boy left, she asked me to go over to the table with her as a witness and told them that making such comments, particular at a teacher, was a very massive offense. I didn't think the activities' director was overreacting (although she may have taken it a bit too personally), but I also don't think the boy thought he did anything wrong. In fact, the policeman was telling us after he escorted the boy that they were talking about it and it wasn't until the policeman asked the boy, "What if I said that to your mother?" that the boy understood what he had done. Sexual harassment is, therefore, a sticky wicket, a very thin line, and other mixed metaphors. If we want to teach children about it, that means we also have to teach them about sex, lewd behavior, and other uncomfortable topics.