By Theresa Harrington and Hannah Dreier
San Jose Mercury News
HERCULES, Calif. — West Contra Costa school district administrators are saying little about reports that a Hercules principal suspended a first-grader for sexual assault.
The mother of a 6-year-old student said in a Bay Citizen story that appeared last week in the New York Times that the principal of Lupine Hills Elementary suspended her son in December. She said the principal claimed the boy inappropriately touched another student when in fact the boys were just roughhousing. The story has stirred discussion on several websites.
The boy was suspended after another student reported the incident, said Marin Trujillo, spokesman for the West Contra Costa school district.
“Whenever there’s an allegation of sexual assault, we are responsible for investigating all claims, and we do so,” he said.
Trujillo said he could not offer further comment because the district does not discuss student matters. He said the story by the Bay Citizen was one-sided.
The boy’s mother said the district dropped the sexual assault allegation and transferred the 6-year-old to another elementary school, according to the story.
Hercules police say they were not notified and are not investigating. Attempts to reach parents of the children this week were unsuccessful.
Principal Cynthia Taylor, who is new to the job this year, did not respond to calls or emails.
Stephanie Papas, school health education consultant for the California Department of Education, said 329 elementary students were suspended for sexual assaults in 2009-10, compared with 263 in 2010-11.
“Discipline is something that’s under local control of the district,” she said. “So, it’s not our job to second-guess anyone who’s making a decision. As a former administrator, what I would do would be to hear both sides of the story, do some fact-finding and look to see what codes it falls under.”
“You would certainly want to look at the definition of sexual assault to see if the behavior that occurred actually fits the definition.”
Dr. Stuart Lustig, a child psychiatrist at UC San Francisco Medical School, said it’s not uncommon for 6-year-old children to have curiosity about each others’ bodies, including the genital area. Although he did not know the details of the Hercules incident, he said kids will sometimes experiment with each other.
The main problem, he said, would be if a child did not stop when told by an adult that it was inappropriate.
“That’s really more concerning than a one-time incident that may or may not have been an accident or may or may not have been idle curiosity,” he said.
Most 6-year-olds, he said, are not capable of a sexual assault in the adult sense because their brains have not developed to adolescence. An exception, he said, would be someone who has been sexually abused or has been exposed to pornography.
Copyright 2012 San Jose Mercury News