Misbehaving McMinnville Boys!

The judge finally saw the light in the case of the two middle school boys from McMinnville Oregon whose criminal charges were dropped this week. Their behavior last spring, swatting the tushes of girls at their school, was not acceptable but also not criminal. Boys at that age – my twins are getting close at almost 10 – are just goofing around with other girls and girls need to know how to be assertive and say, Hey, that is not okay, knock it off. Kids can work these kid things out themselves, and adults need not bring in the police. This was not an act of sexual violence which the term sex offender implies, and to label these boys sex offenders for the rest of their lives (which the original criminal charges would have done) –now, that is what would have been criminal. The judge did the right thing by letting the boys’ apologies, a $ 250 fine and completing an instructional program on boundaries for behavior speak to the situation. The boys – and others I am sure - learned their lesson. As the mom of four boys between the ages of 4 and 16, I know all about boy jokes and bathroom laughs, and as a mom I am helping to teach them what is appropriate and what is acceptable good fun. What those McMinnville boys did crossed the line and they needed to be told that, not sent to jail.