An Arizona mother is outraged after her five-year-old son was forced by school officials to sign a form admitting to “sexual misconduct.” The boy, Eric Lopez, got in trouble this spring for pulling his pants down on the playground. When school officials had him sign a form admitting “sexual misconduct” and accepting a punishment for the infraction without first contacting his mother, mother Erica Martinez was furious. She has been fighting to have the charge removed from her son’s record, but thus far to no avail. If she is unsuccessful, the label will remain with him for as long as Eric is enrolled within the Dysart Unified School District system.
Assistant Superintendant Jim Dean insists that “the discussion with a kindergarten student is focused on the specific action, not on the label that is used for classifying the infraction”. Still, that’s quite a label to carry around from the age of five.
