A Peck of Trouble

Here’s how the case went down. Johnathan Prevette, the perp, laid one on the cheek of his 6-year-old classmate. A teacher saw it and squealed. The authorities were called in.

The suspect’s mother said it was a bad rap, that the girl had asked for a kiss, and that her son had acted out of friendship. In the end it went right to the top, the Lexington (N.C.) school district headquarters.

The charge: sexual harassment. The verdict: guilty. Johnathan was suspended for a day and missed a coloring lesson and an ice cream party.

Said Jane Martin, the district spokeswoman: “A 6-year-old kissing another 6-year-old is inappropriate behavior. Unwelcome is unwelcome at any age.”

Perhaps. But ponder the words of the philosopher Sam: “You must remember this, a kiss is still a kiss, a sigh is just a sigh.”

We may not yet have the full story on Johnathan, and we concede he may have been out of line, but sexual harassment is a pretty heavy charge at age 6.

Dim memories tell us that kissing a classmate on the school ground, at 6, was sometimes the product of a dare, or a flutter of affection. But gross harassment? Yes, Georgie Porgie was a bit of a scoundrel. But the picture we recall, Norman Rockwell might have drawn. Have times so changed? Pity.