New York boy, 7, cleared of sexual harassment charges for kissing classmate

Jet, Oct 21, 1996

A 7-year-old boy from Queens Borough in New York recently was cleared of sexual harassment charges for kissing a little girl in his class and ripping a button off her skirt.

De'Andre Dearinge was given a five-day suspension from Public School 104 in the Far Rockaway district of Queens by the acting principal, Gerri Perriott, after he kissed a little girl on her cheek in his class and ripped a button off her skirt, but the second grader was allowed to return to school after he served three days.

After criticism of the punishment as political correctness gone overboard from everyone from the boy's 23-year-old mother, Erica White, to New York's Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Dearinge was allowed to return to school.

He admitted that he kissed his classmate because he liked her. Dearinge continued by explaining that he took the button because his favorite book, Corduroy, is about a bear with a missing button.

This is the second such incident to attract national attention.

A few weeks earlier, a 6-year-old Lexington, NC, boy, Johnathan Prevette, a first grader, was punished by having to miss an ice cream party for kissing a classmate. As a result of the media stir, officials will consider changing their sexual harassment policies to reflect age considerations.