Friday, October 05, 2007

8 Schoolboys Charged with Assault

"Toronto police have arrested eight boys aged 12 to 13 and charged them with sexual assault.

Police said the boys allegedly assaulted four girls at Smithfield Middle School in Etobicoke. The attacks happened on school grounds, after hours, on Sept. 25."


Listening to talk radio this morning, an overwhelming number of callers felt that the young boys "didn't understand what they were doing", and that the arrests were "going too far".

As someone who knows that this sort of thing has been going on forever, and more or less minimized, and dismissed as behaviour by individuals "too young to understand what they're doing"...I'm thinking that it's about time that it's taken seriously.

As someone who had this experience in 6th grade, I'm glad to see this happening.
During the discussion on the radio this morning, I was hearing a lot of, "girls dress like skanks now...", it's true....but still, it seems a poor justification for sexual assault.

I want to see more sexual assault charges, until young boys understand that their age, raging hormones, and provocative dress of young females is not a justification for sexual assault.

I want to see this happening until young girls are comfortable enough to go to their teachers to tell them when something like that happens, and a law in place that forces teachers and people in positions of power into a "duty to report".