5th Graders Face Charges For Classroom Sex

(CBS/AP)  Five fifth-grade students face criminal charges after authorities said four of them had sex in front of other students in an unsupervised classroom and kept a classmate posted as a lookout for teachers.

The students were arrested Tuesday at the Spearsville school in rural north Louisiana, authorities said. Two 11-year-old girls, a 12-year-old boy and a 13-year old boy were charged with obscenity, a felony. An 11-year-old boy, the alleged guard, was charged with being an accessory.

"After 44 years of doing this work, nothing shocks me anymore," said Union Parish Sheriff Bob Buckley. "But this comes pretty close."

Authorities said the incident happened March 27 at the school, which houses students from kindergarten through 12th grade. A high school teacher normally watches the fifth-grade class at the time, but went to an assembly for older students and the class was inadvertently left unattended, Buckley said.

The class, which had around 10 other students, was alone for about 15 minutes, he said.

"When no teacher showed up, the four began to have sex in the classroom with the other elementary students in the classroom with them," he said.

It took a day for authorities to find out about the incident. A student who had been in the class told a high school student about it the next day, Buckley said. The student told a teacher, and school officials notified the sheriff's office. Detectives began questioning students Thursday.

School officials did not return calls seeking comment.

The students, who were not identified because of their age, were released to their parents after their arrests, Buckley said. They will next be arraigned in juvenile court. A message seeking comment from the district attorney was not immediately returned.

Buckley said it was unclear what the children could face in penalties.

The parents cannot be charged.

"When the kids are at school, they relinquish all responsibility to the administration. We can't do anything but look into what goes on at home," Buckley told the Shreveport Times.

[davesmaggie]

Can someone explain to me why is it that everytime a child does something wrong people look to blame the parents. I read a few of these comments and needless to say was a little dumbfounded by what some people wrote. When I was 11 years old, I was far too afraid of my father to have ever even thought of doing something like this. He would have blistered my but good. Now, understand me, I was afraid of my father, not abused by him. Being afraid of my father kept me out of a lot of trouble. If I backtalked my Mother in public she would back hand me right on the spot. The five worst words that would come out of my Mothers mouth was "I am telling your Father". We knew for sure we was getting it then. But if we had not been afraid of getting punished by our parents how would have we turned out? Nowadays parents are too afraid to discipline their children. I have seen this first hand. If you spank your child and they tell their teacher, next thing you know dcfs is knocking on your door. They have taken away parents rights to a point that children no longer fear consequences. This is something society has taught them. I understand that their are children who are really abused, but spanking child is not abuse. It teaches them that for every wrong there is a consequence.

[texaslady265]

I find several of these comments personally offensive. To think that just because a person is born and raised in the south that they are ignorant or immoral shows the lack of intelligence on the part of those who assume they are wise and moral. I admit that there are stupid, perverse people in the south but to classify an entire area as such is as idiotic saying that people from the north are cold, heartless, thieving mobsters that would shoot you for stealing their cab. I have personally found that there are fools, perverts, cheats, liars, and a host of other criminal types in every part of the Earth, to blame the area these youths are from is categorically asinine.

[panton41-2009]

This happening in class is WAY overboard, but those who think this doesn't happen behind closed doors can't be living in the world I am. Who's to blame? I see it as being both people screaming "*** is bad" as well as the sexualizing mass media sending mixed signals.

And people who say "this kind of stuff didn't happen back then" need to read period literature. It simply wasn't discussed. From the Kama Sutra to Chaucer's "Wife of Bath" to Mark Twain's "1601" and the 1950's Betty Page it's everywhere.

A scene in "The People vs. Larry Flynt" asks a good question, would you rather children see brutal unadulterated violence, or people having ***?

[sugarmice-2009]

draugwolf you are one sick individual and need help - you should be banned from making comments - your posting is sick and disgusting

cbscrash07 rrecroc as well as both of you...

[sugarmice-2009]

As of the censusGR2 of 2000, there were 155 people, 71 households, and 42 families residing in the village. The population density was 29.1/km2 (75.4/mi2). There were 87 housing units at an average density of 16.3/km2 (42.3/mi2). The racial makeup of the village was 96.77% White, 3.23% from other races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.23% of the population.

Being a small town doesn't have anything to do with this - I grew up in a village of 800 - and we sure didn't venture far but then again - we have to take a hard look at the parents and these children's upbringing - obviously something is awry at home. And I agree - they were not "making love" they were just performing a physical act - I'm sure they knew what they were doing but let's leave the word "love" out of this -

[Syndicate]

Prayer in school? I'm sure the girls were calling out god's name.

I bet these kids attended church regularly. We've all heard the stories about the preachers kids.

[rrecroc]

Another reason no one wants to go to that washed-out freak-hole called New Orleans .... people who live below sea level at the mouth of a river that empties into the ocean can't be too bright anyhow .....

[rohink-2009]

Those children don't have parents. They might live with at least one "adult" who through the act of "making love" brought them into this world and left them on their own to care for themselves. They don't have to face consequences for their actions just as the "parents" don't. Don't let the family die.

[dbstevens]

This is actually a complicated issue with a lot of contributing factors from personal character and behavior to larger social factors. But it's not a surprise that things like this would happen, given the extremely irresponsible and VERY powerful media depictions of such things as *** and violence. Children are bombarded by attitudes and images that they aren't yet equipped to understand. And children learn by imitating. It's a huge task for parents, even those who TRY, to counteract the extremely erroneous media depiction of social behavior.

I'm always saddened to see the horrible values and morals that are taught on television, in movies, and in music. And yes..."taught" is the correct word because people learn from what they're exposed to. The messages children are getting nowadays are all wrong, so how can we be surprised at their behavior?

[bourbon83]

They committed a loving act as opposed to any one of a million violent and treacherous acts that could have been committed. AND WE ARREST THEM?

Your kidding? A loving act? At that age. Who's going to pay for the pregnacy? The Baby? Who's going to raise it? The Taxpayers!!!! I don't agree on arrest either. But they do need a trip behind the woodshed. Should have gotten that along time ago. Wether you're religous or not prayer in school supported right from wrong, and provided a moral foundation. What harm is there to that?