Mother stunned to learn 5-year-old is being investigated for sexual harassment by Boston Public Schools

A Boston mom tells the WBZ-TV I-Team she was stunned to learn her 5-year-old son, who has special needs, was being investigated for sexual harassment by Boston Public Schools after a parent alleged he pulled another child's pants down at school.

Alanis, whose son attended Winship Elementary School, said she was never notified about the complaint when it was made shortly before classes ended in June. She said she learned about it about a month later, when she received a formal letter from Boston Public Schools Office of Civil Rights.

"He just turned 5 in February. He's not a big boy. He's a baby still," Alanis said. "When I spoke to them on the phone, I'm like, 'You're saying s-e-x to me? A 5-year-old?' I was like, jaw drop. I just couldn't believe it."

The school says another student's parents filed a complaint that Alanis' son pulled her child's pants down, which prompted a Title IX investigation.

Ellen Braaten, a child psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, said this type of behavior in a young child is not about sex at all.

"This was not a sexual act," Braaten said. "A child does not do that because it's sex. They're doing it because they know they are going to get attention for it."

"It makes me feel awful," Alanis told the I-Team. "Since when are we criminalizing 5-year-olds or sexualizing 5-year-old's age behavior? It doesn't make any sense to me. It's very disturbing. It's disgusting."

Attorney Collins Fay-Martin specializes in cases involving school districts. "It's wild," she told the I-Team.

Fay-Martin says the district appeared intent on conducting a full investigation despite the child's age and developmental challenges. "He doesn't have the cognitive capacity to be able to discern what is appropriate conduct and what is not," Fay-Martin said. "You can tell him 500,000 times, but he's still going to be 5 and he's still going to do what 5-year-olds do, which is why it's incumbent upon adults in the room to have eyes on kids at all times."

School staff emails obtained by the I-Team appear to raise questions about whether the alleged incident occurred at all. In one email a staff member wrote, "I did not witness any incident." Another said, "No, this did not occur ... in my classroom."

Alanis told the I-Team her son has an individualized education program, or IEP, and struggles with impulse control.

"If a child has an IEP and one of the issues is impulse control, there should be adequate supervision within the classroom," Braaten told the I-Team. "When we're talking about a 5-year-old, the person who's really responsible or the system that's responsible is the school system."

After the I-Team contacted Boston Public Schools, the district said the matter was now an informal investigation and that it was working toward a resolution.

In a statement, BPS said:

"In this case, there is no punitive investigation. That would not be productive. Both children are in school. BPS is working to resolve the matter through an informal process, without any discipline, focused on delivering supports to help the children succeed in school this year. We are also taking this as an opportunity to improve communication with families. 

While BPS is required by law to investigate all complaints, as a school system both the review and any resolution should be age and developmentally appropriate and focused on supporting families and helping all children learn and thrive in school. That's particularly true with young children who are still learning about behavior."

Fay-Martin says, "Dumb things happen in schools all the time, right? This is probably one of the most wild just because you would think the logic would prevail. Logic has not prevailed."

Alanis has refused to allow her son to return to Winship Elementary School this fall, saying she had lost confidence in the administration and its ability to support her child.

"He's still a baby. He doesn't know any better. We should be redirecting these kids. A kid who has impulsivity issues, come on now," Alanis said. "That's so much redirection, so much redirection. But it's like, you chose that career. You've got to be patient. You've got to be patient with these kids."