Believe it or not, a six-year-old boy from Colorado was suspended from school for kissing a girl on the hand. “It was during class,” first-grader Hunter Yelton said in an interview, “We were doing reading group, and I leaned over and kissed her on the hand. That’s what happened.” Not only did the 6 years olds actions get him suspended from school, but the school accused him of sexual harassment.

Hunter’s mom, Jennifer Saunders, said Hunter has had problems at school before. He has gotten suspended for rough-housing and kissing the same girl on the cheek. His family has been working with him to fix his “class disruptions” by grounding him and giving him “big restrictions”.

Robin Gooldy, the superintendent of Cañon City Schools, said in an interview that Hunter’s record will remain within the district and that his behavior fits the school policy description of sexual harassment, which includes unwanted touching. “Our main interest in this is having the behavior stop because the story is not just about the student that was disciplined, it is also about the student receiving the unwanted advances,” says Gooldy, “We have to think about both students in the situation.”

Saunders said the girl involved was, ‘‘fine with it,’’ because Hunter and the girl consider themselves girlfriend and boyfriend, The mother of this first-grader wants her son’s record cleared of anything suggesting sexual harassment. “Remove it from his record,” says Saunders, “ I need to stand up and fight for him. I can’t just let that happen because it’s not the case. It’s not what happened at all.”

Hunter Yelton says he feels sorry for doing something wrong and tries to be good at school. “But I have a lot of energy. Six-year-olds, they have a lot of energy,” states Hunter. First-graders sure do have a lot of energy.

The reaction online to Hunter’s story has been a majority of commenters expressing pure outrage. “The school probably traumatized the kid for life with that stupid move,” states an angry parent on Facebook. Some other examples of parents disagreeing with the way the school acted are; “Poor child, he’s [too] young to even know what sexual harassment is.” Or maybe even, “Another example of how we are now overreacting to something as simple as a childhood crush.” On the other side of these raging parents, are the people who are voicing support for the school’s actions. “The kid shouldn’t go around kissing someone’s child. Because if it was my daughter, the parents and I would be talking. Let’s keep it real,” says a supporter on Facebook.

With two days of suspension and a sexual harassment accusation, Jennifer Saunders wanted to have a meeting with the school’s superintendent about her son’s punishment. After the meeting, the school’s superintendent, Gooldy, changed the disciplinary offense from ‘sexual harassment’ to ‘misconduct’.

The school system of Cañon City Schools tells us to look at both sides of the story. Gooldy, said on Tuesday, “That students aren’t labeled sexual harassers after the first innocent grade-school kiss. But if unwelcome contact or touching continues, it will be noted in the student’s file.”