Strollerderby

Oh my god.  OH. MY. GOD.  That's so far beyond upsetting and disturbing, I'm going to have to sit down and think up a new word.  

Isn't behaviour like that consistant with the children themselves having been abused? I'm not one to 'blame the parents' for everything but they're copying behaviour they've seen in the home or in movies.

Oh dear Lord, what were they thinking????

These kids are gonna have to move or something....can you even imagine their lives after this????

I need a drink.

OMG!!! In class in FRONT of the other children? OMG!!!  I had a 5th grade student living with a high school boy one year.  I reported it and the tribe told me she had permission from her Mom to live there.  Mom had thrown her out.  She ended up in jail. What the H---are people thinking?  Oh those poor deviant children.  What is going to happen to them?  OMG!!!

Aaaaagghhhhh!

I have a fifth grader.  It's a combined 5/6 class.  I'm pretty sure he hasn't yet begun to think about girls at all yet except as the annoying other species in the class.

Whoa.

Honestly, this just makes me want to cry. It scares me how quickly kids grow up these days, but this is just too fast. Something very, very wrong is going on here.

The news is shocking, but it's also difficult to read how Sarah and the commenters only seem able to look at this news and reflect on their own lives, only responding in terms of their shock, an not outrage at the situation in New Orleans post-Katrina (and, hell, pre-Katrina), schools, poverty, abuse, sexualized children, school funding in that city and many neighborhoods in many cities around the U.S.

I love Babble, don't get me wrong, but except for Stephanie and Pierre Kim, we're all white, and all of us are probably at least middle class, mostly educated. I don't know. It just seems like we would all have something more to say than just "yuck."

Please read the article, it didn't happen in New Orleans, it happened in rural North Louisiana.  New Orleans doesn't really need any extra bad press.  We're doing just fine on our own with that.

A huge  problem to me is that 13 year olds are in a Fifth grade class, which I assume was mostly full of 9-10 year olds. These kids should have their own class that can help them get caught up to the appropriate grade level (I'm guessing 7th 0r 8th grade) . Or maybe a tutor w/in the 7th grade class who can help them, if the school is really short on funds. (I'm not really sure how public schools work).

At any rate, these kids are maturing sexually at this age, they have different interests, and different problems than a typical 10 year old 5th grader. And I'm guessing that if they are actually having sex in class then they have quite a few serious problems. One of which might just be the insult of being forced to hang out with 10 year olds.

I wouldn't want my kid in that situation, esp if my kid was the younger one. 10 and 13 are such a big difference, emotionally and physically.

Nola,

I never said anything about race. How do you know these children weren't white? I have no idea what their ethnicity is.

One more thing. When I was 10 I didn't even know what sex was. However, when I was 13 I fell hard for a guy, gae into peer pressure, and had oral sex (I was terrified and regretted it, but still I did it). When i was 14 I lost my virginity (happily, at the time). I'll say it again: 13 year should not be in a class with 10 year olds. There is just too much of a difference.

Sorry for the many, many typos!

Damn! One last thing: This is yet another great example of why kids need comprehensive sex ed in school.

The text about this happening in New Orleans should be REMOVED, not marked with an asterisk.  The denigrating comments in the paragraph with the asterisk suggest that people in New Orleans cannot hope for anything better anyway. THIS DID NOT HAPPEN IN NEW ORLEANS.  Please have the good sense not to blog about articles which you obviously have read only for the lurid details, and not the bare facts.

Yes, but if I take it out it will make the commenter look like a liar and that isn't fair either.

Furthermore, the information following your asterisk ALSO incorrect.  This article is NOT from a New Orleans paper, you seem to believe that CNN or the AP are New Orleans papers.  The story is an ASSOCIATED PRESS story, not a Times Picayune story.  Here in the Times Picayune they are running the same AP story as everyone else. Please remove the text about this happening in New Orleans and the asterisked comment.  

The really sick thing is that if these kids agree to do it in front of the other kids, the girls probably weren't virgins.  What is going on?