TAG! You're it!
Posted on 05/18/2006 11:37:39 PM PDT by real saxophonist
Schoolyard 'boob tag' lands middleschooler in trouble
By Felix Doligosa Jr., Rocky Mountain News
May 18, 2006
A game of tag at a middle school in Golden has police investigating a 14-year-old boy for unlawful sexual contact.
The game played at Bell Middle School is called "boob tag," and kids choose who's "it" by touching a breast.
"This is not appropriate, but it's a game of consent," said Lynn Sharpe, the mother of the suspect, Cole Sharpe.
"It should be punished, but not prosecuted."
Golden police declined to release details about the case and would say only that there is an investigation.
The inquiry started last week when an eighth-grade female student told school officials that Cole touched her breast.
A group of friends that included Cole, another boy and seven girls have been playing "boob tag" during lunch breaks since December, Lynn Sharpe said.
The girls often called themselves "The Bisexuals," Cole said.
"It's just like tag, except you, like, poke the breast area," Cole told CBS 4 News.
Jefferson County Public Schools officials interviewed students and found no proof of any unlawful sexual contact, said Casey Mahon, spokesman for the school district.
The school's resource officer filed a routine report that apparently caught the interest of police, Lynn Sharpe said.
Cole was taken to the police department Tuesday night for questioning, his mother said.
He was also booked and released, she said. The Golden Police Department would not confirm what Lynn Sharpe said.
The teen, who likes to skateboard and practices sword play, has told his friends to watch out because they also could get in trouble for taking part in the playground game.
Cole admits playing "boob tag," but said he's never played it with the accuser.
"The girls are consenting to the game," Lynn Sharpe said. "Girls are not being violated."
Cole will continue attending the school, but his mother is worried that the accusations of unlawful sexual contact will stick with her son forever.
A minor convicted of unlawful sexual contact could face probation or up to two years in youth detention.
"I don't want my son to be a registered sex offender," Lynn Sharpe said. "We're throwing him into this category."
doligosaf@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-2970.
The 14-year-old boy's mother says he needs to learn that such behavior is not tolerated, but thinks the response by Golden police went too far.
By Karen Rouse
Denver Post Staff Writer
A teenage boy who admitted to playing a game of "boob tag" with his friends may be facing charges of unlawful sexual contact, his mother said Wednesday.
Cole Sharpe, a 14-year-old student at Bell Middle School in Golden, was accused of touching a girl's breast while playing the game with other students about two months ago at the school, said his mother, Lynn Sharpe.
Cole played the game with a mix of girls and boys and it was all consensual, she said. "It turns out there's this game called boob tag where you grab somebody's (breast) and they're it," she added.
Lynn Sharpe said her son told her that his accuser was not among the group that played the game.
Cole declined to be interviewed.
Sharpe said school officials called her on Friday and said they were questioning Cole after they learned about the allegations. She said she believed the district's investigation was over, but on Tuesday the school's resource officer asked them to come to the Police Department.
After about an hour of questioning, the officer "said she's placing Cole under arrest," Sharpe said.
That officer couldn't be reached for comment. Golden police spokesman Ryan Custer said Cole was "booked and released," but not arrested.
Fingerprints and a photograph were taken, Custer said. He said there is an ongoing investigation and he could not comment further because it involves a juvenile.
A spokesperson for the Jefferson County School District could not be reached for comment, but Superintendent Cindy Stevenson said the district cooperates with police investigations.
Sharpe said her son needs to learn a lesson, but she fears this one may have gone too far.
"It's a hard lesson for him. And that is what it should be," Sharpe said.
"It is an inappropriate game. I'm not condoning any of this. But I'm looking at the seriousness of the charges in relation to what is natural to boys and girls at this age."
Staff writer Karen Rouse can be reached at 303-820-1684 or krouse@denverpost.com. http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_3835227
Bet his mama never warned him about running with scissors, either.
Whatever happened to the good old days when kids only used to play 'grab ass'.
The boy is 14 years old and still a middle schooler. I was a sophomore in HS when I was 14.
Personally, I think it isn't safe to mingle 13+ kids with middle schoolers. In the sexually charged pop culture environment and lack of moral instruction at the home that is common these days, you're likely to see this kind of behavior escalating and reaching further and further down the grade levels.
Have things really changed any? My grandmother married my grandfather when she was 13.
You were happier grabbing ass than you would have been feeling up breasts?
Heh. Some guys are like that. Some guys not.
Personally, if those were the "good-old days", all I can say is I'd rather be in middle school now than back then.
Your mother married him when she was 13, but kids these days are starting to think of sex as a recreational sport.
It was getting pretty bad in the late 80s, so I thought, but then the 90s came along with TV shows that flaunted sexuality. In the 80s it was just MTV, Hollywood, and some pop stars. Starting in the 90s youth sex became the primary marketing tool for tv shows... A genre of tv programming that once relied on humor and interesting story lines to win audiences.
In fifth or sixth grade, one of the kids was a little older than the rest of us. I think he was 13, and it was probably sixth grade. He talked a fourth grader into having sex with him. While I can't say for sure it happened, both of them admitted to doing it, and their respective descriptions of it being messy, painful, and disappointing (from her point of view at least) are pretty much a match for the real thing when it happens on the ground, behind a bush. The year was in the very early 1990s.
That was on a small island in the middle of the Pacific, far away from pop culture. Both of these kids were from the mainland, and they brought with them some of their influences. In fact, one of the girls in my class was a notorious tease, often playing with a broom and making noises that most of us didn't understand yet. It was a very sheltered island... In fourth grade, we had to look up the "F" word because nobody knew what it meant, and even when we learned what it meant, none of us knew what that meant, although we all had ideas, most of them funny.
The way I see it, the balance in favor of increased promiscuity and carnal behavior among the youth is weighted against common sense and decency. In less than a generation, when I visit Samoa, more girls are graduating high school pregnant than ever, and many are in a family way before they're 20. They are seduced by the pop culture mentality of pleasure first, think never - and when you add in drugs and alcohol, you start to discover that the prettiest girls are the first to go...
Which is probably why I'm so bitter about it. There are almost no single, pretty local girls back home who don't have at least one kid, and a ton more experience than I have. And a lot of experience is a decided turn off.
I suppose if you had little gay boys playing "wankie tag", school officials would be cool with it.
Heck, the teachers might play too!
He's a man. That makes him guilty. No hearing. No appeal. No chance to defend self. His thoughts are not wanted. He's a man.
This is what radical militant man-hating feminism has been allowed to do, by wimpy politicians.
That's not that big of a deal. In Texas, middle school is grade 6-8. If my math is right, you can be 14 in eighth grade.
Middle school here goes up to 8th grade, which would put him in 8th as well. At 14 he would be on the upper age end but nothing extraordinary. Lots of kids graduate HS at 18. What bothers me more is lumping 9th thru 12th. I think that age range is too broad both emotionally and physically. I much prefer how it was when I was a kid- elementary went thru 6th, then you had Jr. High (7th-9th) and HS (10th-12th).
I've always been in favor of HS including year 13, and turning grades 11-13 into associate degree programs in the liberal arts. Maybe lumping 8-10 as the new Jr. HS would work.
But I've also observed that seniors in high school these days are emotionally immature. Perhaps separating them from 9th and 10th grades will encourage emotional maturity.
You're not allowed to say that. Fat chicks and guys with beards, and churchladies (OK, I am redundant) are going to be harsh.
That sounds very German of you. Cause that is how they do it here.
TAG! You're it!
I have cousins who went through a British system, and I believe their year 13 is an optional level prior to heading off to University.
But taking the last three years of HS, including grade 13, and turning it into a liberal arts associates degree program would go a long way toward raising the standards required to graduate high school... Or it might dilute the associates degrees, considering how liberals like to pass people who shouldn't pass.
I agree with your idea. I would also be in favour of having all the students do 12-18 months of military service. It would be good for the kids to learn discipline and establish a sense of national identity.
In Germany they do it to avoid having a professional military elite that could become insular and threaten the state, but it has the added advantage of creating a sense of comradery.
There are ways out of it through community service, but overall it is a good idea. The downside is the fact that kids start their university studies quite a bit later in life.
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