HICKEY LEADS TO ASSAULT
CHARGES FOR BOY, GIRL
Parents Have Pair Arrested Over
'Passion Mark'
June 11, 1999
By Amy Worden
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (APBNews.com) -- When does a youthful flirtation become a crime of
passion?
The parents of a 13-year-old boy and an 11-year-old girl here think they have the
answer. They asked police to file assault charges against their children this week when
the mother of the girl found a hickey on her daughter's neck.
Police say the two children were at a friend's house at 8 p.m. Monday when the boy left
a "passion mark" on her neck. "As I understand it, she asked the boy to
stop and he continued, putting the mark on her neck," said Annapolis police Lt.
Robert Beans.
Not old enough to neck
The girl returned home about 50 minutes later, and her mother noticed the mark and
called the police. After consulting with officers, both parents decided to file charges of
second-degree assault because they felt their children were not old enough to consent to
intimate acts of any kind, police said.
The two were issued juvenile citations and released to the custody of their parents.
Police would not release their names because of their ages.
The youths will have to appear before a juvenile court official within the next two
weeks. Police say the two will probably get a "good lecture on the ramifications of
their acts" and be ordered to complete some type of community service.
"I think it's probably good," Beans told APBNews.com. "It's an early
warning about the seriousness of the matter: When someone says stop, they mean it."
Prosecutor mystified at charges
But Anne Arundel County State's Attorney Frank Weathersby was mystified that police
pursued the charges and does not expect to prosecute the case. "I suspect it will be
thrown out quickly," he said.
Some experts in juvenile law and sexual harassment say the arrests are symbolic of an
era when common childhood pranks or innocent acts have been elevated to high crimes. The
Annapolis arrests come just two weeks after a 10-year-old boy in Salisbury was charged
with four counts of assault for snapping girls' bras.
Having police pursue kissing children is a waste of valuable police time, and any
discipline for this type of behavior should come from the parents, said law professor
Susan Leviton.
"It doesn't make sense to use the police or courts. These are issues that parents
should take care of," said Leviton, who teaches children's law at the University of
Maryland and represents juvenile offenders. "We've lost the concept of common sense.
There is a difference between sexual harassment and kissing."
A case of parental 'overreaction'
Nan Stein, senior researcher at Wellesley College Center for Research on Women, who
commented extensively on the 1996 cases involving two boys -- ages 6 and 7 -- who were
charged with sexual harassment for kissing girls, said the incident may be another case of
"adults having panic attacks."
"It's an overreaction," said Stein, who also runs a national program on
bullying and sexual harassment in schools. She said she doesn't believe in the
"scared straight" approach to juvenile acts of any kind. "Showing kids the
worst case scenario is not a good motivator."
Amy Worden is an APBNews.com
national correspondent.
