It’s Kids’ Minds That Are Being Harassed
If you think conservatives have exaggerated the perfidy of political correctness, consider the case of 6-year-old Johnathan Prevette. The towheaded first-grader ran afoul of the Manners Gestapo last week at Southwestern Elementary School in Lexington, N.C. - and for his trouble, he became both an outlaw and an international celebrity.
The confrontation began when a teacher spied the young Prevette, clad menacingly in a pullover shirt and inch-thick spectacles, committing an act of sexual harassment. He was kissing a young girl on the cheek!
The pedagogue scampered to the principal’s office, trembling with indignation. After a quick conference, the school warden decided to sentence Johnathan to Romper Room solitary confinement. Johnathan languished in an empty room while his classmates painted and ate ice cream.
But that wasn’t enough. Since Tar Heel State educators take gender discrimination seriously, they decided to banish Johnathan from school. As far as they were concerned, Prevette is a pervert.
The school grandees justly have become global laughingstocks, while Johnathan has become the hero of every male who has been slugged by a femi-nazi for such transgressions as opening a door, telling a joke or holding a chair.
Nevertheless, the most astonishing thing about this tale is not that it took place but that it didn’t occur sooner. Left-wing activists have tried mightily to transform our institutions of public learning into receptacles of mediocrity. Instructors no longer are supposed to care about the three R’s since such things reek of Eurocentrism.
Instead, teachers are told to ensure that graduates who can’t read or add numbers leave school with healthy opinions of themselves. In that vein, educational gurus have banished all things judgmental - such as the esteem-dampening Ten Commandments - in favor of low-calorie substitutes.
Children may not have the option of praying in school, but they are expected to bow before false gods. In the Byzantine world of politically correct etiquette, Johnathan Prevette may not kiss a girl. Yet, by the time he hits high school, he will have to take tests that measure his mastery of onanism, orgasm and homosexual coupling.
Here’s another inconsistency: A cheek-peck constitutes harassment, but high-school students may stock up on condoms and birth-control pills without their parents’ consent. By the time teens get their diplomas, they will know far more about reproductive technique than Western moral traditions. In today’s hallways, the battle cry sounds: God is dead! Long live latex!
How on earth is a young man supposed to get any sense of how to behave? The president of the United States stands accused of committing unspeakable harassment against Paula Jones, but he won’t have to stand trial until he leaves office. He has confessed to causing pain to his family (i.e., having committed adultery), but women voters prefer him to Bob Dole by whopping margins.
Presidential adviser Dick Morris retains a prostitute without legal repercussions. Oregon Sen. Bob Packwood resigns in shame but absorbs no punishment. Meanwhile, Johnathan Prevette gets a court-martial without a peep of protest from national educational leaders.
It also is interesting to note the role that snitches play in this drama. The teacher who witnessed the stealthy kiss apparently didn’t step in and lecture Johnathan. She demanded that a higher authority squash him like a roach. This places her on a par with the humbugs who have tried to shut down conservative newspapers on college campuses and censure lug heads because they have said impolitic things.
Political correctness is the doctrine of intolerant cowards. In courts of law, the accused has the right to see and confront an accuser. Not so with PC Star Chambers, where one need not commit a sin to become a convict and where complainers almost always slink away from their prey.
Impersonal justice is arbitrary justice, and political correctness inevitably exacts a penalty disproportionate to the purported crime. In the progressive town of Lexington, N.C., school officials seem incapable of distinguishing between Georgie Porgie and Richard Speck. The Kissing Kid received punishment normally meted out to punks who bring guns or drugs to school.
Fortunately, most Americans still have their wits about them. Lexington school officials, besieged by complaints, have recanted their original accusations. But that’s not enough.
If this saga is to have a happy ending, the tattletale teacher and trigger-happy principal ought to stand before the Prevette family and the public and say: “Were sorry. And for our sins, we will submit to desensitivity training by Archie Bunker himself.”
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