© CNN
His family says he didn't know any better. "I was sick to my stomach because first of all don't you understand he's a 5-year-old," Summery Putnam, the boy's mother, said. "He's a child."
Putnam says she received a call from her son's teacher about 3 weeks ago. "The teacher called me and she said you need to have a talk with Nathan about boundaries," Putnam said.
Putnam says his autism makes it difficult for him understand social cues. "If you don't understand how autism works, you'll think he's acting out or being defiant," Putnam said. "But that's not the situation."
Putnam says the teacher said Nathan was overstepping boundaries. She says the teacher accused her son of sexual activities after she was told he hugged a child and kissed another child on the cheek.
"He shouldn't be treated like this," Debi Amick, Nathan's grandmother, said.
Amick took to Facebook asking: "What do you do when a 5-year-old child is being labeled a sexual predator and accused of sexual harassment by the school system?"
"The kid doesn't even understand what sex is," Amick said.
Hamilton County schools did confirm the "teacher" submitted a report to the Department of Child Services.
DCS spokesperson Tim Hensley says, according to school's policy, "school personnel are required to report concerns regarding children to DCS. It's up to DCS to determine if those reports are acted on by DCS and what form those actions may take."
"I talked to him. I said, 'You can't hug children,' he said, 'Why?' I said, 'Because, Nathan, it's not allowed.'"
The family thinks the school is in the wrong. "To bring something like this against a child, a special needs child, really he doesn't understand what he's done wrong," Putnam said.
The school system would not comment on whether the teacher filed a report with DCS. A spokesperson said the sources of those complaints are confidential.
Reader Comments
Like the mother said, he does not even know about sexuality.
Anyone who's been around children knows this to be the sort of things that will happen now and then. How long has this idiot been a teacher anyway ? Hasn't she ever been around children before that job she now has ?
Some kids will hug right back and some don't want to have anything to do with that and that is all absolutely and perfectly normal.
I'll go as far as understand a no hugging policy in class (...) but equating a hug and yes, even a kiss on the cheek as sexual harassment is pushing too far. 5 years old for christ sake.
Common sense needs to be brought back. What is going on, why is this allowed to become normal ? Yes there were things that needed change but the pendulum is going too far the other way now.
R.C.
Yea yea... You're boasting.
/what ever.
Did you see this?
Russian priest with '70 adopted children in family' is accused of raping girl in his care
A Russian priest who is credited with heading the largest family in the country after fathering and adopting over 70 kids, has been arrested on a charge of sexually abusing his dependants. A court...R.C.
R.C.
The family is right to be upset. If I were them, I would be removing him from the education mill while they can.
Sad for this poor little guy. 5 year olds are terrorists now? Insanity!