2nd School Suspension for a Stolen Kiss is Cut Short

In the second such case this fall, a 7-year-old was punished for stealing a kiss that he called affection and teachers called harassment. On Wednesday, administrators called the whole thing off.

De’Andre Dearinge’s five-day suspension was abandoned after everyone from the boy’s mother to Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani criticized the punishment as political correctness run amok.

“I got what I wanted,” the boy’s mother, Erica White, said Wednesday. “I wanted the suspension ended, and for this not to go on. They’re putting adult views in children’s minds.”

The little boy said he kissed the unidentified classmate last week because he liked her, and yanked at her skirt button as an homage to his favorite book, “Corduroy,” a teddy bear who’s missing a button.

“It appears as if this was kind of a normal, childish thing that happened and was misinterpreted,” Giuliani said. “It seems somebody made a mistake.”

“He’s a 7-year-old who doesn’t know what the hell sexuality’s about,” said De’Andre’s uncle, Joe Armsted.

De’Andre had already served three days of his suspension and school district officials decided to end the punishment there after meeting Wednesday with the boy’s mother and the girl’s family, who agreed to the reduced punishment.

“I believe it has been settled to everyone’s satisfaction,” said Chiara Coletti, spokeswoman for the Board of Education, which plans to review its sexual harassment policy to see if it needs to be more specific about age.

A similar cause celebre erupted last week when a 6-year-old boy in Lexington, N.C., was censured for kissing a classmate and banned from attending an ice cream party. School officials there had a change of heart without offering an apology or much of an explanation.