A 7-year-old boy at South Boston's Tynan Elementary School is under investigation for sexual harassment after he struck a boy in the groin, The Boston Globe reports.
The boy's mother, Tasha Lynch, says her son, Mark Curran, was only defending himself after the other boy allegedly choked Curran on a school bus Nov. 22.
"I think my kid was right to fight back," Lynch told The Globe. "He wasn’t doing anything except protecting himself."
Lynch describes the alleged incident further to Boston's WBZ.
"He just all of a sudden came up to him, choked him," Lynch said of the November 22 incident. "He wanted to take his gloves, and my son said, 'I couldn't breathe, so I kicked him in the testicles."
Lynch told the station she received a call from the school informing her that her son's actions would be treated as sexual harassment.
"Your son kicked a little boy in the testicles. We call that sexual harassment," Lynch said the school told her, according to WBZ.
Matthew Wilder, spokesman for the Boston public schools, told the Globe that, while he couldn't give a comment, that an investigation is underway.
"Any kind of inappropriate touching would fall under that category," Wilder told The Globe. "The school administration is conducting a full investigation that has not concluded yet. Certainly, once that investigation is through, we'll then make a final conclusion as to who will be disciplined and how."
In a separate report, Lynch told WBZ her kids will be transferring to a different school in the city, and that she will keep her kids home until the transfer is made official.
This comes after 9-year-old Emanyea from Brookside Elementary School in North Carolina was put on two-day suspension for sexual harassment after a substitute teacher overheard him calling a teacher "cute."
The boy's mother, Chiquita Lockett, told WSOC TV she doesn't agree with the punishment.
"It's not like he went up to the woman and tried to grab her or touch her in a sexual way," Lockett told the station. "So why would he be suspended for two days?"