Markham, the deputy district attorney who prosecuted the boys, also accused the boys of sexual abuse because the police officer wrote that they had dry humped the girls. McKenzie admitted, 'Yeah, I probably did slap a couple butts.'ĭebra J. '20/20' spoke to McKenzie and Madie, two of the girls who were questioned. Today the so-called victims of the felony sex abuse in Oregon don't consider themselves victims. So in order to cover themselves, the police are called,' said Padowitz. They basically want to ensure that they're not going to be under the microscope and accused of allowing misbehavior by children to go unpunished. 'With so many lawsuits, I think that teachers and principals are on a CYA mentality. 'We're now having children being charged with crimes such as sexual harassment where these children might not even be aware of what that term means. Ryan and Cory were sent to the office, where the school's vice principal and police officer Roache questioned them and the girls who were the supposed 'victims.' After hours of interrogation, the boys were read their Miranda rights, handcuffed and taken to the juvenile detention center.Īttorney and former sex crimes prosecutor Ken Padowitz says accounts of sexual harassment in the workplace have filtered down to the classroom. Friday is unofficially 'Slap Butt Day' at Patton Middle School, where swatting butts is considered a form of greeting by kids but a violation of school policy. The boys were in jail because they ran through the halls at school, swatting the bottoms of girls.

I can't believe that they could take your kid and just take him to jail like that and you're not able to talk to him.' Ryan's dad, Joe, hit the same brick wall. He was 4 at the time of the alleged 'sexual harassment.' His father, DeMarcus Blackwell, says he was 'devastated' when he received the letter from the school. The odd thing is … Chris is only 5 years old. Police Officer Marshall Roache testified in court about what the boys did to some 13-year-old girls at their middle school: 'I remember her telling us that her buttocks was spanked.'Īnd in Waco, Texas, an official from the La Vega Independent School District wrote Chris Blackwell's father that Chris engaged in 'inappropriate physical behavior interpreted as sexual contact and/or sexual harassment.'Ī teacher's aide filed a 'student behavior referral' stating that as he waited in line for the school bus, 'Christopher called my name, he looked at me and smiled with a great big grin on his face, he stuck his face and rubbed it across my chest and he thought it was funny.' 5, 2007— - Did you hear about the young sexual harassers in McMinnville, Ore.? In February 2007, Ryan Cornelison, 12, and his pal Cory Mashburn, 13, were charged with five counts of felony sex abuse in the first degree.

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