Bench Talk: Crying Harassment - the new way to "Cry Wolf"?

It's often said that, "too much of a good thing is a bad thing." We spend countless dollars teaching our children right from wrong. The problem is that the list of "wrongs" has grown so much that kids and adults alike become paranoid; double thinking each and every action taken or word spoken so as not to "offend" anyone. It's so easy now to cry "harassment" against someone and once that magic word has been spoken there is no going back!

Now this is a subject I am familiar with. Just recently our family was unwillingly involved in a alleged sexual harassment situation. The teenager had to fire a volunteer at her job. After numerous conversations with the volunteer, talking to the volunteer coordinator on how to handle the situation and writing up a formal complaint about his attitude she asked him not to return. A week later she is summoned into her boss's office and informed that this 14 year old volunteer and his parents have filed a sexual harassment charge against her!

At one point our family discussed hiring a lawyer to protect her. She asked me to sit in the meeting with her and her bosses and after two weeks the case was closed. It was determined to be a he said/she said and could not be proven. But what we have all learned from this is; in our over sensitive world you are guilty until proven innocent. All this boy had to do was make the complaint. It then was up to us to prove she was innocent. And the kicker of this whole thing is, though it is considered, 'case closed,' we will never know what this boy said she supposedly did to sexually harass him. She had to prove her innocence without ever knowing what he was accusing her of saying!

I feel we have raised a generation who think they can do and say whatever they want, without any ramifications.