Taunts on the School Bus Spark Girl’s Sexual Harassment Complaint : Child’s mother says officials’ response was too little, too late. They claim she’s seeking publicity.

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. —  Late last winter, some boys began teasing and taunting young Cheltzie Hentz on the school bus. In a case that has drawn international attention, Cheltzie’s mother responded by filing complaints of sexual harassment.

Now both state and federal agencies are conducting investigations and Cheltzie’s mother, Sue Mutziger, has been interviewed by reporters from around the world. Federal officials believe that the second-grader is the youngest person ever to prompt a sexual harassment inquiry by the U.S. Department of Education.

Mutziger turned to authorities because she was unhappy with the response of the Eden Prairie school district to her daughter’s case. Mutziger complained that the school district failed to respond to her concerns appropriately or promptly, a charge that the district vehemently denies.

It all started last year when Cheltzie started coming home from school with stories about “naughty language” heard on the bus and how a first-grade boy called Cheltzie and another girl obscene names. Throughout the year there were other incidents, including repeated profanity, references to genitalia and a suggestion that Cheltzie perform a sexual act on her father.

“I could see what was happening; she was going downhill,” Mutziger said during a recent interview in her suburban Minneapolis apartment. “Many days I would pick her up from (after-school) day care and she was crying. The first thing she’d talk about was: ‘Mom, I’ve got to tell you what’s happening on the school bus.’ Many days she didn’t want to get on the bus. When you’re constantly demeaned, humiliated and embarrassed, it affects your self-esteem, confidence level, who you are.”

Mutziger, a single parent who is pursuing a master’s degree in counseling, recalls her daughter concluding: “ ‘I guess that’s just how boys are supposed to talk to girls, huh?’ I was just livid. The idea that a 7-year-old already has an idea of how one sex should treat another.”

Mutziger first complained to the district last March and has written more than 20 pages of single-spaced correspondence to school officials since then.

On that point school officials agree, but they believe that the bus problems have been solved.

“We did a number of things between March 8 and June 4 to eliminate or alleviate problems,” said Supt. Gerald McCoy. Among them, the district removed two children from the bus and disciplined them, and officials spoke to children riding the bus on the subject of appropriate language. Furthermore, the district is considered a leader on the sexual harassment issue, McCoy said, and for years has taught a curriculum from kindergarten through 12th grade on the topic.

McCoy said he doesn’t know why Mutziger, who says things on Cheltzie’s bus have “improved about 90%” this year, wasn’t satisfied.

“It seems to me she didn’t want resolution on the local level. She wanted national recognition. We are a public agency. I was offered to go on ‘Good Morning America’ and ‘Sally Jessy Raphael’ and argue with a 7-year-old. Our attorneys said that wouldn’t be a very good idea.”

Mutziger denies that she wanted the spotlight and says the case took on a life of its own because of its importance. Mutziger thinks the district’s efforts have brought little relief for a problem that’s endemic in Eden Prairie and probably afflicts many other districts. Furthermore, she contends that the district may have a sexual harassment policy, but failed to follow it.

She wants the district to deploy a comprehensive teaching-and-training program on sexual harassment for students and staff and place adults or video monitors on school buses.

Video cameras would cost a prohibitive $500,000, McCoy said. “We don’t want to treat this thing like Big Brother with a camera on every bus,” he said. “We think we should change behavior. This is a societal problem.”

In Eden Prairie, meanwhile, the fuss has taken a toll.

“Every parent knows kids get teased in schools, and we’re not saying Cheltzie didn’t get harassed,” said Val Malone, co-president of the local parent-teacher organization. “But we think this is an isolated case and think it’s kind of been blown out of proportion. This is not sexual harassment. Children at this age don’t have a concept of sexual harassment.”

The question of how old is old enough to commit sexual harassment remains open. It used to be thought that children must have puberty’s pimples and teen-age Angst to be old enough to commit an act of sexual malice.

But that’s all changed. “We’re seeing this at younger and younger ages,” said Susan Strauss, a Minneapolis-based sexual harassment consultant and author who has conducted training seminars at school districts throughout the country. What used to be simple gender antagonism has escalated. “The new element is violence,” Strauss said. “There is much more incidence of profane comments and even physical assault.”

The behavior impairs girls and young women, sometimes permanently, Strauss said. “The psychological damage of sexual harassment can be as damaging as sexual abuse.”

The investigation by state authorities is pending, and the federal probe by the Education Department’s office of civil rights will conclude by the end of January. Results could be a negotiated settlement or a possible loss of federal funding.

No matter how the case is resolved, a number of events have conspired to push the issue to the front burner.

Nationally divisive issues such as the Anita Faye Hill-Clarence Thomas case and the depiction of women in movies and on television have led to new awareness of sexual harassment issues. And the U.S. Supreme Court in February ruled that students who are victims of sexual harassment may seek financial damages from their schools.

So far, Minnesota is believed to be the first state requiring each school district to develop a sexual harassment-sexual violence policy. (In California, a 1993 law will allow the suspension or expulsion of students who sexually harass other students, but will not apply below the fourth grade. “I would guess there’s probably a societal presumption that young kids wouldn’t understand the implications of their behavior,” said Barry Zolotar, deputy general counsel for the California Department of Education. “They’re still considered to be extremely naive.”)

School districts in Minnesota are learning the hard way how expensive a lack of attention to the issue can be. Two districts recently have been penalized under a 1983 state law involving high school students.

A young woman was awarded $15,000 after the state concluded Duluth school administrators failed to do enough, soon enough, about demeaning sexual graffiti on a restroom wall.

In another case, the state ruled against a district for failing to take enough action on a well-circulated list describing the sexual attributes of 25 female students. Financial penalties remain under negotiation.

Despite the issue’s higher profile, some think there remains too much of a “boys will be boys” attitude. “I know people are saying it’s child’s play and we shouldn’t pay attention to it, but it’s very serious because it shows such a disrespect for girls’ gender that it can lead to future problems,” said Sue Sattel, a sex equity specialist for the state of Minnesota.