The boy, who directed the rhyme at a couple of female classmates, was charged with sexual harassment and suspended from school, setting off a bizarre explosion of national publicity and a debate about political correctness run amok. But Amy Aldini bitterly and openly complained about the suspension, charging that her son, though in the wrong, was in turn being unduly punished by a community where, like the fictional Lake Wobegon, everyone is supposed to be above average. The past year, she says, has been a living hell. In it, Aldini describes in detail the events leading up to and following her son's suspension. It is not pretty stuff and would certainly anger the same people who vociferously condemned her actions a year ago in letters to the editor and in letters and voice mail messages to me.
Rumors spread like wildfire.
My son was the object of ridicule, our business was vandalized and boycotted. Our car was vandalized. Hate mail came for months. Most of it was anonymous and directed towards me in a disgustingly sexual way. We felt and still do like lepers in our own neighborhood.