A child accidentally brushed a woman's backside with his backpack and the woman accused him of sexual assault. Many news outlets have taken to bringing their races (black and white respectively) into the incident, but, even if this wasn't a race thing, the incident still stands as one of the most messed up things that happened in 2018. She got the nickname "Cornerstore Caroline" and apologized after the incident. The woman claims to have received death threats as a result of the incident.
“I was wrong,” said the woman, identified as Teresa Klein but dubbed Cornerstore Caroline on social media. “The child accidentally brushed against me. Young man, I don’t know your name but I’m sorry.”
Accusing a child that young (8-9) of doing something sexual is weird and, if the contact were sexual, it would likely be the result of grooming or the kid simply not knowing any better. However, neither was the case and the police did not need to be called over a backpack. Not only that, a backpack brushing by feels very different from a hand grabbing someone's buttock.
Klien is noted to have a history of being "unwell", but that doesn't mean that mental illnesses will automatically lend themselves to behaving like this. Out of maintaining consideration for all parties involved, do not come at this woman demanding to know her mental health history as I'm pretty sure that's not only a low blow but illegal. I hope the boy doesn't suffer any lingering negative after-effects and the woman can live her life in peace with the help she needs.
Other than "what?", I really don't have anything else to say other than that this seems to have been unnecessarily racialized with other issues, such as false accusations, dragged into it. In this day and age, I genuinely fear for the people who have been sexually assaulted and aren't believed because of the events that have transpired thus far.
Sources and Photos:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/apos-cornerstore-caroline-apos-breaks-181218732.html
https://www.wptv.com/news/local-news/water-cooler/cornerstore-caroline-teresa-klein-apologizes-after-incident-in-brooklyn-store
http://gothamist.com/2018/10/15/teresa_klein_followup.php