PARIS – In an attempt to be more proactive in preventing inappropriate behavior that has been seen in a small group of Paris Elementary School second-grade students in recent months, educators are refocusing their efforts on informational and educational programs about sexual harassment and abuse.

School Principal Jane Fahey said Monday that the Rape Education and Crisis Hotline, or REACH, will conduct a forum on the topic for parents beginning at 6:30 tonight in the Paris Elementary School cafeteria at 4 Hathaway Road off High Street.

The move is one of several initiatives Fahey has taken recently to try to prevent behavior that even longtime educators such as herself are finding surprising.

“We’ve asked REACH in as a first step,” said Fahey of the local organization that provides adolescent awareness and risk reduction programs to students and the general public throughout Oxford County.

Additionally, Fahey said that as a result of the recent problems, the staff has looked carefully at the curriculum and discovered that a sexual harassment and abuse program that was in place has not been used for a number of years.

“We discovered in talking to our staff that we’d stopped it a number of years ago,” said Fahey of the Good Touch, Bad Touch program that provided students with age-appropriate information about inappropriate behavior.

Fahey said she believes much of the behavior she has seen students bringing into school is coming from programs the children are exposed to, including some PG-rated children’s movies.

While the school takes immediate action to stop the problem behavior, including disciplinary consequences, parent meetings and talking with children to teach appropriate behavior, Fahey said the problem escalated four weeks ago when a parent reported an incident on a school bus between two elementary school boys that some say was allegedly of a sexual nature. The incident was reported statewide in a television newscast.

Fahey said school officials, the Paris Police Department and Maine Department of Human Services were involved in an investigation about the alleged incident and have reported the results to parents.

“We have investigated the matter. To date we have no evidence and no witnesses to corroborate that the alleged incident took place,” she said in a June 8 letter sent to all parents of elementary school students.

She has asked parents to strongly address poor language or behaviors that they hear from their children, control what children are exposed to particularly in television, movies and in print and to support school administrators as they attempt to deal with inappropriate situations and maintain a safe learning environment for children.

Tonight’s forum is being provided in response to some parents’ requests for more information about how to protect children from inappropriate language and behaviors. Parents will be told what signs to look out for and be given prevention tips to protect children from sexual harassment and abuse.