In Re Shannon T.

In a vernacular at odds with his suggestion that he was just “play[ing] around,” 14-year-old Shannon T. (the minor) went up to a 16-year-old girl at school and said, “Get off the phone. You’re my ‘ho.’ ” The girl, who was talking on her cell phone, replied “whatever” and began to walk to class. With a misguided sense of who was being offensive, the minor pursued the girl and complained, “Don’t talk to me like that.” He then slapped her face, grabbed her arm, and pinched her breast, causing her to cry. The pinch resulted in a one-inch by one-half-inch purple bruise with red dots “right above her left nipple.”

Finding that the minor committed sexual battery and battery on school property, the juvenile court placed the minor on probation under terms that limited his freedom.

On appeal, the minor notes that the victim acknowledged she and the minor had been friends and, in the past, had engaged in “playful hitting” of each other. Thus, he argues, the sexual battery finding must be reversed because there is insufficient evidence that he touched the victim on this occasion “for the specific purpose of sexual arousal, sexual gratification, or sexual abuse,” which is an element…