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Putting Out Fires

For one typical elementary school principal, dealing with paperwork, student discipline, and routine duties consumes most of the day.

Mesa, Ariz.

Fredi Buffmire, the principal at Mendoza Elementary School here, faces an epidemic of "pantsing." A growing number of her students, it seems, are unable to resist the temptation to sneak up behind their classmates and pull down their trousers. Most of the offenders, and victims, are boys.

For each incident, she fills out a carbon-copy form. She keys it into a computer log. Because it involves what could be seen as sexual misconduct, she notifies a police officer assigned to the building. She also metes out punishment: typically the loss of playtime.

"How would you feel if a grown-up walked up and jerked your pants down?" she lectures one of the many pint-sized perpetrators who...