Is it Illegal to Swear at a Child

My question involves civil rights in the State of: Pennsylvania

Not sure if I'm posting in the right place but here goes...

Me and my friends were playing wiffle ball at a field behind a school. Some kids came up and were being kind of rude and we cursed at them and also said a racist remark at them, not the n word though. The remarks were not threatening it was more of shut the @#%! up. The racist remark was also non threatening. The next day their mother approached us while we were in the same place. We were in our car at the time trying to leave but she recognized us and stood in front of our car. She had her hands in the car, ripped open one of the doors, and even threatened to hurt us (which we got video of). She also said she filed a police report. I think that only "fighting words" could create a problem but none were used in this situation. I do realize that we made a bad decision by cursing at the kids and saying a racist remark and am sorry that we said it. My question is can I actually get in trouble for this?

It is unlikely based on the info you gave.

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She had her hands in the car, ripped open one of the doors, and even threatened to hurt us (which we got video of).

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so you yelled at the She Hulks child and she hunted you down and tore your car up.


Maybe you might want to be careful who you yell at. Next time it might be Superman's kid and you know he can really throw some whoop ass at ya with them heat ray eyes and super strength on top of it.

besides getting assaulted by a parent, I wanted to know if I could get in any legal trouble if she indeed did file a police report

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Quoting tedf

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besides getting assaulted by a parent, I wanted to know if I could get in any legal trouble if she indeed did file a police report

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as long as you did not physically assault the kid or actually threaten him, I doubt anything will come of this. Could it? Sure. Will it; only the prosecutor knows for sure.

I just want to be reassured. I did not threaten the kids in any fashion. I never laid a finger on the kids or the mother. You said sure to something coming of this, what could that be possibly?

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Quoting tedf

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I just want to be reassured. I did not threaten the kids in any fashion. I never laid a finger on the kids or the mother. You said sure to something coming of this, what could that be possibly?

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I said it is possible. I didn't say probable.

I could guess all night long but since I don't have all the facts, it would be useless but I can think of a couple possibilities depending on exactly what happened.

Ya I meant to say you said sure to something possibly happening sorry for the mix up...just curious what are some of the couple possibilities?

The disorderly conduct phrasing is pretty broad. Profanity to cause shock/disturbance of another is technically a violation.


However, that's only a summary offense. Yelling at you and threatening to hurt you is assault and a misdemeanor at it's lightest.

You mean 18 Pa.C.S. § 5503(a)(3) ("A person is guilty of disorderly conduct if, with intent to cause public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm, or recklessly creating a risk thereof, he... (3) uses obscene language, or makes an obscene gesture...")? Pennsylvania's courts have limited that statute to prurient and sexual language:

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Quoting Commonwealth v. McCoy, 2013 PA Super 127, 69 A.3d 658 (2013)

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The first inquiry is what is the definition of "obscene" for purposes of 18 Pa.C.S. § 5503(a)(3). This Court has held that, for purposes of a disorderly conduct statute prohibiting the use of obscene language, language is obscene if it meets the test set forth in Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15, 93 S.Ct. 2607, 37 L.Ed.2d 419 (1973):

(a) whether "the average person, applying contemporary community standards" would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest, (b) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law, and (c) whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

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Depending on the words used, the conduct might fall under subsection (1) ("...engages in fighting or threatening, or in violent or tumultuous behavior..."), but it does not appear that the language under discussion would trigger subsection (3).

Alright thank you everyone for your contributions you've made me feel a lot more reassured about this situation