When Sex Abuse Humor Goes Too Far

I received this office email the other day about a woman--let's call her Mitsy--at the social services organization I work with. It was to celebrate her being promoted:

"Mitsy has been with the agency for 18 years, starting as the Supervisor of the Child Sexual Abuse Treatment Center and developing this into the nationally renowned Treatment Center for Trauma and Abuse."

You should understand, the email was a full page of text. It was really a page long ode to Mitsy. Mitsy Mimosa III. Buried in the second to last paragraph was this:

"Mitsy has a special ability to provide vision, offer leadership...In her new role as Assistant Executive Director, the entire agency will be ‘touched.’"

Touched? In soft quotes? To me this was an obvious, well placed, bit of low-brow office humor about child molestation. The guy who composed this cheeky little memo--let's call him Tabitha--is second or third in command of the organization which makes me hesitant to ask him what he meant by his specific word choice. What if I'm wrong and I come off looking like a fan of jokes about pedophelia? Tabitha would be none to pleased.