Sexual Harassment - Elementary School (Accord: lawyer, move, kindergarten)

[Rubie940123]

Yesterday my daughters school called my cell phone but my husband happened to answer the phone. The person calling was my child's principle asking to speak to me regarding an incident that had occurred at my daughters school involving my 7 year old daughter and her 7 year old classmate who by the way is a boy.

My husband was puzzled at the fact that she was more interested in speaking to me(I am a lot more reserved). It wasn’t until he interrupted her by saying “ what’s the matter I am her father” that she began to open up about the situation. From the start my husband wasn’t comfortable with the way she was trying to minimize the severity of the incident. She began by telling him “There has been an incident regarding your child and another boy in her class but don’t worry she is alright. Your daughter and this child were fooling around and the boy hit her in the private area”.

As you can imagine my husband was immediately infuriated and began to question the principle by asking what the child's name was. She refused to give a name but my daughter had already complained to us about a child that had previously touched her and had even hit her in the past (three separate incidents).

When my husband told the principle “ If the kid that did this is (name of child) than this is an ongoing issue and it ends now. I want to know what measures you will take to prevent this from happening again?” She refused to tell him and referred to her “protocol” clamming she can’t divulge that information. My husband proceeded to request for a meeting between parents where we can discuss the situation. Again the principal refused by saying “ At this point I am not inclined to setup a meeting”.

My husband and I always told our daughter to tell the teacher whenever something like that happens. We’ve come to find out at the meeting with the principle that she had been lying about telling on the kid because he would threaten her by telling her “ if you tell on me I won’t be your friend anymore”.

I was heartbroken and stunned when I heard that because I know it means a lot to my daughter for people to like her she is a natural social butterfly. At the meeting the principal presented me with two options "I can remove your child from the dual language class or she can remain there" both of which sounded completely ridiculous to me given the fact that she was the victim. According to her protocol she has to remove the child who has been victimized and not the perpetrator.

There is only one dual language class and my daughter has been in same class since Kindergarten. If she is removed she'll feel like she did something wrong for speaking up.

When I told my husband about that he took it extremely personal and called her immediately after hearing the options that were presented to me by the principal. The principal did not answer the phone instead the secretary took a message and told him that the principle will call him back. After an hour went by and we still hadn’t received a call from the principal he called her again and she answered and basically said the same thing of what she can do.

I need advice as to what other steps I can take. I feel like the school isn't being of much help.

[nicky91]

Go to the district and superintendent. Also threaten to school with a letter from a lawyer they don't like that.