School discipline a joke

[urbex]

This kind of stuff really is nothing new. I remember getting sucker punched in middle school (geez..over 20 years ago..I'm gettin' old! ), coming off the buses. Principal of the school happened to see it, and stepped in before I had a chance to swing back. I got told that normally zero tolerance rules meant everybody involved in the fight gets the same punishment, in this case, suspension. The _only_ reason I wasn't getting suspended as well was because I didn't respond to the hit.

In other words, if I stand there, and allow myself to get beat on, I'm ok and will stay out of trouble. But if I defend myself, I'll be just as guilty as the kid that initiated the attack, and thus would be suspended as well.

Of course, this now meant to the other kids that I was a wuss, and didn't have the cajones to fight back, and expected teasing resulted from that. It ended when I initiated my response off school grounds.

Sadly, this now means that the less "cool" kids are going to have it double rough in life. They're going to take flak from the other kids, and as well from the administration if they try to do anything about it. Mix that up with FAR too many parents with the "Johnny can do no wrong" attitudes, it's a sad state of affairs we have today. It's almost ironic that we see so much "anti-bullying" propaganda today, yet the system is set up in a way that promotes and encourages the bullys to continue their behavior.

[Hedgehog_Mom]

Originally Posted by Beans&Cornbread

Yeah, based on what I read in that post, that is not harassment. That is sexual assault, plain and simple. I would hope that the mom had the cops involved.

The school makes it pretty much impossible to get the cops involved. They won't give any information out about the other children involved and the cops won't/can't do anything without more information. We had that problem when someone threatened to stab my daughter the year before...I called the police but the child had a common last name and we didn't have an address, parents' names, etc. They said there was nothing they could do without that info.

With the boy issue, my daughter said there were other girls in the class who were getting their butts grabbed and the other problems, but one of the girls said she liked it because she knew it meant she was pretty, and another girl said she couldn't tell her parents because her dad would kill her and say it was her fault.

I guess I could have hired a lawyer, but with how much it would have cost and how guilty and embarrassed my daughter felt about the whole thing, I just wanted to make it all go away.

She still attends public school, she just attends one in a different district, online. Like I said, it's not a solution for everyone, you've really got to be able to have one parent home all day to make it work. But it has been a good solution for us.

Some people said I should keep sending her to the school so she could learn to deal with situations like that which she might face in adult life. I would hope that if she were assaulted outside of the school setting, it would be easier to report and have something actually done about it.

[momtothree]

Keep.sending.her.to.deal...that doesn't not compute.

I can understand letting kids resolve minor issues such as an argument, mild case of I am not your friend anymore etc.

And if in cases of where it's more of an issue such as bullying, threats etc, then you need a strong administration to help resolve it. The kids cannot do it on their own. I am glad you were able to pull her and have an alternative for her.