Saturday, January 17, 2009

Penalties

Okay...I will try not to make this long. I explained recently the lanyard requirement at my son's school. Recently he forgot to bring his lanyard, so was issued a new one, and issued a detention. He forgot to go to detention, so now has to go to Saturday school instead. Saturday school.....because of not wearing a lanyard. Keep that fact in your mind.

My son and his friends have been eating lunch outside in the ampitheater. For some weeks now, they have had a problem with a group of students throwing water bottles down at them from the top steps. They have yelled to the kids to stop, but they still continue. They have been dealing with this for awhile now. My son finally told me about it, so I suggested he and his friends move to another place. They did, and the kids found them and continued. I suggested my son tell security about the problem. They did, and security said, "Well, we will keep an eye on them". Nothing more was done. My son said, "Mom, there is only one security guard for the entire house." (sophomores) I must say at this point that there are only about 5 security people in the entire school Four of them are women, and one is a big man who moves very slowly. They also have an on duty policeman assigned to their school. This is a very large school!

One of my son's friends got angry and started yelling at the group of kids and told them to stop, and said if they didn't he would come make them. Now I know that threatening isn't right, but this kid was fed up. Later he was walking in the parking lot and this group of kids jumped him. They beat him up, and one kid kicked him in the head, knocking him out. He was taken to the hospital, and the two offenders that hit him were put in juvenile hall and will be expelled. But the other kids are still at school.

The day after this occurence, when my son heard about his friend, he was really mad. At lunch, once again these kids threw water bottles at him and his friends. He reached his limit and told the one kid that if he and him went one and one, he could beat him up. I know...dumb....but I can't blame him for getting fed up. At this point, the security FINALLY noticed the problem because of the yelling and took my son and the other kid to the VP office. The VP talked to them about how they shouldn't fight, and reprimanded them, then sent them away without any penalty.

So now I'm concerned about my son's safety! Are these kids going to jump him in the parking lot? I think he is concerned too. He could fare okay if it were one on one, but as I told him, they will never do a "one on one". Not that I want my son fighting. We have talked to him about the consequences of things we do in anger, and I think he realizes it was stupid. But now what?

I went in and talked to the VP, who is totally clueless and in denial. He repeatedly told me how safe this school is because they are wearing the ever sacred lanyards. I told him straight out that their security is terrible. A bunch of old ladies are not equipped to deal with the safety of this school. He was very silver tongued and did his best to try to convince me of how safe the school is. His tongue dripped syrup. I didn't buy it for a second. I do think my son can help the situation to die down by avoiding the kid and letting the matter drop, but I still worry. He is determined to avoid the kid at all costs. The school is finally doing something to watch the problem. The VP did admit that they weren't aware of the problem until the beating. They have securuity watching during lunch, but the VP said this won't last forever. They simply don't have the resources to watch this every day. He claims the school is so safe, but my question is, if the school is so safe, how did these kids go for WEEKS without being caught throwing water bottles? And why did security never see the problem? Is security is out on the grounds, how do they miss flying water bottles?

Meanwhile, the kids who were throwing the water bottles will be back at school next week. My son however, will be serving a Saturday school for his horrible crime of not wearing a lanyard..... My husband and I are looking in to transferring our son to another school.

4 comments:

Stick said...

In my school we have many video cameras surveying the hallways and the lunch area. I suggest putting these to useo if they are present in your son's school by eating lunch where one of these will catch the water bottle throwing. I know fighting is not the answer, because stupid kids that will beat someone up in the parking lot, are too stupid to quit even if they get beat in one fight. Maybe if your son could get the entire school body to confront them something would happen, otherwise avoidance is the best answer. I hope you can get him transferred to another school.

Nene said...

I think it's past the point of worrying if they will throw water bottles anymore. I doubt they will. I think they will escalate it. An eye for and eye. They will want to compensate for their buddies being expelled. However now there are fewer of them. You have to be careful that your son doesn't end up in the school where the ones who got expelled went. (Or are they coming back to the same school?) Is there any way to get a restraining order on any or all of them? It's sad that it has to end up that your son has to be the one to go to another school. Unfortunately this happens everywhere. This happened to one of my Seminary students and he had to go to another school across town for his safety.

Looney said...

This kind of stuff makes me mad, but it seems there is nothing that can be done. Growing up in the south, we didn't have this kind of stuff.

Amber said...

I think you should teach him some karate too, in case he ever does get in a fight