Zero Tolerance

At a local high school, a teenage boy wore a t-shirt to school that showed a picture of a gun and words to the effect that he was a licensed terrorist hunter. He was suspended and his parents are suing the school for freedom of speech.

One of my son's friends had a pocket knife in his backpack that his cousin had put there. He was caught trying to throw it away and was suspended.

Another boy in a neighboring elementary school threatened to stab his teacher with a pencil. He was suspended.

There is a boy in my son's school. A very troubled boy who alternates between being an average kid and an extreme bully. He scares me at times and I am strongly disappointed in his parents. My son overheard this boy calling some children of color the N-word. He went up to this boy and told him that it was inappropriate to do that and that he shouldn't do it anymore. Some of the teachers found out about it and asked the kids what happened. My son told the truth, as did some others.

Later, the boy ranted at the other kids for telling the teachers what happened. He told my son and the black and Puerto Rican kids to stay 10 feet away from him at all times or he would bring his gun to school and kill them all. And, from talking to a child who has slept over at his house, the boy does have access to a gun at home.

Nothing has happened. I've talked to the principal twice as has another parent. He told that parent that there were no witnesses and it was the boy vs. the two children of color and they were unreliable because they have lied in the past. He has never spoken to my son although he better tomorrow. He said he hadn't talked to my son because the teachers had told him it had been resolved. To me, he said that he was taking action, but needed to maintain privacy out of respect for the boy and his parents. I hope he has taken action, but the parents of the boy refuse to believe anything bad about their child and in many ways, I think the father encourages his son's behavior. I'm also upset that they told the kids not to tell their parents about the incidents because they hadn't been verified yet.

I don't necessarily want this boy suspended. I want him to be given help and counseling. He is a ticking timebomb - the kind of boy that shoots up his high school for past grievances. I'd like to think it is not too late to help him, but I am not sure he will get the help he needs.

I am very proud of my son for sticking up for what is right. He could have looked the other way and done nothing. Others probably did. I've told him how proud I am of him and he's seen all the emails I have sent to the school. He is worried about having to talk to the principal and having the boy find out about it.

I thought with this new principal that things would be different at his school. The last principal did not like children - it was very obvious - and the kids would come home and talk about how racist she was. From the very early grades, my son and his friends, mostly white, would come home and talk about how if a white kid does something, they don't get in trouble, but if a black kid does the same thing, they lose recess or other privileges.

There was some incidents with the old principal where she thought the kids were being too loud at lunchtime, so she would make the kids put their heads down and stop eating as punishment. Some of the kids didn't get to eat depending on when they got to the table. I wrote letters of complaint, called the superintendent of the elementary schools and was told by the superintendent and the principal, that the kids made it all up and were lying. I asked them how all these children, and I talked to many of them at football practice, would independently tell me the same story, consistently the same story, could be liars. They swore they investigated and no adult who was present would collaborate the story. I told my son if he wasn't finished eating his lunch, he had my permission to eat his lunch and not put his head down. After I and others complained, they stopped that practice though so he was luckily never put to that test.

The new principal likes children and I was hoping that he would make positive changes. Until this incident, I thought he had been. And, maybe he is, maybe he is doing something to help this boy, but the different explanations to the other parent and to myself give me reason to doubt.