Probable Fruitless Gyration

[Elspode]

The problems in my kids' schools which I've posted about from time to time haven't gotten better. In fact, they've gotten worse. To whit, the following email, which will be sitting in the inboxes of every school district administrator above the level of hole puncher come morning.

I'm sure this is a total waste of time, but my kid shouldn't have to put up with this shit, not at school, not anywhere. And we *will* homeschool him, if that is what it takes.

Names changed to protect the innocent.

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Respected Educators, Administrators and Other Interested Parties:

I am writing today in order to inform you of a situation involving our 13-year-old son, C***, a seventh grade student at Grandview Middle School. Over the course of the past three years, we have become increasingly concerned about C***'s safety and well-being, as well as the overall social environment which is present in the Grandview Consolidated School District #4.

In recent months, C*** has been expressing various physical discomforts; headaches, fatigue and nausea. We took C*** to his physician, but nothing physical was found to be wrong with him by his medical doctor. These maladies are nothing new; C*** has complained about them on and off for a few years, but increasingly so in the past two years. These maladies seem to disappear during the summer months. Indeed, his physician rendered the opinion that C*** was almost certainly manifesting psychosomatic symptoms as a result of stress.

On the night of Wednesday, March 31, C***'s mother and I returned home to find C*** in a state of hysterical sobbing, curled in a fetal position on his bed. Upon querying him, he told us, between sobs, that he could no longer tolerate the sociological environment at his school. He stated that he was tired of being bullied, verbally and physically abused, intimidated, harassed and insulted by his fellow students on a daily basis. He said he could no longer go back to his school, and that he was afraid that he was going to either be hurt, or that he would hurt someone else.

The emotional outburst went on for quite some time, and his mother and I determined that he needed professional psychological care. We took him to St. Luke's Cr******n center, which is near our home, on Thursday evening. There, he underwent an intake interview, and was admitted to the hospital facility. On Friday, C*** received an evaluation and was prescribed Lexapro, an antidepressant/antianxiety medication. On Sunday, we checked C*** out of Cr******n and brought him home, largely because he displayed no further symptoms of emotional distress. He has displayed no further symptoms since then. However, it was the advice of his therapist at Cr******n that C*** be removed from GMS and homeschooled if at all possible.

C*** rarely displays unfounded physical symptoms when he is out of school. When at home, he is a gregarious, outgoing, loving and well-adjusted teenager. However, when in the environment of Grandview Middle School, he descibes himself as fearful and anxious, and he manifests psychosomatic physical symptoms. It is our belief that there is a serious problem with the way the students at GMS are behaving toward C***, and I would like to give several examples of things that have occurred there in recent months.

C*** has described frequent and ongoing verbal abuse. Some of the terms which he has had directed at him are as follow:

Nigger
Bitch
Motherfucker
Boy
Carrot Top
Son of a Bitch
Puto
Fatty
Baker

C*** tells us that these, and other, terms are used in an aggressive manner, multiple times, on a daily basis, often with exhortations of "step up", meaning that he is being encouraged to respond to the verbal abuse with physical force. In addition, C*** relates to us that he is frequently derided because of his physical appearance; in particular, his weight, his freckles and his red hair are targeted. C*** also relates tales of physical contact; he says he is frequently shoved, punched and intentionally run into while walking through the hallways. He reports that the individuals who collide with him often look back and laugh derisively. In no event is there any indication of the collisions being accidental, and no apologies or pardons are offered. He has been stabbed in the head with a pencil by a student who sat beside him in the gym (this required treatment by the school nurse), kicked while standing in line and while sitting in classes.

As his parents, we have spent a great deal of time trying to help C*** deal with the situations at school for the past few years. We have impressed upon him, at length, the need to remain passive, to walk away and, at all times, de-escalate the hostile situations. We have instructed C*** to report all such incidents at school, but he tells us that nothing has yet changed as a result of his reports. We have also taken our parental concerns to the school administrators on several occasions. With one notable exception, we were told that the situations were either mutual, or that they were C***'s fault for having started them. We can no longer accept such explanations. There is a consistent pattern which has emerged over the years, one which cannot be explained by solely pointing the finger of blame at our son. It is our belief that an overall attitude of aggression and hostility is being allowed to fester within the Grandview School District, and in particular, at Grandview Middle School.

When a child repeatedly comes home describing cases of verbal abuse, physical abuse, intimidation, and insults with clearly derogatory racial intent, *something* is seriously wrong. When a child finally breaks down from the anxiety caused by such an onslaught, something must be done to change things.

It is our intent to request that C*** receive an IEP evaluation for the purpose of determining what accomodations may be made in order to remove him from the hostile and possibly dangerous environment at GMS. As you are aware, emotional disabilities are covered under ADA regulations, and we feel that there are numerous reasonable accomodations that must be made in order to provide physical and emotional security to our son. We therefore request the following immediate steps be taken, until such time as an IEP can be developed and a full assessment of alternate educational situations be made:

1) C*** must be allowed to transit between classes either before or after the other students. In this way, he will not have to interact with the other students during the relatively unsupervised times when walking between classrooms.

2) C*** must be allowed to sit with a supervising teacher or other adult staff member during his lunch period. Much of the abuse he has described occurs during lunch periods, and no one ever seems to take much notice.

We will *not* return C*** to GMS until such time as the two enumerated safety criteria are guaranteed to us. In the meantime, C*** will be homeschooled. However, we much prefer that C*** be able to remain in the Grandview school system. He is much too social, and does not deserve to be isolated simply because of harassment and aggression.

It should be pointed out that C*** is currently an honor roll level student; he was recently granted membership in the National Junior Honor Society. He is very active in extracurricular activites and Band. It is all the more remarkable that he has been so determined to make the most of his school experience, especially since attending middle school, in light of the stress, fear and intimidation he has experienced.

It would be very easy to simply try and explain this problem away by saying that C*** is maladjusted or that he is suffering from some mental problems separate from his school experience. However, we believe that his grades, his participation at school, his general good nature and overall outgoing and loving personality belie such a conclusion. C*** will be participating in ongoing counseling and psychopharmacological treatment. C*** will be dealing with his part of the situation. I now must ask how Grandview will deal with its part in all of this?

It would be a terrible tragedy if a pervasive sociologically oppressive situation were allowed to perpetuate until some other student ended up feeling like C*** feels. Perhaps that student's parents would not have the psychological training that C***'s mother has. Perhaps that student's symptoms would go unrecognized until it was too late, and Grandview School District found itself the victim of another senseless and preventable tragedy such as those at Columbine and Hattiesburg.

I implore you to take immediate steps to ensure the safety, not only of our son, but of your entire student body. Attitude, abuse and hostility deprive us of our fundamental human dignity. Vile, hateful words leave us traumatized. This situation needs to be addressed immediately, and simple words and posters encouraging students to respect each other won't do it.

We await your prompt *written* response.