Monday Madness

Today I called the school and made an appointment with the principal (spelled it right this time Carlo! lol). My meeting time was not until 2:45, so I had plenty to stew over. The reason for making this appointment, besides the obvious, was because I received a call from the assistant principal almost as soon as I got in to work. It appears that the bus driver did not see the beginnings of the fight… just the end of it and because the fight took place 50 feet from her bus, she was told to write it up. Of course, as I said, she only saw the end of it. She wrote that my son instigated the fight. I was, once again, flabbergasted… and highly pissed to say the least.

It turns out that the principal is totally on our side, but he is bound by the rules of the school. If one gets in a fight… the other is punished too. My son did a few things wrong that he now knows better than to do next time.

1. He didn’t report the threat to the principal when he saw him the day before.
2. He put his books down in a perceived acceptance of the fight, even though he did it to save them from getting scattered.
3. He threatened, in the heat of anger, AFTER he was hit, to “kill” the boy. (A terroristic threat is a huge no-no… and he has be extremely chastised for that by me.)

Per #1: After the councilor fiasco, the principal has been going to bat for my son. He told him that he would not hunt him down, but that he wanted my son to check in with him every few days to make sure he was doing OK. My son remembered to go see him on Wednesday, but neglected to tell the principal about the threats. The principal left to go out of town that evening and so was caught off guard by the reports that he got from the school concerning my son.

Per #2: He was not aware of the no putting the books down rule.

Per #3: He got realllllll stupid in his anger and said something that he should not have and now regrets it. The principal knows it was said in anger and is not taking the threat seriously.

My son now is sort of banned from the bus. The principal told us that he wants my son to succeed and needs my son to show him that he is not making a mistake by taking the chance with him.

The new rules are:

1. He is in Alternative School at the high school for another 7 days, instead of out of school suspension. He cannot goof off, fall asleep or doodle. He has to be working on his school work at all times. He will be checked in on periodically.
2. He can ride the bus to school, but cannot ride it home. The suspension from the bus for only a half day is a concession by the school to help me out so I don’t lose my job. Also, there is hardly any gas to be had here, STILL. If a station gets gas, the lines are genormous.  They are telling us now that it will take another 2 weeks for things to get back to normal. (This means that I have to get up early in the morning to find gas before the lines start. I am below half a tank and with having to pick up the kid everyday from school, my gas will only last 2 more days. BUT, at least it has gotten me through the first two weeks of this fiasco…)
3. I have to be there to pick him up everyday by 4:30, which means I am only losing 30 minutes of work… and I worked it out to work extra over the weekend to make up my time, instead of losing a vacation day.
4. IF the youngin does not follow the rules at Alt School for the next 7 days, he will receive the remainder of his suspension at home.
5. IF he gets into trouble on the bus in the next 7 days, he will be suspended from the bus for the remainder of this quarter… until January!

Please add us to your prayers. I hope that the youngin learned from this. I know he wants to prove everyone wrong… that he is a good kid and is trying his best to do the right thing. Just 7 days more… without incident.

BTW – The other child received a much greater punishment than my child did. Much worse and he apparently is in trouble with his probation officer… yes, you read that right… his probation officer. I imagine that he will be doing some Juvy jail time before he gets to come back to school. If my guesses are correct he is doing 9 days OSS and is banned from the bus for the remainder of this quarter, beyond the trouble he is in with his probation officer. He may also be sent to another alternative school… but this is all just a guess.