To Police Report or Not to Police Report?

[Anonymous]

I was reading through the previous post on this same forum about a second grader choking another one and saw that a lot of the comments suggested to file a police report. It made me think, what warrants a police report and what doesn't? In that previous post the child that choke the other I guess had also threatened the kid verbally about having a knife so not sure if that's what also made people suggest the police report. It surprised me, not saying it is right or wrong it just surprised me that a police report was suggested.

[Anonymous]

I think the thing that made PPs suggest filing a police report is that it went beyond words and child was assaulted.
Schools (participate FCPS) do too little to response to address/correct physical violence in the classroom. And having a police report on file will not only encourage the school admins to act, but it may also trigger an investigation of CPS if they feel that it is warranted.

It’s not okay for a child to be permitted to hit, kick, or choke another child, whether inside or outside of school. And that behavior comes from somewhere. Police report will allow someone to follow up on what the underlying home issue is.

[Anonymous]

I actually think this is an interesting question. My DC had someone hit them multiple times earlier this week - not incredibly hard - as part of intimidating DC in order to steal food from DC. We obviously addressed it with the principal, but at what point would you escalate further? My child didn't have any bumps or bruises or marks, but they were still hit and stolen from.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the thing that made PPs suggest filing a police report is that it went beyond words and child was assaulted.
Schools (participate FCPS) do too little to response to address/correct physical violence in the classroom. And having a police report on file will not only encourage the school admins to act, but it may also trigger an investigation of CPS if they feel that it is warranted.

It’s not okay for a child to be permitted to hit, kick, or choke another child, whether inside or outside of school. And that behavior comes from somewhere. Police report will allow someone to follow up on what the underlying home issue is.

No student is given permission to hit, kick or choke another.

[Anonymous]

I think that people suggest filing a police report because the schools are no longer moving quickly to address issues with kids with behavioral problems. Physical assault should be a threshold that leads to immediate consequences but it now seems that is not happening. And while most early ES kids are not likely to try and really harm a classmate, we know that some do and the very rare few are quite clinical in their decision to shoot or assault a classmate.

I believe most people are hoping that filing a police report would force the school to take stronger action although I am not certain that will be the case.

[Anonymous]

The school definitely takes stronger actions if police are involved. The offending kid can be moved to another school, courts can force treatment, and parents who have been refusing testing or special education fir their kids can no longer do so. I have had several kids come to my ED classroom this way, and every one needed much more than the base school could offer. Everyone needs to push back against assaults and extreme bullying. And always call your school board member if needed. Schools hop to it when they get involved.

If a teacher is hurt by a student, the school is required by county rules to notify law enforcement, but they don’t, because they don’t want that showing up on their school statistics, especially in elementary school.

Right now, the number of kids in CSS programs is very low, compared to previous years, and that’s crazy, because so many kids are in need of help.

[Anonymous]

I am navigating a similar situation, my DS has been threatened once, choked once and even after DS and the other kid were split up, this other student went up to DS' lunch table and did some strange hand motions directed at DS. School is monitoring and said it is starting to build the case for bullying because they can tell from the lunch incident that it is intentional and the other child can't say it's an accident. But they said it's not enough to be considered bullying. How many other incidents does DS have to deal with? Makes me think a police report may have helped in my situation. DS and other child are in 3rd grade.

[Anonymous]

The posters who suggest calling the police because of a 2nd grader misbehaving are insane, OP. Not sure why you're paying any attention to them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The posters who suggest calling the police because of a 2nd grader misbehaving are insane, OP. Not sure why you're paying any attention to them.

Ten years ago I would have agreed. Maybe even five years ago. But schools are not addressing even the worst behavioral problems -- restorative justice is a joke or worse, so calling the police may be the only way to make sure the problem is addressed when physical assaults occur.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The posters who suggest calling the police because of a 2nd grader misbehaving are insane, OP. Not sure why you're paying any attention to them.

NP. We have a second grade boy in my kid's class that consistently physically assaults other students. Slaps, shoves and kicks these kids.
The only thing that has happened is the kid gets sent to the office for a few minutes and then gets to come back and terrorize the class again. How long do we let a kid just keep on doing this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The posters who suggest calling the police because of a 2nd grader misbehaving are insane, OP. Not sure why you're paying any attention to them.

NP. We have a second grade boy in my kid's class that consistently physically assaults other students. Slaps, shoves and kicks these kids.
The only thing that has happened is the kid gets sent to the office for a few minutes and then gets to come back and terrorize the class again. How long do we let a kid just keep on doing this?

Not a minute more. (PP at 16:30)

[Anonymous]

I wouldn’t hesitate to file a police report and request an investigation.

[Anonymous]

The Poluce don’t just write a report because you want them to fyi. Certain criteria has to be met. Reports take a lot of time. Investigations have to done etc…… a lot of times with young children they let schools handle the situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Poluce don’t just write a report because you want them to fyi. Certain criteria has to be met. Reports take a lot of time. Investigations have to done etc…… a lot of times with young children they let schools handle the situation.

Don’t accept that, request a criminal investigation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Poluce don’t just write a report because you want them to fyi. Certain criteria has to be met. Reports take a lot of time. Investigations have to done etc…… a lot of times with young children they let schools handle the situation.

That is not true. Anyone can file a police report. What happens after depends on the things you listed, but the report itself? You're wrong.