Bullying, physical and sexual assaults at DCPS elementary and nothing being done by principal

[Anonymous]

My son is a Kindergartener and has been the victim of sexual and ongoing physical assaults and bullying at his school.. The majority of these incidents occur on the playground and involve about 6-7 of 1st grade boys who single out my son, kick, hit, jump on him and call him names. Other incidents have included being watched by another student while using the bathroom and the student making inappropriatel comments about his private parts. The same student also peed on my younger son while he was washing his hands(after school). My son was also choked in the library and threatened to be killed if he told on the kid for throwing pencils at him. None of these incidents were reported to me by school staff- I had to hear them first from my son!! Whenever I speak to the principal it's always, well we talked to the kids and that's not how they said things happened and since no one saw what happened we can't do anything. Today I was ready to pull him from school and homeschool for the remainder of the year. We are new to DCPS. What are my options here? How do I get something done about this? Is this just a lost cause? Help!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son is a Kindergartener and has been the victim of sexual and ongoing physical assaults and bullying at his school.. The majority of these incidents occur on the playground and involve about 6-7 of 1st grade boys who single out my son, kick, hit, jump on him and call him names. Other incidents have included being watched by another student while using the bathroom and the student making inappropriatel comments about his private parts. The same student also peed on my younger son while he was washing his hands(after school). My son was also choked in the library and threatened to be killed if he told on the kid for throwing pencils at him. None of these incidents were reported to me by school staff- I had to hear them first from my son!! Whenever I speak to the principal it's always, well we talked to the kids and that's not how they said things happened and since no one saw what happened we can't do anything. Today I was ready to pull him from school and homeschool for the remainder of the year. We are new to DCPS. What are my options here? How do I get something done about this? Is this just a lost cause? Help!

I would immediately remove my child from the school!

[Anonymous]

Look up free online public school for D.C.

[Anonymous]

What school?

[Anonymous]

Thanks, I will look into that. I don't see this situation improving. School is on Capitol Hill.

[Anonymous]

If you're not getting an appropriate response from the principal, call his/her instructional superintendent. Also call the police -- there's a special unit for dealing with school. The purpose of that isn't to get the kid in trouble, but to highlight to the school how serious you are.

There is a procedure to transfer your child to another school as a safety transfer, although you don't always get a lot of choice about where you transfer to.

Have you put everything -- your complaints and the principal's response -- in writing?

[Anonymous]

We'be documented everything to ourselves, emailed the principal some and teachers some. We have not reached out to the principal on everything because he's proved to be completely incompetent and one sided. We started working directly with his teachers and we saw some benefit to that. They are really invested and take this serious. The last major incident has been about 6 weeks-- aside from today. Today we emailed his superintendent. Do you know the name of the special unit? Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I would not send my child to the school. Take this to the Board or Superintendent ASAP

[Anonymous]

and I hope things get better for your son. How awful.

[Anonymous]

I tried to figure out whether DCPS has a bullying reporting form that goes to the superintendent's office (MCPS does) but only found a dead link: https://dcps.dc.gov/node/696112

I hope you find a way through this, OP. It sounds like a nightmare. To be honest, though, you probably won't get real traction without involving school administration.

[Anonymous]

I would write a letter detailing everything that has happened - each incident including details, dates, names of students involved, to whom you reported the incident, their response, and your son's reaction. I would then email and send a copy via certified mail to the principal, superintendent, and board or other governing body. I would also tell them you will be speaking with the police and a lawyer to determine your best course of action before their inaction does irreparable harm to your son. And I would pull him out, even if he has to repeat a year or do summer school or something.

[Anonymous]

DC has an ombudsman. Reach out -

https://sboe.dc.gov/page/office-of-the-ombudsman-for-public-education

[Anonymous]

Why would you send him to that school even one more day? I would send him to an affordable Catholic school, other low cost private school, or homeschool him. I would call every charter school to see if there was room or rent a small apartment in another area temporarily to send my kid to any other school.

[Anonymous]

Is this a racial thing

[Anonymous]

OP, that's horrible. Please name the school.

Email and call the ombudsman's office. Also call the Chancellor. Elevate this!