Why don’t parents file more police reports?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:K-12 schools are not subject to the Clery Act, unlike universities. That requires them to report any serious crimes committed on campus.

Schools of course have an incentive to sweep things under the rug, which is why the Clery Act was created.

For example, in MCPS, parents and the public only found out about the alleged gang rape at Rockville HS because the police issued a report of it, not because MCPS or the principal mentioned it.. and even that took 2-3 days.

As for expelling problem students, in MCPS they no longer have a school for bad kids (it was Twain, in Rockville) so now they just transfer the problem to another school. The ringleader in the Damascus HS rape case was on his third high school by that point.

Now if they end up in juvenile detention (as in, locked up), then they go to school at the detention center (known as RICA) but only the most severe cases end up there.

x100000

I wish more parents knew this. The schools are NOT on your side, no matter how violent the offender.

[Anonymous]

When a disruptive troublemaker is viewed as been “vulnernable” or “special needs” by virtue of being a disruptive troublemaker, the rest of the school is essentially enslaved to the “needs” of that child, which is completely unfair whether or not the child has legitimate problems.

The moment a child begins to consistently undermine the academic experience of others, they need to be removed from the situation for alternative schooling. To the extent those alternative accommodations are deficient, the child’s parents can invoke their legal rights a that point.

We need stop making policy by optics -- “we can’t expel little Connor or Tyrone because how would that look? We know keeping them around hurts all the other kids, but appearances are so much more important...”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When a disruptive troublemaker is viewed as been “vulnernable” or “special needs” by virtue of being a disruptive troublemaker, the rest of the school is essentially enslaved to the “needs” of that child, which is completely unfair whether or not the child has legitimate problems.

The moment a child begins to consistently undermine the academic experience of others, they need to be removed from the situation for alternative schooling. To the extent those alternative accommodations are deficient, the child’s parents can invoke their legal rights a that point.

We need stop making policy by optics -- “we can’t expel little Connor or Tyrone because how would that look? We know keeping them around hurts all the other kids, but appearances are so much more important...”

x100000000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When a disruptive troublemaker is viewed as been “vulnernable” or “special needs” by virtue of being a disruptive troublemaker, the rest of the school is essentially enslaved to the “needs” of that child, which is completely unfair whether or not the child has legitimate problems.

The moment a child begins to consistently undermine the academic experience of others, they need to be removed from the situation for alternative schooling. To the extent those alternative accommodations are deficient, the child’s parents can invoke their legal rights a that point.

We need stop making policy by optics -- “we can’t expel little Connor or Tyrone because how would that look? We know keeping them around hurts all the other kids, but appearances are so much more important...”

x100000000

Also, structuring it as a "learning experience" for the victim is positively disgusting.

[Anonymous]

How is this a question? We have filed police reports and sued violent students at school. The lawsuit was the most effective deterrent since it got the parents to act.

[Anonymous]

Once upon a time I learned the Rule of Seven in law school. It’s a common law idea, not VA state law. And it’s generally civil, not criminal. But it works in sorting out how to respond.

Ages 0-7, kids are not legally responsible for their actions. Call the police on a six year old, and no one is booking them for a crime or winning a civil lawsuit, especially if the school was supposed to be supervising the, You have to work with the school. Which sucks, I agree, because schools often ignore the problem.

Ages 7-14, there is a rebuttable presumption the kid isn’t culpable. Again, I would work with the school, as much as it sucks— unless there were repeat offenses by a neurotypical kid or what happened was very serious and the school is not sufficiently addressing. At which point, I’d get a police report, even if just to threaten the parents if they don’t get their kid under control.

Age 14 up, which is HS, most kids have the mental ability to understand the consequences of their actions. At that point a police report happens— if I would file a police report for similar actions outside of school.

For example, a former student mingled with the crowd getting off of buses at DD’s HS. Approached a girl at her locker and made sexually suggestive comments and touched her sexually. He was arrested and charged. Teen sexual inuendo comments aside (which don’t get a police report in my world), if my DD was sexually assaulted in school, I’d call the police. A friend had a DD at a “top” FCPS HS who was forced into a bathroom by mean girls, had her jeans pulled down and photos taken, which were distributed wide. The school did nothing. Mom moved the kid to private. I’d have called the police. Ditto if there were very serious threats or physical assault.

Here’s the thing. You cannot walk into a store at 15-16 and and sexually assault a patron, or hit a patron, or tell them you have a gun and are coming for them without legal consequences, in the form for a trip to Juvenile Court. So why was there not be legal (juvenile court and civil) consequences of the same kid does the same thing in school?

Making school a safe place to commit assaults really concerns me, because it’s starting down a path. The boys who get away with forcible touching in HS is the kid who feels emboldened to roofie and rape a girl in college and commit domestic violence because they learn that there aren’t real world consequences in their “safe spaces” where the police are hesitant to become involved. Scratch that. As was seen by $1000 bail for a five striker who tried to run over his GF, and then rammed a car into a Christmas Parade an killed several people, the police and justice system don’t take crimes that occur in “safe spaces” seriously.

Of course the police don’t want to deal with an assault in a HS. Or a rape on campus. Or DV. And they don’t tend to take these crimes as seriously as they do similar assaults in public places. That’s just wrong and we need to call it out and change the way people think. Someone who would seriously injure a loved one or classmate will have no issue harming a stranger.

BTW— I’ve never had to call the police. My DS was assaulted in MS, (age 12) and we worked with the school to get an appropriate resolution. Which we did. If the same thing happened to a HS junior, and it gets reported to the police.

I think, like many FCPS forum discussions, this discussion is a mess, because people aren’t drawing a distinction between a 5 year old biter and a 15 year old who uses a taser on someone in the locker room or assaults them on the band bus (Hi Oakton!’)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Once upon a time I learned the Rule of Seven in law school. It’s a common law idea, not VA state law. And it’s generally civil, not criminal. But it works in sorting out how to respond.

Ages 0-7, kids are not legally responsible for their actions. Call the police on a six year old, and no one is booking them for a crime or winning a civil lawsuit, especially if the school was supposed to be supervising the, You have to work with the school. Which sucks, I agree, because schools often ignore the problem.

Ages 7-14, there is a rebuttable presumption the kid isn’t culpable. Again, I would work with the school, as much as it sucks— unless there were repeat offenses by a neurotypical kid or what happened was very serious and the school is not sufficiently addressing. At which point, I’d get a police report, even if just to threaten the parents if they don’t get their kid under control.

Age 14 up, which is HS, most kids have the mental ability to understand the consequences of their actions. At that point a police report happens— if I would file a police report for similar actions outside of school.

For example, a former student mingled with the crowd getting off of buses at DD’s HS. Approached a girl at her locker and made sexually suggestive comments and touched her sexually. He was arrested and charged. Teen sexual inuendo comments aside (which don’t get a police report in my world), if my DD was sexually assaulted in school, I’d call the police. A friend had a DD at a “top” FCPS HS who was forced into a bathroom by mean girls, had her jeans pulled down and photos taken, which were distributed wide. The school did nothing. Mom moved the kid to private. I’d have called the police. Ditto if there were very serious threats or physical assault.

Here’s the thing. You cannot walk into a store at 15-16 and and sexually assault a patron, or hit a patron, or tell them you have a gun and are coming for them without legal consequences, in the form for a trip to Juvenile Court. So why was there not be legal (juvenile court and civil) consequences of the same kid does the same thing in school?

Making school a safe place to commit assaults really concerns me, because it’s starting down a path. The boys who get away with forcible touching in HS is the kid who feels emboldened to roofie and rape a girl in college and commit domestic violence because they learn that there aren’t real world consequences in their “safe spaces” where the police are hesitant to become involved. Scratch that. As was seen by $1000 bail for a five striker who tried to run over his GF, and then rammed a car into a Christmas Parade an killed several people, the police and justice system don’t take crimes that occur in “safe spaces” seriously.

Of course the police don’t want to deal with an assault in a HS. Or a rape on campus. Or DV. And they don’t tend to take these crimes as seriously as they do similar assaults in public places. That’s just wrong and we need to call it out and change the way people think. Someone who would seriously injure a loved one or classmate will have no issue harming a stranger.

BTW— I’ve never had to call the police. My DS was assaulted in MS, (age 12) and we worked with the school to get an appropriate resolution. Which we did. If the same thing happened to a HS junior, and it gets reported to the police.

I think, like many FCPS forum discussions, this discussion is a mess, because people aren’t drawing a distinction between a 5 year old biter and a 15 year old who uses a taser on someone in the locker room or assaults them on the band bus (Hi Oakton!’)

+1 Hi Oakton and Langley!

Thank you for spelling this out, OP. This is what I was getting at upthread. No one wants to hear the truth, because the truth hurts their narrative about their "sweet boy". If your "sweet boy" is keeping his hands to himself, I guess you don't have to worry about it, thread proctor, do you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How is this a question? We have filed police reports and sued violent students at school. The lawsuit was the most effective deterrent since it got the parents to act.

+1

People respond to money/liens/being hit where they think it counts - it affects their house they paid too much for in say, 2008.........

[Anonymous]

I would not file a police report unless it's what my child wanted, it would help with their healing process, and the facts of the incident were clear. Police investigations and legal proceedings can be brutal for a sensitive child.