Reply to Student attacked in bathroom of elementary school

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Looking for some insight on what I should expect the school to do in this matter.

My son is in 2nd grade.  He went with a buddy to a bathroom near the cafeteria during lunch.  There were 1st graders in the bathroom and the kids were talking.  Two older kids (5th or 6th grade) come in and start yelling for the younger kids to fight each other. One of the 1st graders starts punching my son. My son runs out of the bathroom, back to the cafeteria.  He tells the cafeteria monitor and the assistant principal who is in the cafeteria what happened. He goes to the school nurse, who tells him he is fine because there are no bruises.

No one from the school called us to tell us what happened. No one called the parents of the boy who hit my son.  No one is monitoring the bathroom or trying to figure out what class the older boys are in, which should be fairly easy to narrow down since the boys would have likely come from a class that was in cafeteria at the time. Assistant principal says he believes the boys were just playing around.

My son is fine physically, but bothered by what happened and scared to go to the bathroom at school. I am considering calling the parents of the boy who hit my son, not because I am mad at the kid, but because if my kid was being bullied into fighting another kid, I would want to know about it. [/quote]

Hi, I'm an asst principal of elem school.  I'm sorry that this happened to your son. This whole incident underscores why at my school we do not allow children to go to the bathroom during lunch. It's just a recipe for disaster.  Teachers are instructed to take them to the restroom within 15 min before lunch. There are a couple of times Kindergartners need to go, but that's rare.  There's just no way to keep track of the kids once they leave the cafeteria. What if the fire alarm goes off? Who will know where these kids who went to the bathroom are?  And in this case, there is no immediate supervision of the bathroom.

Have you spoken with the asst principal who was there, or was it your son that reported that the asst principal said they were playing around? If you personally have not spoken with the asst principal, please do so tomorrow.  As for the school calling the older boys' parents, I'm not clear as to how you know that hasn't happened. I make it a practice of NOT sharing how other children are disciplined. Just as you wouldn't want me sharing information about your child with others,  I'm not at liberty to share what specific discipline measures are being taken with children other than your own. I know that may hard to hear, but it's about protecting the privacy of all children. The boys involved my have been disciplined in a variety of ways.

Instead of whether parents have been called, I would ask the asst principal what changes will happen to lessen the likelihood of this happening again. Will students continue to be allowed to leave the cafeteria without adult supervision? Are there any school wide expectations about appropriate numbers of students in the bathroom or appropriate expectations for behavior in the bathroom? Are there any signs in the bathroom with these expectations? In our school, there can be no more that 4 students in the bathroom at any given time. By my count, it sounds like there were at least 6 in the bathroom at the time your son was there.

Again, I'm so sorry that this happened. No child should ever feel unsafe anywhere in the school. Praise your son for leaving right away and telling an adult and for telling you. I hope you can get some resolution tomorrow. [/quote]

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