You should be asking what the school is doing to teach problem solving to these kids. The child who attacked obviously is lacking in problem-solving strategies. I feel this is one major deficit in MCPS--so much pressure on academics that teachers take NO time to teach social problem-solving. Counselors have minimal time so they don't do much of it either. They should also be addressing social skills in general, e.g. how do you make a friend? how do you read social cues/non-verbal cues to know when to proceed and when to back off? I hope that Starr's new call for social emotional learning will address this major gap in a well-rounded education.

I think when a principal downplays an incident, it a red flag for me. They don't want the good parents to scrutinize and ask questions that may be unanswerable if there is no consistent treatment or policy. We got a new principal in our ES a few years back and the bullying stopped almost the next day. Expectations were in place and very consistent. Now in our MS, we have a principal who doesn't enforce anything and the teachers are just overwhelmed and frustrated.
My understanding is that should file this report:
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/forms/pdf/230-36.pdf
The school must then report it to the county. Sometimes its a gray area and schools are reluctant to submit it to the county (might be the case here). But sometimes they don't file to keep their numbers down, and those numbers get published in Schools-at-a-glance.
What I don't like is how your counselor handled it.

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like your school has dealt with it. These things have happened. There is no excuse for physical violence, but at the same time have you found out what led up to this? If it was something on your child's end (or another child, e.g. someone teasing this kid, and maybe your child laughed...not saying this happened, but just an example) that also needs to be dealt with. Or was it a totally unprovoked attack? Either way, it sounds like your school took it seriously and dealt with it. Letting your child know that you and the school both find the attack unacceptable is enough to reassure your child.

Op here. I believe the school wanted to tone down the incident. We'll observe at this point. If that student doesn't act again, we'll never bring it up. Otherwise, we'll file a bully complaint with regional superintendent. The school questioned that student the reason. It turns out that DD wanted to be friends [DD wants to be friends with everyone, one of the problems of single child] and that student didn't want to. So the attack was to make sure the friendship doesn't happen. The school and us have no words. Of course, that student has her wish granted.

Sounds like your school has dealt with it. These things have happened. There is no excuse for physical violence, but at the same time have you found out what led up to this? If it was something on your child's end (or another child, e.g. someone teasing this kid, and maybe your child laughed...not saying this happened, but just an example) that also needs to be dealt with. Or was it a totally unprovoked attack? Either way, it sounds like your school took it seriously and dealt with it. Letting your child know that you and the school both find the attack unacceptable is enough to reassure your child.

Anonymous wrote:Name the school. If other parents know about the incident they will surely call the school. Fwiw, we had a kid go bananas in the classroom and knock over furniture and the police were called...and no kids were ever harmed by the little knucklehead. Word spread fast among the parents and tons of folks followed up with the principal to make sure everything was under control, etc.

I agree with this completely! Schools don't want parents to share information b/c it means that they can work together and demand action. If the events at the Ct. elementary school show us one thing it should be that we can never rest when the safety of our kids is at stake.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did you get a behavior matrix (or something similar) at the beginning of the year? The one for our ES outlines behaviors and their corresponding responses and/or consequences. Check your school's website or call their office to see what their local school disciplinary plan is. The county provides some guidelines (available online) but specifics/implementation are left up to the individual school administrators.

I kind of remember seeing something like that during the beginning of school year. I'll look around when I get home tonight.

I was just informed by the school that there was disciplinary action yesterday, and the attacking student was instructed to, and apologized today. The school would not disclose the details of the punishment. Giving that the student is attending school today, I guess the punishment was spending a recess in the principle's office yesterday. I was also told that all the school teachers, staffs, and assistants were informed with this incident. They will make sure that student will be under supervision at all time.

I'm not satisfied with the school toning down the incident. What to do?

For a first infraction, sounds pretty typical. Not sure what more you would want. School acknowledged, investigated and doled out consequences.

For the same situation, in MS where they are really quick to nip things in the bud, the only additional thing that would occur is that parents would be called and here you do t know that didn't occur.

Name the school. If other parents know about the incident they will surely call the school. Fwiw, we had a kid go bananas in the classroom and knock over furniture and the police were called...and no kids were ever harmed by the little knucklehead. Word spread fast among the parents and tons of folks followed up with the principal to make sure everything was under control, etc.

I know that my elementary school principal will not tell parents what actions have been taken specifically. He will say that disciplinary action has been taken with no specificity.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did you get a behavior matrix (or something similar) at the beginning of the year? The one for our ES outlines behaviors and their corresponding responses and/or consequences. Check your school's website or call their office to see what their local school disciplinary plan is. The county provides some guidelines (available online) but specifics/implementation are left up to the individual school administrators.

I kind of remember seeing something like that during the beginning of school year. I'll look around when I get home tonight.

I was just informed by the school that there was disciplinary action yesterday, and the attacking student was instructed to, and apologized today. The school would not disclose the details of the punishment. Giving that the student is attending school today, I guess the punishment was spending a recess in the principle's office yesterday. I was also told that all the school teachers, staffs, and assistants were informed with this incident. They will make sure that student will be under supervision at all time.

I'm not satisfied with the school toning down the incident. What to do?

The process for complaints is on page 10 here - http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/students/rights/StudentRightsResponsibilities-English.pdf

It looks like a physical attack on a student falls into the third tier infractions (p. 15) and is to be met with discretionary school-based consequences (should be outlined in your school's local disciplinary plan) and discretionary police reporting. Honestly, if the discipline falls within the accepted recommendations of your local plan and is administered consistently with punishments for other similar incidents (don't know how you'd know this), you likely won't get anywhere with a complaint or subsequent appeal.

If you believe your local plan should be different then try to get involved with with working on next year's version.

I hope that you spelled "Principal" correctly.

Anonymous wrote:Did you get a behavior matrix (or something similar) at the beginning of the year? The one for our ES outlines behaviors and their corresponding responses and/or consequences. Check your school's website or call their office to see what their local school disciplinary plan is. The county provides some guidelines (available online) but specifics/implementation are left up to the individual school administrators.

I kind of remember seeing something like that during the beginning of school year. I'll look around when I get home tonight.

I was just informed by the school that there was disciplinary action yesterday, and the attacking student was instructed to, and apologized today. The school would not disclose the details of the punishment. Giving that the student is attending school today, I guess the punishment was spending a recess in the principle's office yesterday. I was also told that all the school teachers, staffs, and assistants were informed with this incident. They will make sure that student will be under supervision at all time.

I'm not satisfied with the school toning down the incident. What to do?

Did you get a behavior matrix (or something similar) at the beginning of the year? The one for our ES outlines behaviors and their corresponding responses and/or consequences. Check your school's website or call their office to see what their local school disciplinary plan is. The county provides some guidelines (available online) but specifics/implementation are left up to the individual school administrators.

Anonymous wrote:I'm confused...did this happen at school, during school hours?

OP here. Yes, happened during recess.

I'm confused...did this happen at school, during school hours?

You should insist on sitting down with the principal, counselor, teachers and your DD. That way, everyone is in the same room and hears the same thing. Insist on something substantial being done. Take it to the superintendent if you need to.

In addition, why didn't you call the police. If someone "attacked" my child, the first call I would make would be to the police. Just because your child is in school does NOT mean that the school is the ultimate authority.