Uh ... yeah there are schools where kids don’t get punched on the regular... it’s sad that we seem to be so desensitized here.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Note to self: get sweet, sensitive PreK kid into martial arts ASAP.

I'll be damned if my kid is a victim. I'll fight the bully, his mama, and his aunts if need be.

FFS. You child is in PreK. Middle school is tough for all kids. I'm not condoning the bullying of this incident but you need to take a seat.

You think bullying only happens in middle school?:
I already see that my preK AA kid has the kind of disposition that might make him a target for bullying and I'm prepared to advocate for his safety, even if that means showing up at his school on occasion and showing out.

Sorry but my ds was really quiet during PreK and now in MS he routinely stands up to the HS kids who harass him on the bus. You just never know!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the poster who said something about getting a Deal placement, it is not the promised land. As a Deal parent, I'm not certain bullying is dealt with much better there. I have heard (from my kid and other parents) many stories about kids being beat up, kicked, pushed into lockers, pushed down stairs, etc. Look at the recent thread on Deal behavior about a student's hair almost being caught on fire. The school does little to nothing about addressing this behavior and claims their hands are tied. You have to file a police report which, when dealing with children 11-14 years old, is just heartbreaking.

Is there any school that actually has a good reputation for handling bullying? I feel like it's the Achilles heel of every school, public and often private too (we are zoned for Deal but have an elementary kid in private; will decide later whether to send kid to Deal or stay put).

I don’t know if a school that handles bullying well. Friends with kids at prominent private deal with bullying too but it is not as physical as being punched in the face during class or having a boy pull a girl’s pants down in class. Private schools seem to have more social bullying, which can be worse in some ways.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Note to self: get sweet, sensitive PreK kid into martial arts ASAP.

I'll be damned if my kid is a victim. I'll fight the bully, his mama, and his aunts if need be.

FFS. You child is in PreK. Middle school is tough for all kids. I'm not condoning the bullying of this incident but you need to take a seat.

You think bullying only happens in middle school?:
I already see that my preK AA kid has the kind of disposition that might make him a target for bullying and I'm prepared to advocate for his safety, even if that means showing up at his school on occasion and showing out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Middle school is rough all around.

Yep, my kid gets subjected to racial taunting every single day at their DCPS MS. There are no repercussions whatsoever.

So does mine. And DC is white.

Anonymous wrote:To the poster who said something about getting a Deal placement, it is not the promised land. As a Deal parent, I'm not certain bullying is dealt with much better there. I have heard (from my kid and other parents) many stories about kids being beat up, kicked, pushed into lockers, pushed down stairs, etc. Look at the recent thread on Deal behavior about a student's hair almost being caught on fire. The school does little to nothing about addressing this behavior and claims their hands are tied. You have to file a police report which, when dealing with children 11-14 years old, is just heartbreaking.

Is there any school that actually has a good reputation for handling bullying? I feel like it's the Achilles heel of every school, public and often private too (we are zoned for Deal but have an elementary kid in private; will decide later whether to send kid to Deal or stay put).

Anonymous wrote:Note to self: get sweet, sensitive PreK kid into martial arts ASAP.

I'll be damned if my kid is a victim. I'll fight the bully, his mama, and his aunts if need be.

FFS. You child is in PreK. Middle school is tough for all kids. I'm not condoning the bullying of this incident but you need to take a seat.

Anonymous wrote:Middle school is rough all around.

Yep, my kid gets subjected to racial taunting every single day at their DCPS MS. There are no repercussions whatsoever.

Lost track of the number of times black kids at my DC's middle school were suspended for hitting a white classmate. Several times the provocation was being repeatedly called the n-word. Most of the time the instigators got away with it (because no adult witnesses those incidents) or at most were reprimanded by being sent to an AP's office for a discussion.

Middle school is rough all around.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is nothing DCPS can do. There are no meaningful consequences schools can impose (if you have ideas I’m all ears). Thank David Grosso. I would encourage you to do two things literally every time your child reports bullying or being assaulted. File a police report and email Grosso for advice. Your child has no guarantee of safety at school, but your bully has a guaranteed right to stay in your school. The child who assaulted me (a teacher) and several other students this year is still in school. No effort to move him out because there’s nothing to do and nowhere to go.

+1
There are no meaningful consequences. You can’t really suspend or do in school suspension. You cant tell the victims family what you are doing. And many times when you call and say “your child did this thing” parents either sent or say “he only did that because someone else did this.” And then there is no meaningful parent intervention. It is maddening.

And it's often true, which is why mediation is the best answer. But that takes resources and time.

Also re all the IEP comments, special needs kids are typically the ones bullied and assaulted; they often don't have the social skills that serve as protection - laugh it off, walk away, deflect. Think back to middle school, folks. Who was it that got bullied the most? Sometimes the kids do explode in anger at the bullying, making the quoted statement above true. It doesn't sound like this was the case in this story, but it is often the case. These things are complicated and I wish middle schools put as much resources into the social worlds of kids as the academic worlds.

Anonymous wrote:There is nothing DCPS can do. There are no meaningful consequences schools can impose (if you have ideas I’m all ears). Thank David Grosso. I would encourage you to do two things literally every time your child reports bullying or being assaulted. File a police report and email Grosso for advice. Your child has no guarantee of safety at school, but your bully has a guaranteed right to stay in your school. The child who assaulted me (a teacher) and several other students this year is still in school. No effort to move him out because there’s nothing to do and nowhere to go.

+1
There are no meaningful consequences. You can’t really suspend or do in school suspension. You cant tell the victims family what you are doing. And many times when you call and say “your child did this thing” parents either sent or say “he only did that because someone else did this.” And then there is no meaningful parent intervention. It is maddening.

Hmm still determined to send your kids to this dumpster fire Christine Clapp?

https://beta.washingtonpost.com/local/education/they-believe-more-students-should-attend-neighborhood-schools-but-what-happens-when-its-their-child/2019/04/13/8e797690-3ed6-11e9-9361-301ffb5bd5e6_story.html?outputType=amp

To the poster who said something about getting a Deal placement, it is not the promised land. As a Deal parent, I'm not certain bullying is dealt with much better there. I have heard (from my kid and other parents) many stories about kids being beat up, kicked, pushed into lockers, pushed down stairs, etc. Look at the recent thread on Deal behavior about a student's hair almost being caught on fire. The school does little to nothing about addressing this behavior and claims their hands are tied. You have to file a police report which, when dealing with children 11-14 years old, is just heartbreaking.

There is nothing DCPS can do. There are no meaningful consequences schools can impose (if you have ideas I’m all ears). Thank David Grosso. I would encourage you to do two things literally every time your child reports bullying or being assaulted. File a police report and email Grosso for advice. Your child has no guarantee of safety at school, but your bully has a guaranteed right to stay in your school. The child who assaulted me (a teacher) and several other students this year is still in school. No effort to move him out because there’s nothing to do and nowhere to go.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So the victim is forced to change schools but the bully can keep on tormenting kids at the current school. Got it DCPS.

Kids who can’t behave or have IEPs on behavior are more important than the kids who can behave and don’t have IEPs on behavior. They have more rights.

Stop scapgoating kids with IEPs. My son with an IEP is being bullied, which the way things usually go. The school response to bullying has nothing to do with IEP status. Kids with IEPs can and should be disciplined if they bully or hurt other kids. I know it's a nice fantasy that all school issues are caused by different kids who are nothing like your own, but that's not true. It's also unfair to the kids at Elliot-Hine who need actual resources to improve safety, no knee-jerk reactions based on stereotypes.

I’m not scapegoating the kids rather criticizing DCPS for failure to provide kids with proper support. In my child’s case, the student had an IEP for impulse issues and anger leading to horrible outbursts and violence in class. The child clearly needs an adult all the time.