I just typed this up for my journal, and I’m just going to repost it here:
Let’s see if I’ve calmed down enough to write this without too much profanity. I didn’t get to sleep last night until about 5am, so after I got Dominic up this morning, I went back to sleep. At about 8:15am, my phone rings. It’s the assistant principal at Dominic’s school and she’s being all pissy. “There was some trouble on the bus this morning,” she begins. “Dominic had a shocking pen and was shocking the other kids, and passing it around encouraging them to shock themselves.” She said this in a tone that would normally be reserved for phrases like “…he was beating their heads with a hammer…” and then she proceeded to tell me that she “hadn’t seen the video yet” (yes, the buses have cameras) but that she expected to be getting calls from “plenty of irate parents”. Um. Is our country really that sissified that parents would call the school to complain that someone on the school bus had, essentially, a joy buzzer? Good lord. Anyway, I’m sort of groggily nodding into the phone, waiting for her to tell me that he’s going to have to sit in the office for a few hours or something.
“He’s been suspended for five days,” she says. “That means he can come back next Wednesday, but I wouldn’t bother sending him for the last two days,” (next week is the last week of school) “because he won’t be allowed to participate in any activities.” Holy crap. I’m thinking…‘did I hear that right??’ Part of me is ticked off that Dominic took the pen to school–they aren’t supposed to bring toys and things–but mostly I’m reeling at the massive overkill punishment they’ve given him. “You need to come pick him up now,” she says.
“Uh, ok…” I stammer, still trying to wake up. I hang up, get dressed, and drive to the school. On the way I’m thinking about how much this sucks. Dominic is leaving shortly after school gets out to spend the summer with his dad and his grandma and camp and so on, and by the time that is over, we’ll have moved to Ohio. So he probably isn’t going to see any of these kids ever again. And now he’s being told he can’t even have the last few days of school? Can’t get his yearbook signed? Hell, he can’t even go back to the classroom to say goodbye to his teacher.
By the time I get to the school I’m pretty angry. This zero-tolerance bullshit has always pissed me off. I go to the office and the principal waves me back to the assistant principal’s office. She shows me the pen. I nod, “I know, we play with it at home.” I said that I thought the punishment was far too harsh for the “crime”. She got a condescending tone and told me that this was the policy of Cobb County. “I think the county’s policy is a very poor one then, for handling this situation,” I said. She then told me that she was “glad the county handles it that way” in a really snotty tone. I reminded her that Dominic was moving and was never going to see these kids again, and her response was “I know, and that’s why I’m so disappointed that he made this decision.”
Earlier this semester, Dominic was suspended for a few days for getting into a minor fight. He was being picked on at the time, but he did get aggressive back. This time he did nothing malicious at all. He was joking around with a harmless toy of the type that has been around for years and years and years, and at least from what he tells me, the kids on the bus all thought it was funny or cool (which I can believe). This is the kind of thing that if I’d brought it to school as a child, it might have been confiscated for the day as being disruptive, but it wouldn’t have even warranted being sent to the office, let alone sent home. And yet his suspension is almost twice as long as when he was in a fight, and he’s been told not to return to the school, ever again. I know from my experiences earlier this semester that the county policy is that you can’t even appeal a suspension that’s under 10 days long, so there was no point in fighting it.
I asked her for the pen back and she said no, that it was the school’s policy to keep things confiscated from kids. Oh jeeeezus. To me that’s just petty. I can see not giving it back to the kid, but not to give it back to the parent? The one who probably PAID for it? I walked back out into the hall to where Dominic was sitting. “Guess what, Dominic?” I said. “Your summer vacation just started early.” Then I turned to the assistant principal and told her “if you think I’m going to punish him at home for this, you’re mistaken.”
Actually, I am. He can’t watch TV or play on his computer for the rest of the day. That’s about the maximum amount of upset I can manage over bringing a gag like a shocking pen to school. I told him it was poor judgment and stupid of him to do, since he knew they weren’t allowed to bring stuff from home. But that’s it. It’s not like I’m even mad at him. I am, however, mad at the school.
And so Dominic came with me to my school today, because I had to work. He sat around reading while I worked on the promotional DVD for the visual arts department. I am going to call his school tomorrow and find out exactly why it was such a contraband item…was it really considered a weapon? I am also going to make sure the principal knows how much I think the school overreacted. I also need to find out if this will affect his grades and/or his ability to move on to sixth grade next fall. I’m so glad we’re moving, and he is going to get a fresh start…