Well, I didn’t click the link. Sorry. I tend to prefer reading all the way through a post before clicking links and I never thought to go back and look at the link in this case. Stupid, I know, especially since I made a snap assumption about it.
Oh, and I agree that even a one day suspension for the equivalent of a joy buzzer is excessive. I would have just taken the pen away and given it back at the end of the day. I probably never even would have thought to mention it to an adminstrator.
Diogenes, I know I’m not a regular and I know nothing about your normal posting style, but I am sincerely impressed with your apology. For what it’s worth, thanks - you made my day. 
I’m not a fan of Zero-Tolerance policies, and I do think the punishment in this case was rather excessive. However, many of the sites which sell shocking pens (including the link in the OP) include warnings regarding use of these pens by children, those with heart conditions, or those with pacemakers. Detailed info from another site. Granted, a 1.5v battery isn’t going to deliver much of a shock, but the warnings offered by retailers may have something to do with the principal’s reaction. That said; confiscation of the pen and sending him home for the day would’ve been punishment enough.
I’d never heard of a shock pen until I read this thread. It sounds as if the school is overreacting rather badly. Ass-covering behavior on the part of schools in order to avoid expensive lawsuits has become the norm, I think. The son of a friend was suspended for a week because he gave two Advils to another kid in the lunchroom. Wow, drug dealing. Ain’t it awful?
In California, there’s a legislative bill which would restrict the sale of shock pens.
That’s a good point, and if I’d been aware that he was going to take it to school I’d have stopped him (not so much because I thought it could harm anyone, but just because it seems inappropriate for school). I agree that taking it away and sending him home (or keeping him in the principal’s office for the day) would have been plenty punishment for the infraction.
This and the previous point make me wonder if some/most shock pens are much “stronger” than his? I mean this thing is really wussy. Whereas touching a doorknob after walking across the floor in slippers can kind of “hurt”, this thing doesn’t even do that.
Unbelievable. When I was in high school (early 90s - about 15 years ago) I regularly carried Advil in my purse and gave it to my friends if they had cramps or a headache or whatever. Nowadays, that same thing would be grounds for suspension or expulsion. Terrible.
P.S. Opal, the principal’s suggestion not to send him back for the last two days is icing on the cake. It adds insult to injury. He will have “served his time,” so why wouldn’t he be able to participate in any activities? Have you thought about contacting your school board member or superintendent of schools?
I know. The thing is, knowing that is how they feel, what good would going to the school board/superintendent do? If they did let him go back, do you think he would really be allowed to fully participate? No. He’d be ostracized, and even if he wasn’t deliberately, he now knows how they feel about him and he would feel isolated anyway. You’ve met him–you know how sensitive he is.
This is reaching, but is his teacher sympathetic? If I had a class of fifth graders (heaven forbid) I’d call that a teachable moment. But I wouldn’t want to put a kid I cared about in a similar situation if the teacher wasn’t a pretty darn good one.
Have you asked your kid what he would most like to do? I realize he may not be able to articulate that very well, being young and probably upset, but still.
Well, there’s your problem right there! I’d be upset too if a whole schoolbusful of children was rendered pantsless!
LOL
I think the biggest “shock” is the surprise if you don’t know it’s coming (at least with his). Though I don’t know how strong their shock pens are, they could be more.
I haven’t asked him, no, because as I said I think the chances of getting them to turn around on their decision is extremely slim so it seemed rather moot. As for his teacher, she is well intentioned, I’m sure, but every time I’ve met with her she reports the same thing: there are a large group of boys in the class who mercilessly pick on Dominic and single him out. Nothing she’s been able to do all year has changed all of that, so I’m not sure how effective she would be even if she was on his side (wrt other kids or faculty or whatever).
I’m shocked! Shocked that there are shocking pens on the bus!
As long as the kid is still going to officially pass his classes and be moved to the next grade, I would say it’s not worth the fight. Though, I bet his classmates will miss him.
Call the princepal on the last day of school and ask her how many parents called her to freak out about their kids having fun on the bus.
Bleah. She sounds like a non-starter. Too bad!
Have you read any Vivian Paley books – You Can’t Say You Can’t Play springs to mind, but she has others even better – ?
Might be too late at fifth grade, but in the classroom in my mind, a great teacher would be able to make your kid a subcultural semi-hero in his final two days. “Everyone thought he was a wimp, but he stood up for himself and tried something fun (even if it wasn’t the best idea as to how), and got shot down for it…”
Or maybe I’m dreaming.
OpalCat, I hope you’ll let us know what comes next.
So you haven’t the slightest clue about the situation yet you see no problem in making a judgement. This thread is you in a nutshell.
He apologized, and admitted that he jumped to a conclusion prematurely. It’s an online forum and people do tend to be more flip with their opinions than they would be in a “real life” situation.
So not so. He quickly apologized and admitted he’d not read all the relevant data, and revised his position after he did so.
I’d even venture to say that OpalCat’s kid did something that, if he’d been at the top of his game and remembered why not to do all the tempting but problematic things he could do to raise his status locally, he might not have done. Ditto DtC. I fiercely want to leave such an option open for kids who make a poor choice - kicking them out of society (or what is essentially their society: the schoolroom) is hardly conducive for their reform.
Mind you, such reflective rethinking and re-evaluation is HIGHLY UNUSUAL behavior among school officials, and may indicate one of the things most fundamentally wrong with ZT: that ZT discourages reflection, rethinking, and re-evaluation, even when appropriate. Or maybe especially when apropriate.
I think that you really need to fight this part. Five days is five days. Not seven. If they have no leeway in reducing the suspension, then how can they extend it? He has a right to last two days of school, unrestricted.
But even if it’s officially unrestricted, what are the chances that he will reeeeally be allowed to participate? Dominic is one of those really sensitive kids who doesn’t make friends easily and all too quickly retreats to being the lonely outsider, probably as a defense mechanism. The last thing he needs is to be quasi-ostracized on the last couple of days of school. I actually think it would be less harmful for him if we just did something fun those days on our own. My boyfriend will be in town, we may go do something.