Confidence for the Future??

I have just begun to home school my 2 boys, I pulled them out of public school because I feared for their safety. Mostly for my oldest son, he went into 6th graded this year. The school year had only begun when the trouble started. He started complaining about students harassing him, throwing things at him and generally making fun. I remember Jr. High school very well, I also remember what became of such incidents. If you didn�t stand up for yourself, you got picked on even more. The �just ignore them and they will go away� attitude only really works when you�re an adult. Still, I called the school to try and inform them of the issue. They were very helpful or so I thought. The incidents went on, about 1 to 2 a week, ranging from teasing to pushing down a flight of stairs, to being stabbed with a pencil. The students that started the problems didn�t get punished or where not punished as severely as my son when he finally stood up for his self. When I saw that the school could no longer keep my kids safe, I don�t believe I had any other choice. This leaves a very cold feeling about the future of our school system.

It varies greatly from location to location...I happen to live in a place with excellent school systems and my daughter does very well. However, her cousin who has just relocated to our area from Los Angeles went from being a above average student to failing several subjects. I have talked to him about it and he says the school work is much more difficult here than in LA. I know the big cities have much bigger problems when it comes to class size and such along with violence and just plain lifestyle differences among the students...
Good luck with your children...

more power to your son for standing up for himself. its laughable, the school system and their 'punishments'. give a kid a day off as punishment? the #? liberals in control means your kids future looks bleak.

Good job taking your son out of the government school nightmare. I mentioned this on another thread but I�ll hit it again for you. As a former law enforcement officer I have watched as our public schools have chosen to adopt a zero tolerance policy to violence. On the surface this sounds wonderful but the mechanics of it leave much to be desired. The school doesn�t make any attempt to investigate the fight in an effort to determine who the primary aggressor is. Instead, they simply treat both the victim and the bully in the same fashion, both are disciplined!

I had a case in the city of La Quinta, California where the local high school called the Sheriff�s Department in to arrest two students for fighting. I arrived and investigated the matter fully to include interviews with all witnesses and suspects involved. Upon completion I determined that one student was clearly and without question the primary aggressor and that the other student was only trying to defend himself from the bully. I arrested the bully and let the other boy go with a congratulations for defending himself.

In this case the teacher and principle were angry with me for not arresting both of the students. I explained to them that their silly zero tolerance against fighting rules did not apply to the law and that my investigation clearly showed that the kid I arrested was the attacker. They claimed I was setting a bad example for the other students. I told them both in front of several students that it was the school�s poor policies that were setting the bad example and left it at that.

Know this right off, if your kid tries to keep another kid from kicking his face inside out while on or near school property he will receive the same treatment as the bully! Is this insane, of course it is but leave it to the silly liberals to come up with such a fine policy.


Machine

Isn't bureaucracy wonderful? Instead of hiring and relaying upon competent, intellegent teachers and administrators, the schools just use a system of arbitrary rules that have been handed down from on high, that usually have little to do with the reality of the school.
It doesn't matter if some poor kid was just defending himself....throw them all in detention, no thinking involved. Power is being taken from school officials and being placed in the hands of the "system". It's like a kid-sized version of mandatory minimums.

Anyways, good luck on getting your boys into a better, non-public educational system where your kids and the teachers are treated as individuals, not statistics.

I'm a sophomore in high school and I agree that the educational system is retarded, my school is full of idiot teachers and staff. But you have to put up with it. And in my opinion, homeschooling your kid is not the way to go. All the homeschooled kids I've met were always kind of odd. Get your kid in the weight room and teach him/her to stand up for themselves, if they stay at home all day, they wont learn lifes lessons and wont have the fun of high school. They need to face up to the challenge and take life on unless you want your kids to be a bunch of pansies. I agree with protecting your kids, but dont be over protective, they'll thank you later when they're old enough to realise.

Ya, I've known a few homeschooled kids and they were kind of odd sometimes. They didn't know how to interact with other people, if you don't like public schools. Have you thought of private schools? That COULD be a better idea than public but you never know. seriously, just get your kids some karate lessons and they will learn that violence doesn't solve everything but if it comes to that they can kick some serious tail. I know this is just an opinion but home school doesn't seem like a good idea too well. Just give him one more year in public schools and see how it goes. tell him its ok to defend yourself and you won't be punished if you get suspended from school for it. If you still don't like it try the private, home school should be last resort.

Yeah you're right Joshter, that's the way to go, if you homeschool your kids they will just end up socially odd and will not have the confidence to stand up for themselves.

colbrez,

if it is any consolation this is happening in Canada too.

I have friends that have moved children several times to find the 'right school' for their kids. Of course this is easier to do when you are in the city.

Today being different is bad and I don't mean the politically correct version of different either, which is now celebrated, but the good kind of different. The bible and other religious texts suggest that the time will come when god fearing people will be punished for who they are rather than what they do.

Republicans take money away from school , liberals typically fight for money for education and to make it better. Besides what would be your solution? Beat the # out of the kid with a wooden paddel? Probably works in the short run but what about in the long run?

I couldn't agree with you more. Alot of you have made good observations. But taking your kid out of school and homeschooling them is among the worst. If you left your kid in for a little while longer the "bullies" would have found someone else to make fun of or actually made friends with them. Thats just the way it works.

Calling the schools and asking them to do something, of course they won't help. What can they do? Not much more than tell the "bullies" to stop it. In which case your son will get beat more for having his dad call the school.

I think you should give public school another try, only this time, don't interfere, and get your kid to take some karate lessons. The teachers wont stop someone defending themselves from bullies unless it becomes a full blown fight. There are other ways besides fighting to fight back.