My daughter is being bullied!!
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| Sat, 09-09-2006 - 11:12am |
We just moved to a very small town in Idaho from Raleigh, NC. My daughter's high school where she is a freshman only has 450 kids in the whole school.
The first week went fine she met a girl named Brandee and they became friends. Well, Brandee decided to transfer to the "alternative" school, and suddenly this "gang" of girls started picking on my daughter.
They threatened to beat her up if she remained friends with Brandee. My daughter simply told her that her friends were her friends and that she was not going to fight about it.
They called my home and the mother even threatened me, for no apparent reason.
I filed 2 police reports, talked with the principal and one of the girls was suspended for 3 days.
Yesterday the sister of the girl that got suspended was shoving my daughter in the back during class and throwing things at her. I told the principal, he basically ignored it.
I am not going to take this.
Our teens and all other children deserve to learn in a safe environment, and not be afraid to go to school.
I have created an online petittion if anyone cares to sign. We must put an end to this.
Gone are the days of simple name calling, now we have to worry about weapons in our schools and the number of teens that commit suicide due to bullying is on the rise.
Let's end this NOW.
Samantha
http://www.petitiononline.com/antibull/petition.html

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Parents who newly have a bullied child can't come to a board for support????
This is so middle-school LOL
Samantha,
I was going to respond when you first posted, then decided to hold off. It wasn't too much later that things went in a very strange direction. For that, I am sorry. Generally speaking, this is a very supportive board and the folks that post here seem to be truly good people.
Because of my personality - I am very much of an "action" person, i.e. "don't mess with my kid", plus I usually see things from a legal perspective, my advice was going to be, and now is: hire a lawyer. Ask him or her to write a letter to the principal, with a copy to the school board. The letter should insinuate legal action if the threats and/or bullying are/is not immediately handled by the school. If deemed appropriate, have the attorney send a similar letter to the bullying child's parents. IMO opinion, there is nothing wrong with a petition, EXCEPT it takes too d*mn long to get results. Your dd will be out of college before the U.S. Congress will take any meaningful action.
You may also wish to role play with your dd some ways she can respond back to her tormenters. But if you are serious about "not going to take this", then I'd take legal action rather than expect to resolve things through a petition.
BTW, I truly do wish you a warm welcome to the board!
Amelia
Thank you Amelia.
I am also very much a "don't mess with my kid" type of parent. I refuse to put up with it.
The lawyer idea is a great one, thanks so much!!
Im on another board where one HAS to introduce themselves in a separate area before they post-if not, the posts are deleted.
And its a board about dogs, believe it or not!
I dont think that is appropriate for IVillage(or a dog board) but I do want to echo that we do indeed have folks just hop on a board and try to sell something; there was just one selling marriage videos on another board I visit here. There was no indication the link listed was going to take you to a sales site-it was intentionally misleading
And, being a teen board, we also manage to get teens masquerading as parents. Granted, these usually are sexually related questions :) but yes, there is actually a 'real' reason posts can sometimes be dissected when we dont recognize the name
Sorry if it made you feel unwelcome or unheard.
If your dd is being bullied to the point you are worried about her safety, I think it is important you take action at a local level. Go up the chain of command; walk in to the local police station and lay out your situation;meet with your dd's counselor. I found my sons counselor had a pretty good idea of which kids were doing what(although some, including mine, managed to stay under the radar)If there is a gang, s/he is the one who is going to know it.
I had a bad experience in a small town as well. I think we have this "Mayberry" media vision of small towns where we expect the sheriff to shake our hands and Aunt Bee to be at our door with warm bread. Big cities? Well, we have our media inspired visions of those too and they tend to be negative so we perhaps have lower expectations(We went to D.C. for our vacation and I must've talked about how friendly and wonderful the people were 15 times)
I have already filed 2 police reports and have met with the principal. One girl involved was suspended for 3 day (she comes back today...great)
I agree with you on both small and large cities. I was so afraid to go to NYC the 1st time I went and now it is one of my favorite cities in the country. People there really are so friendly.
And yes we do have visions of Aunt Bee in small towns, but it's just not like that at all.
Thanks
Sam
Sheesh, Pam, did you HAVE to mention him?? I'd just about forgotten about that nightmare! ;)
As for Aunt Bea, I'm not so sure she exists anymore.
Edited 9/12/2006 7:57 pm ET by hydrangea_blue
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