Letter to the Editor-Published 11/13/08

IS BULLYING OK?

My son began attending Jasper County schools in April of 2007. By April 23, 2007 he was making a trip to Jasper Memorial emergency room after being attacked from behind by a student in full view of a teacher. The result was a sprained knee which kept him from physical activity for more than 4 weeks. Again, this attack was witnessed by a teacher who was monitoring bus departure and who then helped my son to the office. After a lengthy investigation (remember a teacher witnessed this attack) I was told that my son had allegedly told the student attacker to “kiss his a__” a week before the attack (no witnesses) and this was the student’s retaliation for the comment.

The Assistant Principal who is in charge of discipline decided that my son’s alleged remark warranted 5 days of in-school suspension for him and the physical attack by the other student would be 4 days of in-school suspension. My perception of this is that you can kick someone’s a__ but don’t tell them to kiss it. Needless to say, I was appalled. There is no way to confirm that my son ever said anything to this student but the attack on my son was witnessed by an adult.

During the 2008-2009 school term my son had been consistently physically and verbally bullied and harassed by 16 students in his class. These students have just about every period as well as the lunch break with my son. Therefore, the harassment is relentless. The incidents have been witnessed by teachers who have taken no action whatsoever. Some of the verbal harassment is actually racial in content. He has been harassed while trying to use the restroom. He has had his lunch money taken from him by the harassers in full view of a teacher/hall monitor who only then said “Whoever has his money –give it back”. This teacher did not send the students who had taken my son’s lunch money for any sort of discipline.

After a few weeks of school, I was asked to come to a meeting with all of my son’s teachers. The teacher who called me told me that he was concerned for my son’s safety because the “bullying and harassment was escalating and he feared that it would become violent toward my son”.

If the adults in charge at the school know these activities are going on and that a child is being targeted and that the violence could escalate to the point of injury to the targeted child, why are the harassers and bullies not being disciplined. The answer arrived at by the school was to change my son to another “pod” of students. Therefore, the bullies have gotten away with their actions and can now turn them to another student, at will. Our experience is that no one will stop them.

We will be attending the November 18, 2008 Board of Education meeting to speak about our problems. This meeting is in the board room at the old Washington Park Elementary school at 7:00 pm. If you want to hear what our board members responses to these problems will be, please come. If you would like to contact me please do so through http://www.cleanupjaspercounty.blogspot.com/ or by email at cleanupjaspercounty@yahoo.com.

Diana Manriquez, Mother of JCMS Student
Donna Telley, Grandmother of JCMS Students