My son came home from school yesterday with a story that pisses me off to no end! I'm not a violent person, but just typing this makes me want to throw the keyboard at the wall!
Here's some background. Andrew will be 17 on Thursday. He has NEVER been in trouble at school, and has only been in a fight once because another kid jumped on him. I have always taught him to walk away from confrontations or get an adult to handle them. Andrew is a good kid. He tries hard in school, is a volunteer firefighter, and doesn't hesitate to jump when someone is hurt. He is certified in first aid, and has all of the training in firefighting he's allowed to take until he is 18.
There is a student in Andrew's Public Safety class at tech, which I'll refer to as Demon Seed or DS for short. This kid has some serious anger and emotional problems. He has attacked other kids in Andrew's class and in other classes in the past and nothing has been done. DS is a first year, and Andrew is a second year. In the firefighting section of Public Safety, Andrew took DS under his wing and tried the best he could to help train DS. DS would forget things within 5 minutes of Andrew showing him, so Andrew would show him again and again until he got it. Not even the instructor had the patience to do that, but Andrew did.
In the past two months, DS has been basically trying to pick a fight with Andrew. He does everything he possibly can to piss off Andrew enough for Andrew to take a swing at him. Andrew ALWAYS walked away. It seems that DS obsesses on one student at a time and tries to break him/her down to the point of a fight, and Andrew is his target.
~Yesterday~ As soon as they walked into the locker room at the beginning of class, DS approached Andrew and told him he was going to "get it". Andrew ignored him, changed into his uniform and walkd away. Several times during the day, DS approached Andrew and tried to pick a fight. When Andrew gave him no reaction, he punched Andrew in the arm and head. Andrew laughed it off and walked away. DS took Andrew's backpack, opened it and dumped it into the garbage can. One of Andrew's friends told him about it. Andrew calmly walked over to the garbage can, got his bag and put his stuff back in it, put it on his desk and went back to working on the SCBA tanks. A little while later, another one of Andrew's friends told him that DS was going to do it again, but she stopped him. While sitting down for the training lecture, DS sat behind Andrew and whispered in his ear that he was going to kick Andrew's ass after class, repeatedly telling Andrew that he was a pussy and too scared to fight back. Andrew ignored him. After the lecture, Andrew told his instructor what was going on, and he said he would "handle it". At the end of the day, Andrew and a few of the other students went into the locker room to change out of their uniforms. DS walked up to Andrew and shoved him into the lockers so hard that the students in the other classroom came running. By that time Andrew had had enough and punched DS. DS took two more swings at Andrew and missed. Andrew grabbed him and put him in a headlock so he couldn't hit Andrew anymore. The other two students grabbed DS and pulled him away from Andrew, and Andrew just stood there. The instructor finally walked in and asked what happened. DS claimed that Andrew jumped him. All of the witnesses said that DS jumped Andrew and Andrew was just defending himself. DS ran crying out of the classroom because he knew he was busted.
~Today~ I was informed by the dean of students today that Andrew will be suspended for 3 to 10 days starting on Thursday (His birthday). Apparently it doesn't matter that he was only defending himself. The dean said if Andrew would have just stood there and let DS pound on him, DS would be arrested for assault and Andrew wouldn't be in trouble. OMG! The dean said Andrew is lucky he didn't call the police, because they usually do in this situation. There is a hearing at tech on Monday, and Mama Reed will be in attendence, fighting tooth and nail for this stupidity to be straightened out.
My question is: Why the hell haven't they done anything about DS in the past? Obviously there is something seriously wrong with this kid! Andrew has 5 more weeks of school. What is he supposed to do for 5 WEEKS of this? Why the hell didn't his instructor do anything for the past 2 MONTHS??? GRRRRRRRR!!!!!!! Keep in mind, there are real tools of the trade in this classroom, including axes, pike poles, oxygen tanks, hose nozzles, not to mention the fire truck and the ambulances. This is a dangerous class for someone with anger issues to be in! Andrew is going to be under the constant strain of looking over his shoulder and wondering when the next attack will happen. This is ridiculous! And to have him kicked out of tech AND school for defending himself??? Good Lord!
Ok, I know this was a long one, and if you made it this far, God bless you! You are a true friend! I'm wondering....if your child was in this situation, how would you handle it? I've been on the phone all afternoon with the deans of students from both schools, trying to make sense of this. Please leave comments. :-) I love to hear what other people are thinking!
As always, I love you guys!!!!
Laurie
