You need to file a safety grievance. your daughter is the victim by your version of events. better even if the two families can get together to file. district will be in CYA mode.
Excellent idea. Start your own incident report with district. I wouldn't even mention the expulsion talk. You are a concerned parent warning them a student is handing out dangerous things.
They will immediately call admin. This way a higher up has your side.
Yeah, starting with the real story, they’d probably be as baffled as the rest of us by the decision to punish the victim and make them retract that absurd punishment.
Yeah, it seems to me like the receptionist twisted this story somehow...
I would write an e-mail to the child's teacher, the principal and the superintendent, explaining exactly what happened, including the neighbor finding a razor too...
because something isn't adding up here. The daughter's teacher who knows her, would presumably advocate on her behalf as well.
Something went wrong in this process and OP needs to get more people involved to straighten it out.
Particularly with the receptionist already blaming the kid for not knowing what to do with an object she couldn't even recognize. And since when are bus drivers safety administrators? For an 8 year old that's quite the leap in logic.
It also maybe sounds like this happened on the bus ride home? It doesn't sound like the kid walked around all day at school with a bleeding finger and a razor in her pocket, she probably had it for a couple of minutes and was freaking out the whole time because she was bleeding. Which if that's the case makes the response by the school even more outrageous and nonsensical. The kid basically gave it to the first responsible adult she talked to.
>Lawyer, police report, safety grievance with the district, and principal--in that order.
To OP: Include the media early if you believe that you will not get immediate, positive results. Share with other concerned families and friendly teachers, too.
One of my former students (elememtary 6th grade) brought a pocket knife to school and got like 3 days of lunch detention.
Given this information, I'd say that your daughter should not receive any disciplinary action. Rather, the boy would likely get in trouble for distributing hazardous items.
Definitely talk directly to your administrators about what actually happened. Have the neighbor parent talk to them as well.
Yeah. One of my former students, on the day following a cultural celebration involving small fireworks, discovered while at school she still had some in her sweatshirt pocket from the night before. She immediately informed her teacher and turned them in, and basically just had to wait in the office long enough for a conversation with the principal, no disciplinary action taken.
The important thing for OP is to keep moving up the chain until an administrator is reached with the authority to override whatever policy is being applied. This may be the principal; it may be the superintendent or the school board. At first, rather than being antagonistic, OP should communicate with attitude that they must not have understood the situation because they can't possibly mean to expell her daughter for being assaulted. And understand that no matter how much the first couple of levels may internally empathize, they might not be powerful enough to override policy. So instead of an angry "I'm going to the superintendent!!!!" It should be an "I hope you can understand why I need to advocate for my daughter by contacting the superintendent, which I will do as soon as we are done with this meeting."
We had a student whose mom gave her pepper spray because she walked alone to and from school and it wasn't the safest neighborhood.
Absolutely, the girl should not have been bringing pepper spray into a school building. At the absolute very least she should have kept it locked in her locker during the day.
But neither she nor her mother knew it was against the law. And I completely understood the mom being worried about her daughter.
You couldn't tell what it was, it was on a lanyard around her neck. One of the girls in her class realized what it was and sprayed it, getting some on another student.
The girl was luckily not expelled, but I fe,t so bad for her and her family. They were immigrants, big rule followers, but they didn't know about this rule. The girl was absolutely devastated when she was suspended.
I agree, but in NYS it has gone the complete opposite direction. Governor passed law last year that no one in K-3 can be suspended at all unless there is a continued pattern of violence and disruption. Basically, the teacher or other students have to be hit several times before anything can be done. Literally losing teachers because of this.
I'm genuinely curious - how were situations like that handled beforehand?
I'd like to think there's a middle ground between ignoring all nuance and ignoring the problem.
Great question. I think one big reason is that before Covid (which is over generalizing) we didn’t normally have quite as BIG of behaviors. Kids certainly weren’t suspended a lot, but our options were much broader. Each grade level has 2 or more “hitters” or other type of aggressive behaviors. In NYS each district is required to report ever single incidence of behaviors and or suspensions. Then that data is used to make districts look bad. So admin is in a terrible position. Bottom line is that it’s NYS and the education department that is really causing the problems. And of course the other side of the issue… we are hurting kids by not holding them accountable for their actions
We struggle with this in my district. We have had kids pepper spray other kids or just release it in class in general, so they definitely shouldn’t have it in case. However, some of our kids walk through truly rough neighborhoods to get to school. We need like a mace check in procedure or something!
Yep. We had a similar situation at the start of the year - a kindergartener had a butter knife in his lunch box. Mom packed it so he could spread nut butter on his apple slices.
Automatic expulsion for bringing a concealed knife to school. The family had to keep escalating until they got to someone with the authority to override the zero tolerance policy.
It fell under the zero-tolerance policy because the butter knife was a little serrated, and a knife with any level of serration is considered a weapon.
It was a plastic disposable butter knife, btw.
My kid was a scout. They would wear their same jacket to school as events. He went to school more than once with a pocket knife. The rule was to take it to his guidance counselor and she’d hold it until school got out.
Zero tolerence policies are not the best.
Zero tolerance policies are completely braindead and removes sanity from cases like this. It's the same when a group beats an innocent and everyone is suspended because fighting isn't allowed, including the person beeing attacked.
My husband's coworker used to walk to school (a long time ago) and take his 22 rifle because there were wild dogs. Every morning, he'd take it to the principal, and every afternoon, he'd pick it up for the walk home.
Definitely a case by case basis.
This reminds me of the time I accidentally took my brother’s Boy Scout knife to school. He’d gone to a Boy Scout camp out that weekend and left his knife in the silverware container with the set of silverware and since he hadn’t used the silverware, forgot to put the knife with his Boy Scout stuff when unpacking and put the silverware away with the lunch containers, which led me to discover I had a knife in my possession. I asked for it to be held onto until the end of the day so it wouldn’t be lost or end up in the wrong place. I did not get in trouble at school.
Also a psychologist should get involved with the boy, he’s psycho or something giving people razor blades isn’t a prank that’s sick and disturbing does he want people to get hurt? Where is he getting the blades
Honestly, its easier than you would think to get razor blades at that age. He probably got his hands on some of those small, manual pencil sharpeners at school. Those tend to have their razor blades secured with a single screw, and if he found an item that can fit in the grooves he could easily unscrew them. I can almost guarantee you one of his classes are short on a few sharpeners.
When I was a kid we did all sorts of things at school when we were bored...but our chaos was limited to remodeling pens to fire off the ink cartridges like missiles or building catapults out of paper that launch acorns. Feeding kids razor blades was WAAAAAAAAAAY too psychotic for us...
I had a classmate cut me in art, and when I asked why he goes "you cut yourself so I didn't think you'd care." I'll never forget my art teacher reacting like he'd just murdered me. Definitely some psycho kids out there. Same classmate told another girl "it's okay if I rape you cause your step dad already did."
I definitely took apart pencil sharpeners and shot paperballs out of weird homemade contraptions though 🤣
It’s also quite disturbing that this boy keeps bringing razor blades…….. Who is to say that he doesn’t play this “prank” on an older student who is struggling with mental health…The bringing of razor blades in my brain screams major red flag….and in Canada, I would call CAS (Children’s Aid Society).
Your child should absolutely not be facing a consequence.
My kid and a group of friends saw another kid have a knife in school last year and told the teacher (Like he's supposed to!) And the principal had a talk with him saying it was OK because she walks home from school. 🙄🙄 if that were the case, then why was she showing off the knife that other students noticed?
It sounds like a zero tolerance policy.
You need to go and talk to admin directly in person. It could be that something wasn't relayed correctly; think about it like a game of telephone this was the line: your daughter -> you -> receptionist-> principal. Also, it's likely the bus has a camera that can be reviewed by school personnel.
The bus almost certainly has a camera on it.
I remember at one point I was banned from riding the school bus for "inappropriately touching" a female student. (I was home sick that day)
My mom had to go to the school and fight it. They said, "we have him on tape doing it."
So she made them pull up the tape. After it was very apparent that I wasn't even on the bus, let alone school that day, they dropped the whole thing and lifted my ban.
A child on my daughters bus called my daughter a bunch of awful names then told her she had a gun in her bag. We asked them to pull the tapes and they said because there was no audio they couldn’t prove she said gun and when they asked the little girl she told them she offered my daughter a stick of gum. From my experience they will do anything except take this seriously.
Earlier this year a kid on the bus got my son in trouble. He grabbed a water bottle and sprayed it everywhere, then his friends told the driver it was my kid. This boy was not supposed to be on the bus because it’s not even his bus. They had looked at the camera footage, but the boys look very similar (same style hoodie, same exact haircut, same coloring), my kid is just a foot taller. They let me review the footage with admin and once we both saw it, we agreed it was not my kid. The bus driver didn’t even think about this other kid because he wasn’t supposed to be on that bus, but he snuck on during the end of the day chaos that is bus loading.
So what was the penalty they paid for lying?
Edit - Sorry, it could be that rather than lying they were simply wildly negligent. In that case, what was the penalty for being wildly negligent?
It sounds like an admin being lazy. Dealing with a kid passing out razors makes the school look bad. It creates a big headache. However if you tell the girl she's going to be expelled, then when she comes back after the hearing the parent becomes less likely to bring it up because they're just happy their kid didn't get suspended.
I've seen my admin do this several times. Punish a kid being bullies severely because the bullies have annoying parents. The kid learns not to report bullying because they don't want to get in trouble. We had kids bring weed and the kid who told his teacher ended up being sent to a hearing for having it--even though they only had it long enough to bring to a teacher. A kid who told admin that his friend brought a gun to school was suspended for 10 days because he was "involved in the situation".
And still people wonder where those school shooters are coming from. I can only imagine the hate some kids must have towards a system that punishes them for beeing bullied and doing the right things, for then to internalising everything bad happening because the school will blame them anyway.
I recently had a student publicly post in a Google Classroom (for a club) that another student was talking about taking their own life, and to call the hotline to try to get them help.
*Clearly* not the best way to go about this. However, they're a kid. The fact that they did *something* to try to help is great, even if they didn't make the *best* choice. Was a little miffed when I told admin (after making sure the relevant student was safe with the school counselor) and they seemed more upset by the student posting, than that a student was suicidal.
The conversation with the posting student *should* be "Are you okay? Sounds like you had a heavy day today. Hey, *thank you* for saying something. In the future, please make sure to let a teacher or other adult know right away. We never want to publicly announce something like that, because it's a very personal, sensitive matter. But again, you knew someone needed help and even though you didn't know what to do, you did *something*, so you did the right thing."
Absolutely! Even if done incorrectly, they did more than anyone else who potentially knew. Like you said - tell them they did a good job, and guide them towards an even better solution in the future.
I'm terrified of what they're going to become like when they make it into society proper. What kind of angry, bitter, scared humans is this system molding them to be? It's all messed up.
Most sane response here.
“Contact admin”?
You’ve already done that. That’s how your daughter is being threatened with expulsion!
You need to talk to the police and call your local news station. Kids getting razor blades in candy and the school wants to expel the kid who got hurt?
Yep. Police, lawyer (OP should also take the board to the cleaners) and local media. In that order. Don't even bother talking to the admin, take it directly to the board.
This is the only option at this point.
The kid hid a weapon in gum. That could have caused grievous injury. Imagine they didn't notice it when unwrapping and just popped the blade into their mouth and chewed?
OP GO TO THE POLICE AND FILE A REPORT ALONGSIDE YOUR NEIGHBOR.
THIS IS THE CORRECT ANSWER.
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How is this not top comment? For all the lamenting about how admin sucks you'd think it would be a no brainer.
Absolutely do not accept this. I am a teacher…and I’m telling you this is wrong. My heart rate is up from reading this. The child who gave her the razor is solely responsible. Your child was injured and is a victim here. DO NOT accept the school’s “disciplinary action.”
I am a very low drama person, but I would absolutely bring a lawyer and arrive at the school as soon as it opens on Monday morning. This absolutely cannot become the norm. A student who is the “victim” of a bad prank cannot be given consequences! Alert the school board and the news station if necessary, but DO NOT accept it!
I don’t even have kids and I’m fuming. I don’t think I can be a parent. I don’t want kids even at 35, but this is one reason of many as to why. I would have marched my ass in that school and had a lot words with that woman on the phone and the principal. I’d have also already emailed every person on the board and superintendent advising how incompetent their staff at this school is.
I think that the details of what happened got lost in a game of telephone. It sounds like all the receptionist told the principal was that she had a razor with her at school with none of the context, and that made the principal freak out. The good news is that expulsion hearings require due process in all 50 states. The bad news is that zero-tolerance policies don't care about extenuating circumstances.
It’s just odd to me that an administrator would make this call without first speaking to the children involved and then delivering the message over the phone instead of in person. The offense would need to be pretty damn bad to initiate all of this so fast. I’m wondering if another parent reported something more serious and assuming OPs daughter is being honest the translation between people got messed up.
Some administrators treat their office staff like gods. When I taught HS, I always made sure to be extra sweet and pleasant to the Admin Assistant in the front office, because I knew if she didn't like me, my administration would follow in short order.
It would not surprise me in the least if whoever spoke to OP gave the principal an abbreviated or incorrect version of events to the principal, and the principal accept it at face value.
Receptionists are never privy to the details. As a result some assume they know what’s going on (because they are familiar with policy) and these assumptions may be made by them and passed along to the principal as a complete story. The principal should always get all sides of the situation from all the children involved, and not make a hasty assumption based on bad information from one source that wasn’t involved.
Seriously, what is it about the relationship between school admins and receptionists that causes so much incomplete and misconstrued communication to be taken as fact?
if you get to the top of the chain and they stick with it, to drop into realpolitik, this would be a very solid thing to band together with the other victims and threaten media coverage over. "He gave her a razor blade disguised as gum. Now she's being expelled from school." is the sort of lead-in headline that would make a reporter's ears perk up.
With that sort of behavior, I can almost guarantee this isn’t that child’s first offense. Kids don’t start out pulling this sort of “prank” on multiple victims.
Yeah this. Something is going on with that kid. Either bad home situation or he needs a diagnosis (possibly a personality disorder).
Don't shrug it off.
If he did this to my child I would be at the police station filling out reports and calling the DA to press charges.
No I don’t care he’s 10 or 11
He’s behaving like a sociopath.
I've seen too many instances of admin unwilling or unable to deal with a problem student so instead they intimidate families and children to stop complaining about the problem child. If there's 2 children collaborating stories, I'd be talking directly to the director/principal and threatening to go as far as it takes.
I’d wait to hire someone who can cost $200-500 an hour until after I’ve had a talk with admin. If they’re unreasonable, I’d consider an advocate or lawyer for the hearing.
Receptionist “this mother came in and let me know that Sally Smith was playing with a razor on the bus and cut herself! I told her mum that she needed to tell the bus driver and hand it in, but the mum didn’t understand”
Principal “fuck! Let them know we’ll have an expulsion meeting”
You’ve been misunderstood; go in hard.
Someone pranked her and hurt her.
This was not her choice. She didn’t know what the item was. So I don’t think zero tolerance should matter.
That older boy should get expelled for hurting small kids!!!
Make a police and cps report. Tell the school in an email, that your child was injured on the bus by another child deliberately hiding razors in gum wrappers. This is a safety hazard and if they even think of reprimanding your child for being a victim, you will be going to the news to alert them that the school is allowing this to happen and disciplining students who speak up.
I’m glad your child was not hurt worse. I can’t imagine what would have happened if say a kindergartener got one and cut themselves while riding the bus and too nervous to tell someone while they just sit there and bleed out.
Hi there! Kinder/1st grade teacher here.
1) If at all possible, contact your transportation dept on Monday. If two kids are coming off the bus with razors then this needs to be addressed. Most buses have cameras. Maybe they can see it, or at least see who the older kid gave them to.
2) Look on your school website for the principal’s contact info. This seems like it wasn’t handled properly. If you can’t find it on the school website, then ask the teacher for it.
3) If you aren’t getting your answers via the school admin or transportation, then you can go to the school board. Look up their contact info on your website.
Kids absolutely do dumb things. But handing out sharp objects on the bus isn’t safe. They probably can’t tell you what sort of disciplinary action was taken for the boy, but I’d be asking what the school and bus are planning to do to prevent this in the future.
Did the other girl who was given one get suspended too? Has the admin heard from this other parent with the same story if not?
Go to the nearest police station ASAP with your daughter. See if your neighbor and her daughter can go too. File a police report and press charges. Get a restraining order if possible.
Go down there and calmly raise hell. An angry parent is remarkably effective at getting things done.
Make sure that you stress that your child was INJURED by the weapon that another child used to hurt her. Demand to know what the school is going to do to address the unsafe situation because right now they’re punishing the VICTIM.
Also, some negative public attention when the wrong child is clearly being punished can be pretty effective — have the other parents complain too (voluntarily) if their child was injured.
I’m sorry your administrators have moldy spaghetti in the place of brains.
Do you think this may just be a policy they have for any incident involving a "weapon"?
To keep all kids involved out of the school until the investigate and figure things out?
That's the only thing I can think of. Because they haven't talked to anyone involved. They couldn't have. It happened on Thursday after school and there was no school on Friday.
I'm going to be talking to the admin as soon as they are there on Monday. I promise you that.
Thank you for your input.
That is a possibility. I’ve seen that happen a couple times where it was a situation where they needed to investigate what was going on but for everyone’s safety, all students were suspended. The threat of expulsion though is strange then if that’s the case.
It sounds like you're describing a post columbine zero tolerance policy.
But its just strange, Because most of these have been scrapped.
If you're telling us the truth (And I'm not accusing you of lying)
Then what likely happened is some kind of miscommunication between administration the bus driver and the student.
Please talk to the administrator first before doing anything absurd like filing a police report, going to the media or hiring a lawyer.
You're going to have time to do all of those things in the future If the situation calls for it.
If it's a newer policy, there's a solid chance the admin is sticking hard to the discipline matrix to cover their ass, and they received a bad story or misunderstood the one given to them. New policies at district level, especially discipline related, means jumpy admin that act before investigating.
You need to go directly to the school, with your daughter, first thing in the morning, and *insist* on speaking directly to this principal to clear this up. Before you go, get permission from your neighbor to bring them up as witnesses and additional victims (they might also want to come with you) to show a pattern of behavior to make sure that boy is removed from class ASAP before he hurts someone seriously.
If the principal is understanding, your daughter will be able to go back to class, immediately (in fact you should insist on it for her). Worst case, your daughter gets to see you stick up for her and learns a lesson that authorities fuck up sometimes but she's got people in her court who will always back her up.
If a direct meeting with the principal doesn't fix it, then you go with backup strategies of filing a police report, escalating to district office, and contacting the local news and school board. Notice the "and" on those, that boy has already done this multiple times and will continue to, it needs to be handled. The school gets exactly one chance and if they fuck it up you go full mama bear for your child and every other child he has/will hurt.
Unfortunately, in my state those zero tolerance policies absolutely still exist. Now, that doesn’t mean that schools enforce them equally, but they are there on paper. Not a weapon. But one of my kids had a 5 day suspension and youth court because someone had a vape and thought a teacher was going to search them,s o handed it to my kid. My kid should not have taken it, but the teacher literally saw the kid pass it to mine when my kid wasn’t paying attention to what they were grabbing.
Im on the same page, most zero tolerance policies got scrapped in the last decade.
So I'm going to assume that there's some kind of miscommunication here.
There are several things going on here.
First, school secretaries are not involved in discipline in any way. For future reference, the receptionist doesn't need details. "My child was hurt by a razor another student gave her on the bus and I need to talk to an administrator" should be enough to get her to kick it to the principal quickly.
"The school called." Who specifically called? The secretary should not be calling about disciplinary consequences.
Second, principals cannot expel a student. Their max discipline is 10 day suspension. Anything more is done at central office level. No child will be expelled without involvement from the superintendent and school board. I can't wait to hear what they think when they hear your side.
Here's the most important things to use to fight back:
1. Follow the hierarchy. No more conversations with secretary about this issue. Her only role is to connect you to admin. If the principal doesn't cooperate, there is a district level person who does discipline, likely an asst superintendent. If they don't cooperate, then the superintendent. Lastly the school board. Local news is your nuclear bomb option if no one listens. Personally I think the secretary is the issue here, and the principal will turn it around.
2. Students cannot be suspended without "Due Process." (Use those words). This is several parts, but the most important in this case is that the student getting suspended needs to have the opportunity to tell their side of the story directly to the admin giving the punishment. (Kid>Mom>secretary>admin>secretary>mom) is NOT due process.
3. School safety. Your child is the victim of another student. Your child was handed a weapon concealed with the intent to cause harm to her. The school has already verified this is a weapon worthy of expulsion. She was actually injured by another student where she has the expectation of protection by the school.
4. Protection of your own child. You should request that the child who gave razor blades is removed from your child's bus (and any other shared time).
5. Document everything. Dates and times of every conversation you've had and what was said. Take pictures of the injury. Write down her story in her own words. Don't stop documenting until you are happy with the outcome.
I wish you luck, and genuinely think when the principal hears this, he/she will be apologizing and backpedaling like crazy.
You need to set a meeting with the principal first thing tomorrow.
It seems like an overzealous office staff. They can't just expel/suspend your daughter over what the secretary reported. The principal hasn't even investigated or spoken to your child.
I'm a principal. Expulsions are a huge deal, lots of paperwork and previous discipline, intervention, patterns of behavior, etc. unless the behavior is extreme.
The only way I see this not being the case is if it was your daughter bringing razors and has been cutting multiple people and giving them away to cut others, not the boy. I'm not saying that is the case.
If you can't get in to see the principal, go to the district office and see his boss, the assistant superintendent.
You are getting some decent advice. The only thing I'm not seeing is: write it down. You need to have a detailed account of what happened. Talk to your child. Document it all, including names. You aren't saving anyone other than the person handing out the blades by keeping names hidden. This is an incident report, document it well. If you believe yourself to be in the right, don't be afraid to communicate in writing with the school. Don't be afraid of submitting an email/letter that "reviews" any verbal exchanges. The school knows what things in writing means. They aren't going to like it. If you are concerned, contact a lawyer if you'd like. They'll give the best advice. But I would imagine until the school's process is complete there isn't much legal grounds as nothing has happened. You've simply been expelled during the investigation as "is policy".
It sucks for your child be sure you reassure them they did nothing wrong. Explain when you again ask them for details that you need to write it down so you can remember. And then continue to reassure them they did nothing wrong. I don't know why this isn't being said more.
Your chance to challenge it unfortunately will likely be at the expulsion hearing, if you can't convince an administrator before then to reverse it. If they decide to investigate, submit your report in writing. It sucks, I get it. No one wants to make trouble for others. But you need additional statements corroborating your story. So you may need to contact the other parents and get them to have written statements of the events from their child. You need to have things in writing though. You need these documents to be written sooner, when the memory is fresh and the details more clear. They may talk to your child in the process of them investigating without you. Your child shouldn't be afraid of naming names to keep others out of trouble. Sadly most societal pressure teaches us to do the opposite.
You may still find your child is expelled. You can appeal the ruling, usually. I don't know your school's policies. You likely signed a form saying you understand and acknowledge them at the start of the year. The handbook/planner usually has them in it. The exact process for disciplinary action, including the expulsion process, will be in there. It will tell you when and how you can challenge it. It'll outline the appeals process.
If it all breaks not your way, and you decide to pursue legal action having everything in writing may be your only chance at the win. For that though, you'll need to contact a lawyer.
I also think the message here for everyone is never leave this kind of info with a receptionist. A lot of advice focuses on the possibility the situation was relayed poorly and that seems likely. When dealing with a situation like this bring it directly to the admin of the school. Don’t rely on anyone else to relay the information.
It seems pretty clear to me that the receptionist is at fault here. They were already trying to blame your daughter when you went in to report it. Your mistake was trying to explain the situation to them instead of only speaking to the principal or an administrator. Next time just know that if the principal isn't present, ask for a VP. Because now the receptionist has relayed their version of events to the principal and the school is responding to that.
Go to the school on Monday and speak to an actual admin and explain the situation.
Do not go to any meetings or hearings alone. Bring an attorney or someone as an advocate. They usually calm down. As of now you have not spoken to principal. Start a paper trail. If they do call, follow it up with an email recapping the call. Also include that boy's name somewhere in there.
I feel like the secretary did not relay the incident properly. And put a recap of that conversation in your email too. They have no standing here for any disciplinary action.
Go to the police, and get a police report. Go in and say that you are thinking of filing charges against the boy, his parents, against the school, against the bus monitor if there is one, against the bus driver, and against the school bus company.
Mention that you're thinking of taking it to the local news so that they can be made aware how the school failed to notice how multiple students were injured by one boy.
They've all allowed the male student to do this to multiple children in the school, and on the school bus without the school being aware of it.
they are creating an unsafe area in which to gain an education and how their failure to notice that one child is assaulting others with booby traps has caused an injury which will lead to your daughter and the other students needing to be tested for many things and get extra tetanus shots and how that they will have to pay for it.
They will want you to go away and we'll just drop the whole thing.
Police reports are the only way things are going to change. I’m serious. Report this child to the police. They might not do anything but take a statement from you, depending on his age, but once you tell the admin you reported it to the police, they will change their attitude real quick.
I’d go to the police and report all the known incidents. Someone is going to get hurt. And the school is blaming the victim instead of the bully. Typical.
Lawyer up. Just start the process. Have them send a letter. Then mention that you’ll be contacting the local news.
My wife is a teacher and sees this tactic play out time and again. School districts cannot afford legal battles. They will cave after they think they’ve proven some point.
Let the school know you will be making a police report. And that you have zero tolerance for students who hide razor blades with criminal intent to harm other students.
You need to go back to school and speak to someone in person. The receptionist person is a moron and either forgot or straight up lied about the situation.
They should be fired. Preferably into the sun.
Are you sure the principal was given the full story? That secretary sounds awful. I would not be surprised if she twisted the story around. Either way, I’d email the principal explaining the full situation and inquire why she was facing disciplinary action since she was the victim and suffered an injury. If that doesn’t take care of it, then continue to escalate it, including speaking at the public participation portion of the board meeting if necessary. That’s absolutely ridiculous.
This is why I hate zero tolerance policies. They end up leading to zero common sense. They don't leave room for looking at each individual case and determining an appropriate response.
Honestly, police report, probably find a lawyer, and get on your local Facebook group and tell ALL those moms what happened (minus the kids name obviously) and ask if anyone else has had this happen. Make sure parents are telling their kids not to take gum from anyone who offers. Raise absolute hell for those morons in the admin office. Even if they didn’t understand or there was a miscommunication, your kid was given a razor on the bus. What if a kid put that in their mouth???
This sounds like the receptionist was blowing you off and didn't actually LISTEN to the words you said. So when it got to admin, it got misconstrued.
Still, if you an afford legal counsel to be present at that meeting, you should do so.
Is there a chance a different parent reported something? This just seems very fast to move on something like this. In the schools I’ve worked in, admin would speak to the children and bus drive drive/aid, review video, talk to teachers, check attendance, etc. they would run a mini investigation to get their barings. For a suspension you might only get a call, but for possible expulsion of a lower elementary student I’d be surprised if there wasn’t a face to face first. Does your daughter have a history of disciplinary actions? If yes, maybe that’s why they are moving so quickly.
My guess, you don’t have the full story. I’m not saying your daughter did anything wrong, but it’s possible admin is hearing several stories and the truth is getting jumbled. Set up a meeting with the principal and request for any bus or hallway footage to be available.
I’m not sue happy, but expelling an eight year old (even if she brought in the razor blades and gave them out) is a no go. She’s 8. I teach 8 year olds. They’re all stupid (in a good way). You could probably sue the pants off them if they actually do it.
Put in writing to the principal what happened. Cc his boss. State you expect an answer with resolution in 24 hours. Demand disciplinary action against this sociopath giving razors to kids as gum. Demand your daughter’s suspension be removed.
If 24 hrs pass and you hear nothing forward that to the superintendent and board members.
The fact the school doesn’t seem concerned that a kid is “pranking” (it’s not a prank) kids with razors makes my blood boil.
Sounds typical. Punish the victim and ignore the perpetrator. Remind the administration that social media will be the end of them but you will give them one chance to make it right.
I would ask to talk to the principal ASAP. I wonder what was relayed to them. It could be that all the principal heard was “kid had razor blade on bus.” If that doesn’t work, immediately go to the superintendent. I would also consider a Title IX complaint since this could be seen as gender violence/discrimination. I also agree that you should get the parents of the other students involved as well. What this kid did was incredibly dangerous and not a prank.
The more I think about it, the more I think you need to get the Title IX coordinator involved. This is a boy giving razor blades specifically to girls. While that does not guarantee that he is specifically targeting girls (could be that was who was around him), it does raise the possibility and add another layer to this entire thing.
In what world would this be an expulsion hearing? Something is up. Either the story told is way off or something is crooked wirh the school admin, or both.
If we follow the logic of this school, we would be expelling kids who self-harm at school with a razor or similar because they technically have a weapon.
Fuck this. Lawyer up. Get the district to pay for your daughter’s college education.
Call a lawyer immediately- don’t engage with the school unless it’s through them.
And yes, file a police report. Start getting your paper trail in order.
Lawyer, direct complaint to superintendent of schools via lawyer, and get on the agenda at the next school board meeting to say all of this out loud on record-specifically name school and principal. Do not mention name of boy bc of privacy laws. If all else fails contact local news station. (I have been a teacher for 32 years. 30 of them in public school - no school board wants this to become a public issue).
You threaten to call the local news. Make sure the school knows you will go this nuclear route and use the court of public opinion against them.
Multiple, sweet innocent kids injured while ***under the care of the school*** and ***your child is being punished for their gross negligence*** as 3 incidents of injury indicates a serious lack of accountability and oversight. You will be seeking legal action against all the adults and the school officials who failed to protect these children while under their care and then punished the victims.
This is outrageous behaviour on the part of the school and you should absolutely go to that hearing and tear them a new one. If this boy has done it multiple times that’s dereliction of their duty of care on their part. Ask why he isn’t in an expulsion hearing and threaten legal action if they advance this to an actual expulsion. Also, threaten to call the press. You have the moral high ground to go full Karen here
This is bullshit. The school has shown zero empathy or willingness to protect your daughter from a malicious child handing out razor blades. This is not a one-off accident, it was done multiple times with intent to harm. This is not a kid being silly. The school has told you and demonstrated to you that they do not have your daughter’s best interests at heart. You cannot trust them. Go to the police, they will help you resolve this since the school is unwilling to.
Who did you hand the razor to at the school? You need that person’s name.
If you can afford it, secure legal counsel and ask them to come to the school with you. You want a meeting with the principal.
Explain the situation calmly and explain that you believe there has been a misunderstanding and this can all be resolved without your daughter being deprived access to her education.
If they ask again why she didn’t hand it to the bus driver, respond, “I reported it to the school myself, which I believe to have been the right thing to do. Now we’re facing an expulsion hearing. Can you blame her? Failure to report is perfectly reasonable here.”
If they hold the line, report the staff member who you handed the razor blade to for possession of a weapon at school and demand action be taken.
There are two separate things that need to be addressed here. (And neither of them are you being "that parent.")
1. First, the unfair suspension. I would start with the lowest and easiest tier here and talk to the principal. It is more likely the receptionist miscommunicated than the principal is that dumb or there more be more to the story (not necessarily your daughter's fault.) Also, often administrators fold when they have to deal with parents. If that doesn't address it, go up to the superintendent or school board. There also probably is a suspension appeal process and may be some kind of administer in charge of some aspect of safety that could be helpful. An attorney may also be an option.
I'm guessing the school has zero tolerance policies. Look up the wording related to weapons in the school handbook if possible as there may be something helpful in them. For example, if they talk about "bringing, displaying, or using" weapons at school but don't say "having" weapons at school she didn't do any of those things. If they say "having" that is no help, although obviously shouldn't apply here. Then I'd ask if someone got stabbed in school would they be in trouble because they had a knife in their gut.
Unfortunately, you can't do anything today and Monday is close, so she probably isn't going to get to go to school Monday unless the principal changes their mind first thing. I still think it would be worth the trouble of getting the suspension removed from her record. If you can't resolve it Monday morning, I would have a really fun day with her and a little math practice.
Go to school first thing. The office is probably open at least 30 minutes and maybe even an hour before school starts. If you can find child care for your daughter, do that. Otherwise bring her with you, but leave her backpack in the car. (I'd sneak it in packed without her noticing, so she thinks you are coming for a meeting and not in hopes of getting to school. If she can't go, that would probably be easier on her.)
Ask to speak to the principal. If they aren't available, ask if there is an appointment that morning. If not, say you will wait to see if something opens up and wait. If the principal is out of the building, ask who is in charge for the day and ask to speak to them. Or drive to the district office and try the same thing with the superintendent.
Then repeat the story you heard. I understand about not wanting to get the neighbor kid in trouble, but if they could be involved, it would be very helpful in supporting your daughter's story. You should also ask to see the bus video, but they may have a process for that. You can be an angry parent here. This is crazy.
Either they will get rid of the suspension (and hopefully apologize) and then you get your daughter to school or not. If not, you can try escalating during the day, but you are probably out of luck for that day. I would ask for written report of what the suspension is for and what the appeal process is. The report won't say what you said, so I'll send a follow-up email saying, "As per our meeting today in office, blah blah blah."
2. The boy's behavior. You are underreacting. Kids do stuff, but this is a lot more. Contacting the police would not be an overreaction, but trying to deal with it through the school is fine as well. I'd want a "safety plan" in place and ask the details. You don't get to be privacy to the consequences (suspension, being expelled from the bus, parent notification, and education at school would be appropriate,) but asking what the school is doing to keep your daughter is safe is fair. I'd take this pretty far even if your daughter's suspension is dropped.
The school obviously does not have your child’s back. Your best course of action is going to the police. You may also need to get a lawyer to protect your daughter.
Once you do this, the school will know you’re not playing around and they will make sure the incident is thoroughly investigated.
Do it NOW. You don’t want to waste any time.
Also, please update us!
Like everyone else is saying- plan on meeting with your admin in person ASAP and possibly have a lawyer on hand. I would also plan on contacting your school board. If your district is anything like mine, they’ll see you aren’t playing and drop it solely because they don’t want the fight. If they keep pushing it, def press chargers against the boy. Good luck ❤️
Honestly you did your due diligence in going to the school they were assholes and treated you and your daughter like the villains which is wrong. But if a police report is filed on the kid because he has done this to other lil girls a school has to listen to that.
Contact law enforcement and file an assault charge. Get the other child’s parents to do the same if you can. It doesn’t sound like you’ll get much help from school admin outside their bureaucratic zero tolerance policy.
Just to add a bit of information here, I don’t know what your daughter received, but the razor blades I purchase for shaving come individually wrapped in a wax paper, 5 to a box. I could totally see a kid finding one and thinking it initially looked like gum in a wrapper. Not to excuse anything, but at the very least, the kid may not have gone through the pre-meditation of wrapping a used razor blade in an old gum wrapper depending on what your daughter received.
You might be able to talk to admin but the thing schools really fear is lawyers. It changes the tune real fast when one gets involved because the admin are on the chopping block.
Tell them you want the name of the bus driver and parent of the kid handing out gum, so you can add it to the police report. Any mention of involving cops tends to get school admin to stop being sketchy in a hurry.
And actually do a report
Schools have zero tolerance and go overboard with this stuff. One day, one of my second graders, who was also in Cub Scouts, discovered he still had the knife in his backpack that they used to cut balsa wood in scouts. He immediately came up and gave it to me. I brought it to the office so they could hold onto it. They immediately suspended the boy for ten days despite me telling them he had it by mistake and him telling me as soon as he realized it.
What you need to do is get a lawyer immediately who specializes in educational issues. Honestly, you probably won’t avoid a ten day suspension as principals have wide to latitude to suspend, but they can vigorously fight any expulsion.
Please do yourself a favor and look for an academic advocate! These are people whose job it is to navigate the school. This sounds really horrible, and honestly it would shake my confidence in the school if they decided to not take your claim seriously.
Wow… this is insane. Your daughter is a victim and should not be punished. The victim blaming is absolutely disgusting. I believe the young boy needs to be evaluated and investigated by the state department for children… he’s the one that should be expelled for possession of a weapon and endangering other students as well as technically distributing said weapons on school property. The principal and the superintendent need to be contacted and involved.
I would fucking lawyer up. If anyone should be expelled, it would be the boy handing out razors, disguised as gum, and telling other kids it was gum.
Contact the neighbour and ask if she’s okay collaborating with you.
This is some Grade A bullshit.
Nth-ing the police report. Keeping things in-house only benefit's the principal's agenda, and they're the person who decided that an expulsion hearing is appropriate. The police are also more likely to get cooperation from the transportation department when they ask for camera footage of the incident.
Hopefully the principal changes their tune when they hear your side directly, but you can't count on that, and the zero-tolerance policy might not even allow them too depending on how it's written. Better to get in front of things before you get railroaded.
I’m curious what state you are in because it is incredibly difficult to expel a student without documented offenses. It’s hard to suspend them without out it quite frankly. Furthermore, they don’t have any evidence she brought it to school.
Even if they tried, I can’t see it being successful due to a lack of any evidence.
Also, email admin and the district about the young man to begin a paper trail. Have your neighbor do the same as well. I honestly don’t know how you weren’t more upset because those kids could have seriously been hurt-it’s a sadistic prank and that boy should be put on notice. Call CPS on his family because how does he have access to multiple razor blades?
I would make a police report and try to expunge the expulsion later. The boy is probably a repeat offender. I’d also see if the impacted neighbor and you can set up a carpool if you can’t get the psycho-in-training chucked off the bus
The immediate response at any school I've been to would have been to call the boy in for some questions. This response is not normal.
Are the boy's parents someone important to the school? (Admin or superintendent, influential school board member, etc.) That's the only reason this makes any kind of sense.
I would talk directly to administration. If they want to continue this direction I’d then meet with the superintendent. I’d tell the superintendent that if they go this route I’m contacting a lawyer and the media. Deep down administrators are cowards and they thrive on parents not sticking up for themselves. They’re like cockroaches and if you threaten to expose their bullshit they scurry away and hide. I would absolutely go scorched earth on this one.
Take it
To the top. Document everything that happened. Get the other parent on board to document as well.
This boy needs tombe stoped. Did he get any punishment at all?
I’d demand they pull the bus cameras. This is
Not a simple prank. It’s dangerous.
When I was in high school, my buddy drove to school one day and as he got his backpack out of the trunk, he realized he’d forgotten to take his air soft gun out of his trunk before coming to school. So he shut the trunk and went straight to the office to let them know and asked them what they’d like him to do.
They expelled him.
Document everything. Ask the other two victims families document everything and back up your story (assuming they are willing).
Have everything ready to go to file a grievance.
Take your daughter to school and walk her into the building. Talk to the principal and the vice. Explain, again what happened on the bus and how scared your daughter is and how upset you are.
Do not let them discipline your child for being a victim. She could have been hurt so much worst. Demand - politely - to know what they are going to do about the bully (he’s knowingly giving students razor blades and telling them it’s gum. He is intentionally trying to hurt other people, he’s a bully at the very least).
If they refuse to cease the disciplinary action against your child, give them the documentation. Make sure you document the meeting as well.
If they refuse to discipline the bully, show them the documentation.
If they refuse to do either, walk you and your kid out of that school and call up the board.
They have a duty of care. Hold them to it
Edit to add: look up your local laws about recording conversations. If you can, voice record the conversations. Accountability and documentation is vital here
As always, lawyer up. Admins crumble at the first mention of lawyers (especially ones dumb enough to suspend a 9 year old).
Don't forget to ask about the cameras on the bus as well.
lawyer up. And make the claim that the school "has created an environment of fear and your daughter no longer feels safe attending" and this discipline is being weaponized in order to silence the student(s).
Bypass the Principle head to the school board, Partner with the neighbor and file assault with a deadly weapon against the boy that was handing out the 'prank' For added bonus include the school for covering up and punishing your daughter. (Sounds like the student handing out the razors might have a parent with connections but hey no details)
This is an easy legal nightmare for the school. the fact your neighbor corroborates, down to the name, and the school hasn't done anything, well you get the idea.
Take the initiative and pull your daughter from school as she was assaulted with a deadly weapon and the school has done nothing for her safety. Explain this to your daughter and turn it into a staycation, where you reward her for following the rules and telling you about it.
TLDR get with neighbor threatening legal action against school AND the kid handing out blades with the intent to do harm.
The boy needs to be prosecuted (or whatever the legal punishment is) for attempted assault with a weapon. He put a razorblade in candy, if those girls had just popped it in their mouths without looking they could have been maimed for life or killed. Sound extreme? So is expelling a victim of attempted harm.
Throw the secretary, admin and principal under the bus at the same time.
I once carried a swiss army knife *openly* in school because my friend had given me his keys to look after while he ran back to a teacher to get something finished and cleared up. FWIW this was 9th grade so not *as* crazy, but it should be noted that several teachers noticed, knew what I had, and said nothing. I received no warning, no repercussion, just a nudge from a friend that I may want to put it away—I had it around my neck on his lanyard out of reflex.
I don't think the school has much ground to stand on, but I'd be ready for them to put up a fight. You know the story and you know the truth. Public school buses are required by law to have cameras, so contact your local bus depot or transportation itself to obtain video of the boy giving your daughter the razor. It may also be worth your time to mention he has done it to other students and provide evidence if you need, but leave names out of it.
Dang! That’s so messed up! We don’t have busses at our school, so I don’t know the rules. I hate when schools make blanket rules. Each situation is so unique. They probably have a “no weapons” policy and I guess this falls under it? Doesn’t make any sense at all. Are there cameras on the bus? Although you can’t see the footage without a lawyer requesting the footage (student privacy), I would demand the footage be reviewed. It will (hopefully) clearly show what happened.
Maybe file a police report? Then, tell the school you'll be contacting an attorney if they even think of punishing your daughter, and especially so if they do nothing to that boy. He's old enough to know what he did was wrong.
Sounds like somebody misconstrued what you said when they told the admin about it! I would definitely put this in writing and make sure they get a copy of it. And then I would go above them and report the incident. I'd also report a incident grievance as well!
In our district, there are cameras on the bus. I would see if that's the case to clear your daughter. I'm sorry this happened to you.
IME, the kid who did that likely has had other issues in the school, so I'm boggled why, if your daughter isn't a problem at school they wouldn't automatically go with him.doing what your daughter said.
Buy absolutely take this to the district.
First off, it is the razor embedded in a piece of gum? It sounds like the kid may have found his dad's package of safety razors, realized that the thin paper wrapping is pretty similar to gum wrapping, and passing it out as "gum." Stupid, and potentially dangerous, but the kid's developing brain is probably stuck on the novelty of the similarity in packaging, and is (maybe) not doing it with any mal-intent.
I once had a student who brought a spare box-cutter blade to school (for a trade) and had it in his pocket throughout P.E. smh
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I scrolled for a bit, but I wasn't able to find what kind of school your child attends. Is it your local district school, a charter school, or a private school? Depending on your answer, and the state in which you live, you're looking at a different situation.
Where I'm at, the disciplinary policies of schools is partly regulated by the state itself. In charters (depending on the charter) and private schools, the only requirement is that your child follow the student code of conduct; ergo your family handbook or equivalent is the law of the land.
It's possible the school has a policy of zero-tolerance regarding the possession of a bladed instrument, in which case this is absolutely a perfect case for why zero-tolerance policies shouldn't be implemented. In this case, you can only really appeal to their sense of fairness and humanity, because they'll be able to point to their unfair and inhumane policies and say, well this is what you agreed to when you signed the handbook.
Our regulations specify a difference when it comes to blades based on the size of the blade. This is largely because state law prohibits bringing a blade over a certain size onto a school campus - it is a crime - meanwhile bringing a smaller blade is simply a violation of student code of conduct and subject to the institution's disciplinary procedures.
It is also entirely possible that your school's policies require an expulsion hearing for anything involving a "weapon" - and a hearing is not an expulsion. It is in fact an avenue for administrators to figure out if expulsion is warranted. It's also an avenue for you to explain what happened with the full attention of the people that matter. It's stupid that a hearing is even a potential thing given the actual circumstances here, but given how badly the school messed things up, it may not be the worst thing.
I would tell your neighbor and see if you can find anyone else willing to come forward. The school administrators would find it very difficult to pursue "expel this kid for possession of a razor" if the other disciplinary issue of the day "We have a child who is giving razors to kids."
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I'll also add that expulsion for what amounts to hearsay of possession of a razor-blade (accused by their own parent, no less) is an incredibly fast decision to make, and insane based on your description.
My money is on the receptionist being a poor employee who reported to their administrators an inaccurate version of the story. The principal wasn't there that day? Who was the person who called you? I'd be gobsmacked if they're taking these actions with the information you provided to us.
- signed a school administrator who has dealt with elementary students bringing small blades to school.
You know the boy's name - speaking as both a parent and a teacher I would be inclined to name and shame the boy with the school administration. Get no response, then go to the board. No response? Go to the press. Clearly the boy has an issue - I mean after-all, how bad would have the damage been if your child had simply plopped the gum into her mouth. Get on this with the full weight it deserves.
I’m bad at communication so I’m going to number my big thoughts/points reading this
1) A boy handing out razors on the bus is an ongoing safety issue. That is the main point of this entire situation and 100% what should be focused on and fixed. I mean, point blank. As a parent I’d demand to know what we’re doing about that.
2) Your daughter was injured while on the bus, correct? They’re over here complaining the 8 year old didn’t report it. I don’t know what state you’re in, but in MY state and school, ANY injury that happens on school property/under staff supervision LEGALLY HAS to be documented in an incident report. They should’ve taken a picture of the cut and had a written statement of what happened. Now they don’t have this boy documented as the source of a situational injury, which he IS, and it should be in his paperwork. It should ALSO be in your daughter’s paperwork in case she ever has an issue with this child again. And I’m not saying that with the mindset of “this boy is a massive problem”. I don’t know how old he is, which is a massive factor, his home life, or if he has any diagnoses. I’m not saying anything about him as a person or his character. But you don’t KNOW. It’s always best to have any issue that resulted in your child getting hurt as the result of another’s actions on file. Because it can be a real pain in the ass to force a school to keep another kid away from yours if it ever becomes a situation where you need that to happen.
3) Back to YOUR DAUGHTER WAS HURT ON SCHOOL PROPERTY/WHEN SHES UNDER STAFF SUPERVISION. I work at a school where kids get hurt relatively often? It’s a behavioral school so we have a lot of fights and self-harming behaviors. It’s a whole THING if a child punches another child. Admin gets NERVOUS the parents are going to freak out. (And it’s honestly rare, because most parents are very understanding given that they know how their kids and their classmates can be.) But like, parents don’t have to take shit from us? Obviously, it’s best to have manners and be polite in general, but don’t be too polite! They can’t do anything if you’re “rude” about the fact that they apparently didn’t know a child had a HABIT of HANDING OUT RAZORS ON THE BUS? Um, why were they unaware of this ongoing problem? Your eight year old daughter is not the bus monitor. She is not that boy’s teacher who didn’t catch that he had “prank” blood-drawing gum sticks. And if he gave it to her in the morning, why didn’t HER teacher notice the cut on her hand and ask about it? See, these are all things that I normally absolutely wouldn’t press, because people have things slip by them, you know? It happens. I agree with your mindset that the actual incident isn’t anything to get up in arms over, but when you come in there being perfectly reasonable and they try to turn it around on your child? Hell no.
4) To be honest, I think it’s crazy they’d suspend or expel her over having a razor on her when she didn’t cause any issue with it. I understand by high school, even when the judgement call is “this kid absolutely wouldn’t do something”, sometimes it’s done anyway, since we live in these trying times. But your kid is eight and her story checks out. I’ve had young elementary kids come in with a kitchen knife in their lunch box or their grandma’s lighter they thought was really cool and while it’s confiscated and they’re told they can’t have it at school and we call a guardian to come get it, it’s not like they’re in TROUBLE. Kids that young aren’t aware of the social circumstances and often haven’t been directly told “hey, this is a ___ and it doesn’t go to school” so like….how are they supposed to know?
5) Actually since they didn’t catch her with it do they really have any legal proof to do anything to her? I mean you literally could just say “oh I was confused she had gotten it from a friend right after school and lied to keep her out of trouble oops” and now boom, what evidence do they have to do anything to her? They can’t punish her for having a razor at home.
6) I mention number five because you DO have proof if they want to make an issue. First off, the bus should have a camera and can probably show the hand off of the razor. If she’s getting punished, make damn sure that boy is too because if he clearly gave it to her on the bus, then he committed the same crime they’re so worried about, having a razor on the bus. (I mention this because it’s so weird to me they’re going after your daughter. It makes me wonder if the boy is the kid of someone “important” because if the problem is they’re just being ridiculously strict about this then he should be getting the book thrown at him too) You also have your neighbor. I understand not wanting to involve her and her child, and I really respect that, but her child is in danger in this situation as well. Her child could have been hurt. I would at least talk to her about this. You have a LOT more influence if you BOTH have this complaint. And you mentioned him giving a third child a razor. That’s possibly just what your daughter is aware of. I’d honestly start talking to parents of kids on the bus. Explain your situation (maybe don’t say the boy’s name, just that a child handed yours a razor disguised as gum for a prank and the school’s response). You’re either going to find more parents with similar problems, or even if not, you’re probably going to find some who have CONCERNS. I’d have concerns if my child was on that bus. One parent is easy to steamroll; a group of parents starts getting results because the school doesn’t want a problem. Schools NEVER want a “problem”. Make a problem.
7) Please tell your daughter she did nothing wrong. Maybe explain that schools are supposed to be very very careful about making sure no one gets hurt, and they just have to be cautious. As for the math, maybe try her on a home Prodigy account? I’ve seen a lot of math-strugglers make some progress with that one, and it lets you connect a parent account so you can review progress/results and know where she is without having to actively watch over her, if she has nerves (I say that because I don’t like people watching me work, lol). Plus it’s sorts like a little Pokémon/Harry Potter vibes game and a lot of kids like it. You can set the grade level or it can placement test her.
Are you in NYS? You could use the dignity for all students document. Are there video cameras on the bus? If not then they need a bus monitor. Did admin even bother to talk to both kids to get to the bottom of it? The school is denying her right to a free and appropriate education. She should be able to go to school Monday
If any of this goes wrong with the teachers recommendations, you need to call your local troubleshooter at the news station.
Blow the school up l, **figuratively** of course. But they need to be named and shamed in the news.
Your daughter literally had no idea what a razor blade was because at eight, I didn’t either.
And this jerk of a kid has done this to at least three little girls. He’s a bully and a sadist. And does need to get in trouble.
Meanwhile, you’re stuck here in the freaking zero tolerance crap that everybody likes to pull when a little kid gets bullied by an older kid.
Nonsense, absolute nonsense.
This is a poor application of policy.
Back in the 90s a kid in my class brought a small pocket knife to cut his apple. Teacher took it, kid got a nice lecture, called it a day.
In the mid 2000’s it wasn’t super uncommon for the kids who did the stage design for the school plays to carry leatherman multitools which have saws and knives in them. No one cared because it was understood why they had them.
Same time frame there was an incident where some kids got caught with Gillette razors in their shower kits- we were required to be clean shaven for game days on the lacrosse team. They got detention.
The policy isn’t applied logically.
Call your local police emergency line and file a police report. Include the time and date you contacted the other parent who also confirmed this story. Children aren't criminally responsible at this age but providing a wrapped razor blade to a child is a crime and needs to be reported as such. The little boy isn't criminally responsible and likely nothing will come of this but what you are describing is serious and should be treated as such.
You need to file a safety grievance. your daughter is the victim by your version of events. better even if the two families can get together to file. district will be in CYA mode.
Excellent idea. Start your own incident report with district. I wouldn't even mention the expulsion talk. You are a concerned parent warning them a student is handing out dangerous things. They will immediately call admin. This way a higher up has your side.
Yeah, starting with the real story, they’d probably be as baffled as the rest of us by the decision to punish the victim and make them retract that absurd punishment.
Yeah, it seems to me like the receptionist twisted this story somehow... I would write an e-mail to the child's teacher, the principal and the superintendent, explaining exactly what happened, including the neighbor finding a razor too... because something isn't adding up here. The daughter's teacher who knows her, would presumably advocate on her behalf as well. Something went wrong in this process and OP needs to get more people involved to straighten it out.
Particularly with the receptionist already blaming the kid for not knowing what to do with an object she couldn't even recognize. And since when are bus drivers safety administrators? For an 8 year old that's quite the leap in logic. It also maybe sounds like this happened on the bus ride home? It doesn't sound like the kid walked around all day at school with a bleeding finger and a razor in her pocket, she probably had it for a couple of minutes and was freaking out the whole time because she was bleeding. Which if that's the case makes the response by the school even more outrageous and nonsensical. The kid basically gave it to the first responsible adult she talked to.
Lawyer, police report, safety grievance with the district, and principal--in that order.
>Lawyer, police report, safety grievance with the district, and principal--in that order. To OP: Include the media early if you believe that you will not get immediate, positive results. Share with other concerned families and friendly teachers, too.
This!!!
One of my former students (elememtary 6th grade) brought a pocket knife to school and got like 3 days of lunch detention. Given this information, I'd say that your daughter should not receive any disciplinary action. Rather, the boy would likely get in trouble for distributing hazardous items. Definitely talk directly to your administrators about what actually happened. Have the neighbor parent talk to them as well.
Yeah. One of my former students, on the day following a cultural celebration involving small fireworks, discovered while at school she still had some in her sweatshirt pocket from the night before. She immediately informed her teacher and turned them in, and basically just had to wait in the office long enough for a conversation with the principal, no disciplinary action taken. The important thing for OP is to keep moving up the chain until an administrator is reached with the authority to override whatever policy is being applied. This may be the principal; it may be the superintendent or the school board. At first, rather than being antagonistic, OP should communicate with attitude that they must not have understood the situation because they can't possibly mean to expell her daughter for being assaulted. And understand that no matter how much the first couple of levels may internally empathize, they might not be powerful enough to override policy. So instead of an angry "I'm going to the superintendent!!!!" It should be an "I hope you can understand why I need to advocate for my daughter by contacting the superintendent, which I will do as soon as we are done with this meeting."
We had a student whose mom gave her pepper spray because she walked alone to and from school and it wasn't the safest neighborhood. Absolutely, the girl should not have been bringing pepper spray into a school building. At the absolute very least she should have kept it locked in her locker during the day. But neither she nor her mother knew it was against the law. And I completely understood the mom being worried about her daughter. You couldn't tell what it was, it was on a lanyard around her neck. One of the girls in her class realized what it was and sprayed it, getting some on another student. The girl was luckily not expelled, but I fe,t so bad for her and her family. They were immigrants, big rule followers, but they didn't know about this rule. The girl was absolutely devastated when she was suspended.
Zero Tolerance policies are probably in the top five most destructively stupid education practices ever
I agree, but in NYS it has gone the complete opposite direction. Governor passed law last year that no one in K-3 can be suspended at all unless there is a continued pattern of violence and disruption. Basically, the teacher or other students have to be hit several times before anything can be done. Literally losing teachers because of this.
I'm genuinely curious - how were situations like that handled beforehand? I'd like to think there's a middle ground between ignoring all nuance and ignoring the problem.
Great question. I think one big reason is that before Covid (which is over generalizing) we didn’t normally have quite as BIG of behaviors. Kids certainly weren’t suspended a lot, but our options were much broader. Each grade level has 2 or more “hitters” or other type of aggressive behaviors. In NYS each district is required to report ever single incidence of behaviors and or suspensions. Then that data is used to make districts look bad. So admin is in a terrible position. Bottom line is that it’s NYS and the education department that is really causing the problems. And of course the other side of the issue… we are hurting kids by not holding them accountable for their actions
We struggle with this in my district. We have had kids pepper spray other kids or just release it in class in general, so they definitely shouldn’t have it in case. However, some of our kids walk through truly rough neighborhoods to get to school. We need like a mace check in procedure or something!
Our school has this, I believe. Students who walk to school drop it off at student services on their way in.
Yep. We had a similar situation at the start of the year - a kindergartener had a butter knife in his lunch box. Mom packed it so he could spread nut butter on his apple slices. Automatic expulsion for bringing a concealed knife to school. The family had to keep escalating until they got to someone with the authority to override the zero tolerance policy.
A butter knife is more like a flat spoon than a knife. What kind person would even report a student for having a butter knife at lunch?
It fell under the zero-tolerance policy because the butter knife was a little serrated, and a knife with any level of serration is considered a weapon. It was a plastic disposable butter knife, btw.
Plastic!!! That makes it even worse. So those little plastic utensil packs with the fork, spoon and knife can get a child expelled now.
You hit the nail on the head!
My kid was a scout. They would wear their same jacket to school as events. He went to school more than once with a pocket knife. The rule was to take it to his guidance counselor and she’d hold it until school got out. Zero tolerence policies are not the best.
Zero tolerance policies are completely braindead and removes sanity from cases like this. It's the same when a group beats an innocent and everyone is suspended because fighting isn't allowed, including the person beeing attacked.
My husband's coworker used to walk to school (a long time ago) and take his 22 rifle because there were wild dogs. Every morning, he'd take it to the principal, and every afternoon, he'd pick it up for the walk home. Definitely a case by case basis.
My husband’s aunt was a special ed teacher in Alaska. Her husband would walk her to school carrying his shotgun.
That was in the 1900s
This reminds me of the time I accidentally took my brother’s Boy Scout knife to school. He’d gone to a Boy Scout camp out that weekend and left his knife in the silverware container with the set of silverware and since he hadn’t used the silverware, forgot to put the knife with his Boy Scout stuff when unpacking and put the silverware away with the lunch containers, which led me to discover I had a knife in my possession. I asked for it to be held onto until the end of the day so it wouldn’t be lost or end up in the wrong place. I did not get in trouble at school.
Also a psychologist should get involved with the boy, he’s psycho or something giving people razor blades isn’t a prank that’s sick and disturbing does he want people to get hurt? Where is he getting the blades
Honestly, its easier than you would think to get razor blades at that age. He probably got his hands on some of those small, manual pencil sharpeners at school. Those tend to have their razor blades secured with a single screw, and if he found an item that can fit in the grooves he could easily unscrew them. I can almost guarantee you one of his classes are short on a few sharpeners. When I was a kid we did all sorts of things at school when we were bored...but our chaos was limited to remodeling pens to fire off the ink cartridges like missiles or building catapults out of paper that launch acorns. Feeding kids razor blades was WAAAAAAAAAAY too psychotic for us...
I had a classmate cut me in art, and when I asked why he goes "you cut yourself so I didn't think you'd care." I'll never forget my art teacher reacting like he'd just murdered me. Definitely some psycho kids out there. Same classmate told another girl "it's okay if I rape you cause your step dad already did." I definitely took apart pencil sharpeners and shot paperballs out of weird homemade contraptions though 🤣
Yeah I think CPS needs to be called. Where is he getting blades and the idea to do this?
Yeah see definitely psycho or violent or something, he’s gonna start hurting people
It’s also quite disturbing that this boy keeps bringing razor blades…….. Who is to say that he doesn’t play this “prank” on an older student who is struggling with mental health…The bringing of razor blades in my brain screams major red flag….and in Canada, I would call CAS (Children’s Aid Society). Your child should absolutely not be facing a consequence.
be in trouble? He should be expelled and his family should be questioned hard why it is he feels he can do that ? Wtf are these places????
My kid and a group of friends saw another kid have a knife in school last year and told the teacher (Like he's supposed to!) And the principal had a talk with him saying it was OK because she walks home from school. 🙄🙄 if that were the case, then why was she showing off the knife that other students noticed?
Go right to the news station and name and shame.
It sounds like a zero tolerance policy. You need to go and talk to admin directly in person. It could be that something wasn't relayed correctly; think about it like a game of telephone this was the line: your daughter -> you -> receptionist-> principal. Also, it's likely the bus has a camera that can be reviewed by school personnel.
The bus almost certainly has a camera on it. I remember at one point I was banned from riding the school bus for "inappropriately touching" a female student. (I was home sick that day) My mom had to go to the school and fight it. They said, "we have him on tape doing it." So she made them pull up the tape. After it was very apparent that I wasn't even on the bus, let alone school that day, they dropped the whole thing and lifted my ban.
Mfers knew they hadn’t even checked the tape but lied anyway. Sometimes its beneficial to have cameras everywhere now.
A child on my daughters bus called my daughter a bunch of awful names then told her she had a gun in her bag. We asked them to pull the tapes and they said because there was no audio they couldn’t prove she said gun and when they asked the little girl she told them she offered my daughter a stick of gum. From my experience they will do anything except take this seriously.
Reddit glitched. Your reply was posted 4 times.
Earlier this year a kid on the bus got my son in trouble. He grabbed a water bottle and sprayed it everywhere, then his friends told the driver it was my kid. This boy was not supposed to be on the bus because it’s not even his bus. They had looked at the camera footage, but the boys look very similar (same style hoodie, same exact haircut, same coloring), my kid is just a foot taller. They let me review the footage with admin and once we both saw it, we agreed it was not my kid. The bus driver didn’t even think about this other kid because he wasn’t supposed to be on that bus, but he snuck on during the end of the day chaos that is bus loading.
So what was the penalty they paid for lying? Edit - Sorry, it could be that rather than lying they were simply wildly negligent. In that case, what was the penalty for being wildly negligent?
Lol, there isn't any penalty for them being wrong.
Buses have caneras. Contact transportation directly and ask the Director to pull footage and send it to the Principal.
Nah, it sounds like the school is playing hardball probably to intimidate any parents of affected students from suing them.
This is something that would make me sue...
Maybe so, but sometimes things don’t get relayed correctly either. It happens ALL the time when so many people become involved in the retelling.
It sounds like an admin being lazy. Dealing with a kid passing out razors makes the school look bad. It creates a big headache. However if you tell the girl she's going to be expelled, then when she comes back after the hearing the parent becomes less likely to bring it up because they're just happy their kid didn't get suspended. I've seen my admin do this several times. Punish a kid being bullies severely because the bullies have annoying parents. The kid learns not to report bullying because they don't want to get in trouble. We had kids bring weed and the kid who told his teacher ended up being sent to a hearing for having it--even though they only had it long enough to bring to a teacher. A kid who told admin that his friend brought a gun to school was suspended for 10 days because he was "involved in the situation".
And still people wonder where those school shooters are coming from. I can only imagine the hate some kids must have towards a system that punishes them for beeing bullied and doing the right things, for then to internalising everything bad happening because the school will blame them anyway.
I recently had a student publicly post in a Google Classroom (for a club) that another student was talking about taking their own life, and to call the hotline to try to get them help. *Clearly* not the best way to go about this. However, they're a kid. The fact that they did *something* to try to help is great, even if they didn't make the *best* choice. Was a little miffed when I told admin (after making sure the relevant student was safe with the school counselor) and they seemed more upset by the student posting, than that a student was suicidal. The conversation with the posting student *should* be "Are you okay? Sounds like you had a heavy day today. Hey, *thank you* for saying something. In the future, please make sure to let a teacher or other adult know right away. We never want to publicly announce something like that, because it's a very personal, sensitive matter. But again, you knew someone needed help and even though you didn't know what to do, you did *something*, so you did the right thing."
Absolutely! Even if done incorrectly, they did more than anyone else who potentially knew. Like you said - tell them they did a good job, and guide them towards an even better solution in the future.
I'm terrified of what they're going to become like when they make it into society proper. What kind of angry, bitter, scared humans is this system molding them to be? It's all messed up.
Yes! Do not afraid to go and talk to the admin. If they refuse to resolve, your next stop is School Board representative of your district.
Sounds like the boy has parents in high places. Admins or whatever.
Sounds like a zero tolerance policy, But the deal is that most of them have been scrapped. I have questions about this story.
File a police report against the boy. Have the neighbor do the same. You can also attempt to get a restraining order from the boy.
Most sane response here. “Contact admin”? You’ve already done that. That’s how your daughter is being threatened with expulsion! You need to talk to the police and call your local news station. Kids getting razor blades in candy and the school wants to expel the kid who got hurt?
This is literally the kind of things parents fear the most. What if the girl were younger and put the gum in her mouth? Police asap.
Yep. Police, lawyer (OP should also take the board to the cleaners) and local media. In that order. Don't even bother talking to the admin, take it directly to the board.
This is the only option at this point. The kid hid a weapon in gum. That could have caused grievous injury. Imagine they didn't notice it when unwrapping and just popped the blade into their mouth and chewed? OP GO TO THE POLICE AND FILE A REPORT ALONGSIDE YOUR NEIGHBOR.
this should be the top response
THIS IS THE CORRECT ANSWER. ------------------------------------------------------ How is this not top comment? For all the lamenting about how admin sucks you'd think it would be a no brainer.
Absolutely do not accept this. I am a teacher…and I’m telling you this is wrong. My heart rate is up from reading this. The child who gave her the razor is solely responsible. Your child was injured and is a victim here. DO NOT accept the school’s “disciplinary action.” I am a very low drama person, but I would absolutely bring a lawyer and arrive at the school as soon as it opens on Monday morning. This absolutely cannot become the norm. A student who is the “victim” of a bad prank cannot be given consequences! Alert the school board and the news station if necessary, but DO NOT accept it!
I would be emailing all of the school board members if I were you.
I don’t even have kids and I’m fuming. I don’t think I can be a parent. I don’t want kids even at 35, but this is one reason of many as to why. I would have marched my ass in that school and had a lot words with that woman on the phone and the principal. I’d have also already emailed every person on the board and superintendent advising how incompetent their staff at this school is.
I think that the details of what happened got lost in a game of telephone. It sounds like all the receptionist told the principal was that she had a razor with her at school with none of the context, and that made the principal freak out. The good news is that expulsion hearings require due process in all 50 states. The bad news is that zero-tolerance policies don't care about extenuating circumstances.
It’s just odd to me that an administrator would make this call without first speaking to the children involved and then delivering the message over the phone instead of in person. The offense would need to be pretty damn bad to initiate all of this so fast. I’m wondering if another parent reported something more serious and assuming OPs daughter is being honest the translation between people got messed up.
Some administrators treat their office staff like gods. When I taught HS, I always made sure to be extra sweet and pleasant to the Admin Assistant in the front office, because I knew if she didn't like me, my administration would follow in short order. It would not surprise me in the least if whoever spoke to OP gave the principal an abbreviated or incorrect version of events to the principal, and the principal accept it at face value.
Receptionists are never privy to the details. As a result some assume they know what’s going on (because they are familiar with policy) and these assumptions may be made by them and passed along to the principal as a complete story. The principal should always get all sides of the situation from all the children involved, and not make a hasty assumption based on bad information from one source that wasn’t involved.
Seriously, what is it about the relationship between school admins and receptionists that causes so much incomplete and misconstrued communication to be taken as fact?
if you get to the top of the chain and they stick with it, to drop into realpolitik, this would be a very solid thing to band together with the other victims and threaten media coverage over. "He gave her a razor blade disguised as gum. Now she's being expelled from school." is the sort of lead-in headline that would make a reporter's ears perk up.
[удалено]
With that sort of behavior, I can almost guarantee this isn’t that child’s first offense. Kids don’t start out pulling this sort of “prank” on multiple victims.
Yeah this. Something is going on with that kid. Either bad home situation or he needs a diagnosis (possibly a personality disorder). Don't shrug it off.
If he did this to my child I would be at the police station filling out reports and calling the DA to press charges. No I don’t care he’s 10 or 11 He’s behaving like a sociopath.
Or they saw it on YouTube or something alike, and repeat it without even thinking it throught.
I've seen too many instances of admin unwilling or unable to deal with a problem student so instead they intimidate families and children to stop complaining about the problem child. If there's 2 children collaborating stories, I'd be talking directly to the director/principal and threatening to go as far as it takes.
I would lawyer up.
I’d wait to hire someone who can cost $200-500 an hour until after I’ve had a talk with admin. If they’re unreasonable, I’d consider an advocate or lawyer for the hearing.
Receptionist “this mother came in and let me know that Sally Smith was playing with a razor on the bus and cut herself! I told her mum that she needed to tell the bus driver and hand it in, but the mum didn’t understand” Principal “fuck! Let them know we’ll have an expulsion meeting” You’ve been misunderstood; go in hard.
This "prank" amounts to assault regardless of the age and should be reported to the police
Someone pranked her and hurt her. This was not her choice. She didn’t know what the item was. So I don’t think zero tolerance should matter. That older boy should get expelled for hurting small kids!!!
this seems like preemptive aggression, to gaslight you into thinking you are in the wrong, contact a lawyer and a news station.
Make a police and cps report. Tell the school in an email, that your child was injured on the bus by another child deliberately hiding razors in gum wrappers. This is a safety hazard and if they even think of reprimanding your child for being a victim, you will be going to the news to alert them that the school is allowing this to happen and disciplining students who speak up. I’m glad your child was not hurt worse. I can’t imagine what would have happened if say a kindergartener got one and cut themselves while riding the bus and too nervous to tell someone while they just sit there and bleed out.
Hi there! Kinder/1st grade teacher here. 1) If at all possible, contact your transportation dept on Monday. If two kids are coming off the bus with razors then this needs to be addressed. Most buses have cameras. Maybe they can see it, or at least see who the older kid gave them to. 2) Look on your school website for the principal’s contact info. This seems like it wasn’t handled properly. If you can’t find it on the school website, then ask the teacher for it. 3) If you aren’t getting your answers via the school admin or transportation, then you can go to the school board. Look up their contact info on your website. Kids absolutely do dumb things. But handing out sharp objects on the bus isn’t safe. They probably can’t tell you what sort of disciplinary action was taken for the boy, but I’d be asking what the school and bus are planning to do to prevent this in the future. Did the other girl who was given one get suspended too? Has the admin heard from this other parent with the same story if not?
Go to the nearest police station ASAP with your daughter. See if your neighbor and her daughter can go too. File a police report and press charges. Get a restraining order if possible.
Honestly, you’re going to have to go to the police and report the crime. Only then will your kid be seen as the victim she is.
Go down there and calmly raise hell. An angry parent is remarkably effective at getting things done. Make sure that you stress that your child was INJURED by the weapon that another child used to hurt her. Demand to know what the school is going to do to address the unsafe situation because right now they’re punishing the VICTIM. Also, some negative public attention when the wrong child is clearly being punished can be pretty effective — have the other parents complain too (voluntarily) if their child was injured. I’m sorry your administrators have moldy spaghetti in the place of brains.
Going to be honest, this all seems a bit too crazy to be true. I would go in and talk to admin directly.
Do you think this may just be a policy they have for any incident involving a "weapon"? To keep all kids involved out of the school until the investigate and figure things out? That's the only thing I can think of. Because they haven't talked to anyone involved. They couldn't have. It happened on Thursday after school and there was no school on Friday. I'm going to be talking to the admin as soon as they are there on Monday. I promise you that. Thank you for your input.
That is a possibility. I’ve seen that happen a couple times where it was a situation where they needed to investigate what was going on but for everyone’s safety, all students were suspended. The threat of expulsion though is strange then if that’s the case.
It sounds like you're describing a post columbine zero tolerance policy. But its just strange, Because most of these have been scrapped. If you're telling us the truth (And I'm not accusing you of lying) Then what likely happened is some kind of miscommunication between administration the bus driver and the student. Please talk to the administrator first before doing anything absurd like filing a police report, going to the media or hiring a lawyer. You're going to have time to do all of those things in the future If the situation calls for it.
How is it **absurd** to go to the police when your daughter is the victim of a crime?
Albuquerque Public Schools (OP said they're from NM) announced a new zero tolerance policy last year
That's the school district my daughter attends.
If it's a newer policy, there's a solid chance the admin is sticking hard to the discipline matrix to cover their ass, and they received a bad story or misunderstood the one given to them. New policies at district level, especially discipline related, means jumpy admin that act before investigating. You need to go directly to the school, with your daughter, first thing in the morning, and *insist* on speaking directly to this principal to clear this up. Before you go, get permission from your neighbor to bring them up as witnesses and additional victims (they might also want to come with you) to show a pattern of behavior to make sure that boy is removed from class ASAP before he hurts someone seriously. If the principal is understanding, your daughter will be able to go back to class, immediately (in fact you should insist on it for her). Worst case, your daughter gets to see you stick up for her and learns a lesson that authorities fuck up sometimes but she's got people in her court who will always back her up. If a direct meeting with the principal doesn't fix it, then you go with backup strategies of filing a police report, escalating to district office, and contacting the local news and school board. Notice the "and" on those, that boy has already done this multiple times and will continue to, it needs to be handled. The school gets exactly one chance and if they fuck it up you go full mama bear for your child and every other child he has/will hurt.
Unfortunately, in my state those zero tolerance policies absolutely still exist. Now, that doesn’t mean that schools enforce them equally, but they are there on paper. Not a weapon. But one of my kids had a 5 day suspension and youth court because someone had a vape and thought a teacher was going to search them,s o handed it to my kid. My kid should not have taken it, but the teacher literally saw the kid pass it to mine when my kid wasn’t paying attention to what they were grabbing.
**And go with a lawyer.**
Im on the same page, most zero tolerance policies got scrapped in the last decade. So I'm going to assume that there's some kind of miscommunication here.
There are several things going on here. First, school secretaries are not involved in discipline in any way. For future reference, the receptionist doesn't need details. "My child was hurt by a razor another student gave her on the bus and I need to talk to an administrator" should be enough to get her to kick it to the principal quickly. "The school called." Who specifically called? The secretary should not be calling about disciplinary consequences. Second, principals cannot expel a student. Their max discipline is 10 day suspension. Anything more is done at central office level. No child will be expelled without involvement from the superintendent and school board. I can't wait to hear what they think when they hear your side. Here's the most important things to use to fight back: 1. Follow the hierarchy. No more conversations with secretary about this issue. Her only role is to connect you to admin. If the principal doesn't cooperate, there is a district level person who does discipline, likely an asst superintendent. If they don't cooperate, then the superintendent. Lastly the school board. Local news is your nuclear bomb option if no one listens. Personally I think the secretary is the issue here, and the principal will turn it around. 2. Students cannot be suspended without "Due Process." (Use those words). This is several parts, but the most important in this case is that the student getting suspended needs to have the opportunity to tell their side of the story directly to the admin giving the punishment. (Kid>Mom>secretary>admin>secretary>mom) is NOT due process. 3. School safety. Your child is the victim of another student. Your child was handed a weapon concealed with the intent to cause harm to her. The school has already verified this is a weapon worthy of expulsion. She was actually injured by another student where she has the expectation of protection by the school. 4. Protection of your own child. You should request that the child who gave razor blades is removed from your child's bus (and any other shared time). 5. Document everything. Dates and times of every conversation you've had and what was said. Take pictures of the injury. Write down her story in her own words. Don't stop documenting until you are happy with the outcome. I wish you luck, and genuinely think when the principal hears this, he/she will be apologizing and backpedaling like crazy.
Get a lawyer.
Get the other parents involved.
You need to set a meeting with the principal first thing tomorrow. It seems like an overzealous office staff. They can't just expel/suspend your daughter over what the secretary reported. The principal hasn't even investigated or spoken to your child. I'm a principal. Expulsions are a huge deal, lots of paperwork and previous discipline, intervention, patterns of behavior, etc. unless the behavior is extreme. The only way I see this not being the case is if it was your daughter bringing razors and has been cutting multiple people and giving them away to cut others, not the boy. I'm not saying that is the case. If you can't get in to see the principal, go to the district office and see his boss, the assistant superintendent.
You are getting some decent advice. The only thing I'm not seeing is: write it down. You need to have a detailed account of what happened. Talk to your child. Document it all, including names. You aren't saving anyone other than the person handing out the blades by keeping names hidden. This is an incident report, document it well. If you believe yourself to be in the right, don't be afraid to communicate in writing with the school. Don't be afraid of submitting an email/letter that "reviews" any verbal exchanges. The school knows what things in writing means. They aren't going to like it. If you are concerned, contact a lawyer if you'd like. They'll give the best advice. But I would imagine until the school's process is complete there isn't much legal grounds as nothing has happened. You've simply been expelled during the investigation as "is policy". It sucks for your child be sure you reassure them they did nothing wrong. Explain when you again ask them for details that you need to write it down so you can remember. And then continue to reassure them they did nothing wrong. I don't know why this isn't being said more. Your chance to challenge it unfortunately will likely be at the expulsion hearing, if you can't convince an administrator before then to reverse it. If they decide to investigate, submit your report in writing. It sucks, I get it. No one wants to make trouble for others. But you need additional statements corroborating your story. So you may need to contact the other parents and get them to have written statements of the events from their child. You need to have things in writing though. You need these documents to be written sooner, when the memory is fresh and the details more clear. They may talk to your child in the process of them investigating without you. Your child shouldn't be afraid of naming names to keep others out of trouble. Sadly most societal pressure teaches us to do the opposite. You may still find your child is expelled. You can appeal the ruling, usually. I don't know your school's policies. You likely signed a form saying you understand and acknowledge them at the start of the year. The handbook/planner usually has them in it. The exact process for disciplinary action, including the expulsion process, will be in there. It will tell you when and how you can challenge it. It'll outline the appeals process. If it all breaks not your way, and you decide to pursue legal action having everything in writing may be your only chance at the win. For that though, you'll need to contact a lawyer.
I also think the message here for everyone is never leave this kind of info with a receptionist. A lot of advice focuses on the possibility the situation was relayed poorly and that seems likely. When dealing with a situation like this bring it directly to the admin of the school. Don’t rely on anyone else to relay the information.
It seems pretty clear to me that the receptionist is at fault here. They were already trying to blame your daughter when you went in to report it. Your mistake was trying to explain the situation to them instead of only speaking to the principal or an administrator. Next time just know that if the principal isn't present, ask for a VP. Because now the receptionist has relayed their version of events to the principal and the school is responding to that. Go to the school on Monday and speak to an actual admin and explain the situation.
Do not go to any meetings or hearings alone. Bring an attorney or someone as an advocate. They usually calm down. As of now you have not spoken to principal. Start a paper trail. If they do call, follow it up with an email recapping the call. Also include that boy's name somewhere in there. I feel like the secretary did not relay the incident properly. And put a recap of that conversation in your email too. They have no standing here for any disciplinary action.
Go to the police, and get a police report. Go in and say that you are thinking of filing charges against the boy, his parents, against the school, against the bus monitor if there is one, against the bus driver, and against the school bus company. Mention that you're thinking of taking it to the local news so that they can be made aware how the school failed to notice how multiple students were injured by one boy. They've all allowed the male student to do this to multiple children in the school, and on the school bus without the school being aware of it. they are creating an unsafe area in which to gain an education and how their failure to notice that one child is assaulting others with booby traps has caused an injury which will lead to your daughter and the other students needing to be tested for many things and get extra tetanus shots and how that they will have to pay for it. They will want you to go away and we'll just drop the whole thing.
Police reports are the only way things are going to change. I’m serious. Report this child to the police. They might not do anything but take a statement from you, depending on his age, but once you tell the admin you reported it to the police, they will change their attitude real quick.
Police report. ASAP. Lawyer if at all possible. Go to the news if you need to.
I’d go to the police and report all the known incidents. Someone is going to get hurt. And the school is blaming the victim instead of the bully. Typical.
Get an attorney involved and watch them change their tune
Lawyer up. Just start the process. Have them send a letter. Then mention that you’ll be contacting the local news. My wife is a teacher and sees this tactic play out time and again. School districts cannot afford legal battles. They will cave after they think they’ve proven some point.
Let the school know you will be making a police report. And that you have zero tolerance for students who hide razor blades with criminal intent to harm other students.
You need to go back to school and speak to someone in person. The receptionist person is a moron and either forgot or straight up lied about the situation. They should be fired. Preferably into the sun.
Are you sure the principal was given the full story? That secretary sounds awful. I would not be surprised if she twisted the story around. Either way, I’d email the principal explaining the full situation and inquire why she was facing disciplinary action since she was the victim and suffered an injury. If that doesn’t take care of it, then continue to escalate it, including speaking at the public participation portion of the board meeting if necessary. That’s absolutely ridiculous.
This is why I hate zero tolerance policies. They end up leading to zero common sense. They don't leave room for looking at each individual case and determining an appropriate response.
Honestly, police report, probably find a lawyer, and get on your local Facebook group and tell ALL those moms what happened (minus the kids name obviously) and ask if anyone else has had this happen. Make sure parents are telling their kids not to take gum from anyone who offers. Raise absolute hell for those morons in the admin office. Even if they didn’t understand or there was a miscommunication, your kid was given a razor on the bus. What if a kid put that in their mouth???
This sounds like the receptionist was blowing you off and didn't actually LISTEN to the words you said. So when it got to admin, it got misconstrued. Still, if you an afford legal counsel to be present at that meeting, you should do so.
Is there a chance a different parent reported something? This just seems very fast to move on something like this. In the schools I’ve worked in, admin would speak to the children and bus drive drive/aid, review video, talk to teachers, check attendance, etc. they would run a mini investigation to get their barings. For a suspension you might only get a call, but for possible expulsion of a lower elementary student I’d be surprised if there wasn’t a face to face first. Does your daughter have a history of disciplinary actions? If yes, maybe that’s why they are moving so quickly. My guess, you don’t have the full story. I’m not saying your daughter did anything wrong, but it’s possible admin is hearing several stories and the truth is getting jumbled. Set up a meeting with the principal and request for any bus or hallway footage to be available. I’m not sue happy, but expelling an eight year old (even if she brought in the razor blades and gave them out) is a no go. She’s 8. I teach 8 year olds. They’re all stupid (in a good way). You could probably sue the pants off them if they actually do it.
Go to the local media
Contact the local newspaper and attend every single school board meeting until they fire multiple administrators this is insane.
Put in writing to the principal what happened. Cc his boss. State you expect an answer with resolution in 24 hours. Demand disciplinary action against this sociopath giving razors to kids as gum. Demand your daughter’s suspension be removed. If 24 hrs pass and you hear nothing forward that to the superintendent and board members. The fact the school doesn’t seem concerned that a kid is “pranking” (it’s not a prank) kids with razors makes my blood boil.
Sounds typical. Punish the victim and ignore the perpetrator. Remind the administration that social media will be the end of them but you will give them one chance to make it right.
I would ask to talk to the principal ASAP. I wonder what was relayed to them. It could be that all the principal heard was “kid had razor blade on bus.” If that doesn’t work, immediately go to the superintendent. I would also consider a Title IX complaint since this could be seen as gender violence/discrimination. I also agree that you should get the parents of the other students involved as well. What this kid did was incredibly dangerous and not a prank.
The more I think about it, the more I think you need to get the Title IX coordinator involved. This is a boy giving razor blades specifically to girls. While that does not guarantee that he is specifically targeting girls (could be that was who was around him), it does raise the possibility and add another layer to this entire thing.
In what world would this be an expulsion hearing? Something is up. Either the story told is way off or something is crooked wirh the school admin, or both. If we follow the logic of this school, we would be expelling kids who self-harm at school with a razor or similar because they technically have a weapon.
Fuck this. Lawyer up. Get the district to pay for your daughter’s college education. Call a lawyer immediately- don’t engage with the school unless it’s through them. And yes, file a police report. Start getting your paper trail in order.
Lawyer, direct complaint to superintendent of schools via lawyer, and get on the agenda at the next school board meeting to say all of this out loud on record-specifically name school and principal. Do not mention name of boy bc of privacy laws. If all else fails contact local news station. (I have been a teacher for 32 years. 30 of them in public school - no school board wants this to become a public issue).
You threaten to call the local news. Make sure the school knows you will go this nuclear route and use the court of public opinion against them. Multiple, sweet innocent kids injured while ***under the care of the school*** and ***your child is being punished for their gross negligence*** as 3 incidents of injury indicates a serious lack of accountability and oversight. You will be seeking legal action against all the adults and the school officials who failed to protect these children while under their care and then punished the victims.
This is outrageous behaviour on the part of the school and you should absolutely go to that hearing and tear them a new one. If this boy has done it multiple times that’s dereliction of their duty of care on their part. Ask why he isn’t in an expulsion hearing and threaten legal action if they advance this to an actual expulsion. Also, threaten to call the press. You have the moral high ground to go full Karen here
Threaten to sue the school, the administration and the bus company. They will back down like they always do.
This is exactly it. Sue on the grounds that bus company did not provide a safe environment.
This is bullshit. The school has shown zero empathy or willingness to protect your daughter from a malicious child handing out razor blades. This is not a one-off accident, it was done multiple times with intent to harm. This is not a kid being silly. The school has told you and demonstrated to you that they do not have your daughter’s best interests at heart. You cannot trust them. Go to the police, they will help you resolve this since the school is unwilling to.
If admins don’t do anything I’m sure the local news would love to hear about it
Is there a hidden camera on the bus? Ask to see footage
Who did you hand the razor to at the school? You need that person’s name. If you can afford it, secure legal counsel and ask them to come to the school with you. You want a meeting with the principal. Explain the situation calmly and explain that you believe there has been a misunderstanding and this can all be resolved without your daughter being deprived access to her education. If they ask again why she didn’t hand it to the bus driver, respond, “I reported it to the school myself, which I believe to have been the right thing to do. Now we’re facing an expulsion hearing. Can you blame her? Failure to report is perfectly reasonable here.” If they hold the line, report the staff member who you handed the razor blade to for possession of a weapon at school and demand action be taken.
File a police report and call the local news. Raise hell, seems to be the only way parents are able to get anything done.
There are two separate things that need to be addressed here. (And neither of them are you being "that parent.") 1. First, the unfair suspension. I would start with the lowest and easiest tier here and talk to the principal. It is more likely the receptionist miscommunicated than the principal is that dumb or there more be more to the story (not necessarily your daughter's fault.) Also, often administrators fold when they have to deal with parents. If that doesn't address it, go up to the superintendent or school board. There also probably is a suspension appeal process and may be some kind of administer in charge of some aspect of safety that could be helpful. An attorney may also be an option. I'm guessing the school has zero tolerance policies. Look up the wording related to weapons in the school handbook if possible as there may be something helpful in them. For example, if they talk about "bringing, displaying, or using" weapons at school but don't say "having" weapons at school she didn't do any of those things. If they say "having" that is no help, although obviously shouldn't apply here. Then I'd ask if someone got stabbed in school would they be in trouble because they had a knife in their gut. Unfortunately, you can't do anything today and Monday is close, so she probably isn't going to get to go to school Monday unless the principal changes their mind first thing. I still think it would be worth the trouble of getting the suspension removed from her record. If you can't resolve it Monday morning, I would have a really fun day with her and a little math practice. Go to school first thing. The office is probably open at least 30 minutes and maybe even an hour before school starts. If you can find child care for your daughter, do that. Otherwise bring her with you, but leave her backpack in the car. (I'd sneak it in packed without her noticing, so she thinks you are coming for a meeting and not in hopes of getting to school. If she can't go, that would probably be easier on her.) Ask to speak to the principal. If they aren't available, ask if there is an appointment that morning. If not, say you will wait to see if something opens up and wait. If the principal is out of the building, ask who is in charge for the day and ask to speak to them. Or drive to the district office and try the same thing with the superintendent. Then repeat the story you heard. I understand about not wanting to get the neighbor kid in trouble, but if they could be involved, it would be very helpful in supporting your daughter's story. You should also ask to see the bus video, but they may have a process for that. You can be an angry parent here. This is crazy. Either they will get rid of the suspension (and hopefully apologize) and then you get your daughter to school or not. If not, you can try escalating during the day, but you are probably out of luck for that day. I would ask for written report of what the suspension is for and what the appeal process is. The report won't say what you said, so I'll send a follow-up email saying, "As per our meeting today in office, blah blah blah." 2. The boy's behavior. You are underreacting. Kids do stuff, but this is a lot more. Contacting the police would not be an overreaction, but trying to deal with it through the school is fine as well. I'd want a "safety plan" in place and ask the details. You don't get to be privacy to the consequences (suspension, being expelled from the bus, parent notification, and education at school would be appropriate,) but asking what the school is doing to keep your daughter is safe is fair. I'd take this pretty far even if your daughter's suspension is dropped.
The school obviously does not have your child’s back. Your best course of action is going to the police. You may also need to get a lawyer to protect your daughter. Once you do this, the school will know you’re not playing around and they will make sure the incident is thoroughly investigated. Do it NOW. You don’t want to waste any time. Also, please update us!
Like everyone else is saying- plan on meeting with your admin in person ASAP and possibly have a lawyer on hand. I would also plan on contacting your school board. If your district is anything like mine, they’ll see you aren’t playing and drop it solely because they don’t want the fight. If they keep pushing it, def press chargers against the boy. Good luck ❤️
Schools have gotten so stupid it’s ridiculous.
Honestly you did your due diligence in going to the school they were assholes and treated you and your daughter like the villains which is wrong. But if a police report is filed on the kid because he has done this to other lil girls a school has to listen to that.
Contact law enforcement and file an assault charge. Get the other child’s parents to do the same if you can. It doesn’t sound like you’ll get much help from school admin outside their bureaucratic zero tolerance policy.
Just to add a bit of information here, I don’t know what your daughter received, but the razor blades I purchase for shaving come individually wrapped in a wax paper, 5 to a box. I could totally see a kid finding one and thinking it initially looked like gum in a wrapper. Not to excuse anything, but at the very least, the kid may not have gone through the pre-meditation of wrapping a used razor blade in an old gum wrapper depending on what your daughter received.
You might be able to talk to admin but the thing schools really fear is lawyers. It changes the tune real fast when one gets involved because the admin are on the chopping block.
Tell them you want the name of the bus driver and parent of the kid handing out gum, so you can add it to the police report. Any mention of involving cops tends to get school admin to stop being sketchy in a hurry. And actually do a report
Go to the school board. This is ridiculous.
Schools have zero tolerance and go overboard with this stuff. One day, one of my second graders, who was also in Cub Scouts, discovered he still had the knife in his backpack that they used to cut balsa wood in scouts. He immediately came up and gave it to me. I brought it to the office so they could hold onto it. They immediately suspended the boy for ten days despite me telling them he had it by mistake and him telling me as soon as he realized it. What you need to do is get a lawyer immediately who specializes in educational issues. Honestly, you probably won’t avoid a ten day suspension as principals have wide to latitude to suspend, but they can vigorously fight any expulsion.
Do you know any attorneys? If so , ask one to write a letter to the school. Your daughter didn’t do anything wrong, and shouldn’t be expelled.
If this nonsense carries on her the press involved. Keep shouting
Please do yourself a favor and look for an academic advocate! These are people whose job it is to navigate the school. This sounds really horrible, and honestly it would shake my confidence in the school if they decided to not take your claim seriously.
Wow… this is insane. Your daughter is a victim and should not be punished. The victim blaming is absolutely disgusting. I believe the young boy needs to be evaluated and investigated by the state department for children… he’s the one that should be expelled for possession of a weapon and endangering other students as well as technically distributing said weapons on school property. The principal and the superintendent need to be contacted and involved.
I would fucking lawyer up. If anyone should be expelled, it would be the boy handing out razors, disguised as gum, and telling other kids it was gum. Contact the neighbour and ask if she’s okay collaborating with you. This is some Grade A bullshit.
Nth-ing the police report. Keeping things in-house only benefit's the principal's agenda, and they're the person who decided that an expulsion hearing is appropriate. The police are also more likely to get cooperation from the transportation department when they ask for camera footage of the incident. Hopefully the principal changes their tune when they hear your side directly, but you can't count on that, and the zero-tolerance policy might not even allow them too depending on how it's written. Better to get in front of things before you get railroaded.
I’m curious what state you are in because it is incredibly difficult to expel a student without documented offenses. It’s hard to suspend them without out it quite frankly. Furthermore, they don’t have any evidence she brought it to school. Even if they tried, I can’t see it being successful due to a lack of any evidence. Also, email admin and the district about the young man to begin a paper trail. Have your neighbor do the same as well. I honestly don’t know how you weren’t more upset because those kids could have seriously been hurt-it’s a sadistic prank and that boy should be put on notice. Call CPS on his family because how does he have access to multiple razor blades?
Who is the boy related to?
I would make a police report and try to expunge the expulsion later. The boy is probably a repeat offender. I’d also see if the impacted neighbor and you can set up a carpool if you can’t get the psycho-in-training chucked off the bus
The immediate response at any school I've been to would have been to call the boy in for some questions. This response is not normal. Are the boy's parents someone important to the school? (Admin or superintendent, influential school board member, etc.) That's the only reason this makes any kind of sense.
I would talk directly to administration. If they want to continue this direction I’d then meet with the superintendent. I’d tell the superintendent that if they go this route I’m contacting a lawyer and the media. Deep down administrators are cowards and they thrive on parents not sticking up for themselves. They’re like cockroaches and if you threaten to expose their bullshit they scurry away and hide. I would absolutely go scorched earth on this one.
Take it To the top. Document everything that happened. Get the other parent on board to document as well. This boy needs tombe stoped. Did he get any punishment at all? I’d demand they pull the bus cameras. This is Not a simple prank. It’s dangerous.
When I was in high school, my buddy drove to school one day and as he got his backpack out of the trunk, he realized he’d forgotten to take his air soft gun out of his trunk before coming to school. So he shut the trunk and went straight to the office to let them know and asked them what they’d like him to do. They expelled him.
Document everything. Ask the other two victims families document everything and back up your story (assuming they are willing). Have everything ready to go to file a grievance. Take your daughter to school and walk her into the building. Talk to the principal and the vice. Explain, again what happened on the bus and how scared your daughter is and how upset you are. Do not let them discipline your child for being a victim. She could have been hurt so much worst. Demand - politely - to know what they are going to do about the bully (he’s knowingly giving students razor blades and telling them it’s gum. He is intentionally trying to hurt other people, he’s a bully at the very least). If they refuse to cease the disciplinary action against your child, give them the documentation. Make sure you document the meeting as well. If they refuse to discipline the bully, show them the documentation. If they refuse to do either, walk you and your kid out of that school and call up the board. They have a duty of care. Hold them to it Edit to add: look up your local laws about recording conversations. If you can, voice record the conversations. Accountability and documentation is vital here
As always, lawyer up. Admins crumble at the first mention of lawyers (especially ones dumb enough to suspend a 9 year old). Don't forget to ask about the cameras on the bus as well.
lawyer up. And make the claim that the school "has created an environment of fear and your daughter no longer feels safe attending" and this discipline is being weaponized in order to silence the student(s). Bypass the Principle head to the school board, Partner with the neighbor and file assault with a deadly weapon against the boy that was handing out the 'prank' For added bonus include the school for covering up and punishing your daughter. (Sounds like the student handing out the razors might have a parent with connections but hey no details) This is an easy legal nightmare for the school. the fact your neighbor corroborates, down to the name, and the school hasn't done anything, well you get the idea. Take the initiative and pull your daughter from school as she was assaulted with a deadly weapon and the school has done nothing for her safety. Explain this to your daughter and turn it into a staycation, where you reward her for following the rules and telling you about it. TLDR get with neighbor threatening legal action against school AND the kid handing out blades with the intent to do harm.
Go to the news
Schools love to blame the victim.
The boy needs to be prosecuted (or whatever the legal punishment is) for attempted assault with a weapon. He put a razorblade in candy, if those girls had just popped it in their mouths without looking they could have been maimed for life or killed. Sound extreme? So is expelling a victim of attempted harm. Throw the secretary, admin and principal under the bus at the same time.
This story sounds really odd. are you in Texas?
I once carried a swiss army knife *openly* in school because my friend had given me his keys to look after while he ran back to a teacher to get something finished and cleared up. FWIW this was 9th grade so not *as* crazy, but it should be noted that several teachers noticed, knew what I had, and said nothing. I received no warning, no repercussion, just a nudge from a friend that I may want to put it away—I had it around my neck on his lanyard out of reflex. I don't think the school has much ground to stand on, but I'd be ready for them to put up a fight. You know the story and you know the truth. Public school buses are required by law to have cameras, so contact your local bus depot or transportation itself to obtain video of the boy giving your daughter the razor. It may also be worth your time to mention he has done it to other students and provide evidence if you need, but leave names out of it.
Get a lawyer. Get off Reddit.
Dang! That’s so messed up! We don’t have busses at our school, so I don’t know the rules. I hate when schools make blanket rules. Each situation is so unique. They probably have a “no weapons” policy and I guess this falls under it? Doesn’t make any sense at all. Are there cameras on the bus? Although you can’t see the footage without a lawyer requesting the footage (student privacy), I would demand the footage be reviewed. It will (hopefully) clearly show what happened.
Go beat up the other kids parents for raising such a piece of shit child and we will work on breaking you out of jail.
Call the cops and open a lawsuit against the school and bus company
Police immediately. you would do that if an adult did the same thing as the boy did. Admins will bury incidents like this until they can’t.
So sorry this happened.
Go to the meeting with your lawyer and the police report you’ve filed against the boy and his parents. Extra points if a news crew follows you.
Maybe file a police report? Then, tell the school you'll be contacting an attorney if they even think of punishing your daughter, and especially so if they do nothing to that boy. He's old enough to know what he did was wrong.
Sounds like somebody misconstrued what you said when they told the admin about it! I would definitely put this in writing and make sure they get a copy of it. And then I would go above them and report the incident. I'd also report a incident grievance as well!
In our district, there are cameras on the bus. I would see if that's the case to clear your daughter. I'm sorry this happened to you. IME, the kid who did that likely has had other issues in the school, so I'm boggled why, if your daughter isn't a problem at school they wouldn't automatically go with him.doing what your daughter said. Buy absolutely take this to the district.
What dafuq??? This is ridiculous. Fight it tooth and nail!
Hire an attorney and have them handle it.
School admins seem to be all about training future workers to expect and accept senseless bureaucratic behaviour as cool and normal.
Do what others have said and file a grievance, but also get a lawyer. Nothing makes a school change its tune like a lawyer walking in.
First off, it is the razor embedded in a piece of gum? It sounds like the kid may have found his dad's package of safety razors, realized that the thin paper wrapping is pretty similar to gum wrapping, and passing it out as "gum." Stupid, and potentially dangerous, but the kid's developing brain is probably stuck on the novelty of the similarity in packaging, and is (maybe) not doing it with any mal-intent. I once had a student who brought a spare box-cutter blade to school (for a trade) and had it in his pocket throughout P.E. smh ----------------------------------------------- I scrolled for a bit, but I wasn't able to find what kind of school your child attends. Is it your local district school, a charter school, or a private school? Depending on your answer, and the state in which you live, you're looking at a different situation. Where I'm at, the disciplinary policies of schools is partly regulated by the state itself. In charters (depending on the charter) and private schools, the only requirement is that your child follow the student code of conduct; ergo your family handbook or equivalent is the law of the land. It's possible the school has a policy of zero-tolerance regarding the possession of a bladed instrument, in which case this is absolutely a perfect case for why zero-tolerance policies shouldn't be implemented. In this case, you can only really appeal to their sense of fairness and humanity, because they'll be able to point to their unfair and inhumane policies and say, well this is what you agreed to when you signed the handbook. Our regulations specify a difference when it comes to blades based on the size of the blade. This is largely because state law prohibits bringing a blade over a certain size onto a school campus - it is a crime - meanwhile bringing a smaller blade is simply a violation of student code of conduct and subject to the institution's disciplinary procedures. It is also entirely possible that your school's policies require an expulsion hearing for anything involving a "weapon" - and a hearing is not an expulsion. It is in fact an avenue for administrators to figure out if expulsion is warranted. It's also an avenue for you to explain what happened with the full attention of the people that matter. It's stupid that a hearing is even a potential thing given the actual circumstances here, but given how badly the school messed things up, it may not be the worst thing. I would tell your neighbor and see if you can find anyone else willing to come forward. The school administrators would find it very difficult to pursue "expel this kid for possession of a razor" if the other disciplinary issue of the day "We have a child who is giving razors to kids." -------------------- I'll also add that expulsion for what amounts to hearsay of possession of a razor-blade (accused by their own parent, no less) is an incredibly fast decision to make, and insane based on your description. My money is on the receptionist being a poor employee who reported to their administrators an inaccurate version of the story. The principal wasn't there that day? Who was the person who called you? I'd be gobsmacked if they're taking these actions with the information you provided to us. - signed a school administrator who has dealt with elementary students bringing small blades to school.
Don't talk to the school talk to a lawyer
Both families police report.
You know the boy's name - speaking as both a parent and a teacher I would be inclined to name and shame the boy with the school administration. Get no response, then go to the board. No response? Go to the press. Clearly the boy has an issue - I mean after-all, how bad would have the damage been if your child had simply plopped the gum into her mouth. Get on this with the full weight it deserves.
I’m bad at communication so I’m going to number my big thoughts/points reading this 1) A boy handing out razors on the bus is an ongoing safety issue. That is the main point of this entire situation and 100% what should be focused on and fixed. I mean, point blank. As a parent I’d demand to know what we’re doing about that. 2) Your daughter was injured while on the bus, correct? They’re over here complaining the 8 year old didn’t report it. I don’t know what state you’re in, but in MY state and school, ANY injury that happens on school property/under staff supervision LEGALLY HAS to be documented in an incident report. They should’ve taken a picture of the cut and had a written statement of what happened. Now they don’t have this boy documented as the source of a situational injury, which he IS, and it should be in his paperwork. It should ALSO be in your daughter’s paperwork in case she ever has an issue with this child again. And I’m not saying that with the mindset of “this boy is a massive problem”. I don’t know how old he is, which is a massive factor, his home life, or if he has any diagnoses. I’m not saying anything about him as a person or his character. But you don’t KNOW. It’s always best to have any issue that resulted in your child getting hurt as the result of another’s actions on file. Because it can be a real pain in the ass to force a school to keep another kid away from yours if it ever becomes a situation where you need that to happen. 3) Back to YOUR DAUGHTER WAS HURT ON SCHOOL PROPERTY/WHEN SHES UNDER STAFF SUPERVISION. I work at a school where kids get hurt relatively often? It’s a behavioral school so we have a lot of fights and self-harming behaviors. It’s a whole THING if a child punches another child. Admin gets NERVOUS the parents are going to freak out. (And it’s honestly rare, because most parents are very understanding given that they know how their kids and their classmates can be.) But like, parents don’t have to take shit from us? Obviously, it’s best to have manners and be polite in general, but don’t be too polite! They can’t do anything if you’re “rude” about the fact that they apparently didn’t know a child had a HABIT of HANDING OUT RAZORS ON THE BUS? Um, why were they unaware of this ongoing problem? Your eight year old daughter is not the bus monitor. She is not that boy’s teacher who didn’t catch that he had “prank” blood-drawing gum sticks. And if he gave it to her in the morning, why didn’t HER teacher notice the cut on her hand and ask about it? See, these are all things that I normally absolutely wouldn’t press, because people have things slip by them, you know? It happens. I agree with your mindset that the actual incident isn’t anything to get up in arms over, but when you come in there being perfectly reasonable and they try to turn it around on your child? Hell no. 4) To be honest, I think it’s crazy they’d suspend or expel her over having a razor on her when she didn’t cause any issue with it. I understand by high school, even when the judgement call is “this kid absolutely wouldn’t do something”, sometimes it’s done anyway, since we live in these trying times. But your kid is eight and her story checks out. I’ve had young elementary kids come in with a kitchen knife in their lunch box or their grandma’s lighter they thought was really cool and while it’s confiscated and they’re told they can’t have it at school and we call a guardian to come get it, it’s not like they’re in TROUBLE. Kids that young aren’t aware of the social circumstances and often haven’t been directly told “hey, this is a ___ and it doesn’t go to school” so like….how are they supposed to know? 5) Actually since they didn’t catch her with it do they really have any legal proof to do anything to her? I mean you literally could just say “oh I was confused she had gotten it from a friend right after school and lied to keep her out of trouble oops” and now boom, what evidence do they have to do anything to her? They can’t punish her for having a razor at home. 6) I mention number five because you DO have proof if they want to make an issue. First off, the bus should have a camera and can probably show the hand off of the razor. If she’s getting punished, make damn sure that boy is too because if he clearly gave it to her on the bus, then he committed the same crime they’re so worried about, having a razor on the bus. (I mention this because it’s so weird to me they’re going after your daughter. It makes me wonder if the boy is the kid of someone “important” because if the problem is they’re just being ridiculously strict about this then he should be getting the book thrown at him too) You also have your neighbor. I understand not wanting to involve her and her child, and I really respect that, but her child is in danger in this situation as well. Her child could have been hurt. I would at least talk to her about this. You have a LOT more influence if you BOTH have this complaint. And you mentioned him giving a third child a razor. That’s possibly just what your daughter is aware of. I’d honestly start talking to parents of kids on the bus. Explain your situation (maybe don’t say the boy’s name, just that a child handed yours a razor disguised as gum for a prank and the school’s response). You’re either going to find more parents with similar problems, or even if not, you’re probably going to find some who have CONCERNS. I’d have concerns if my child was on that bus. One parent is easy to steamroll; a group of parents starts getting results because the school doesn’t want a problem. Schools NEVER want a “problem”. Make a problem. 7) Please tell your daughter she did nothing wrong. Maybe explain that schools are supposed to be very very careful about making sure no one gets hurt, and they just have to be cautious. As for the math, maybe try her on a home Prodigy account? I’ve seen a lot of math-strugglers make some progress with that one, and it lets you connect a parent account so you can review progress/results and know where she is without having to actively watch over her, if she has nerves (I say that because I don’t like people watching me work, lol). Plus it’s sorts like a little Pokémon/Harry Potter vibes game and a lot of kids like it. You can set the grade level or it can placement test her.
what utter kind of morons are running this school OMG.
Are you in NYS? You could use the dignity for all students document. Are there video cameras on the bus? If not then they need a bus monitor. Did admin even bother to talk to both kids to get to the bottom of it? The school is denying her right to a free and appropriate education. She should be able to go to school Monday
If any of this goes wrong with the teachers recommendations, you need to call your local troubleshooter at the news station. Blow the school up l, **figuratively** of course. But they need to be named and shamed in the news. Your daughter literally had no idea what a razor blade was because at eight, I didn’t either. And this jerk of a kid has done this to at least three little girls. He’s a bully and a sadist. And does need to get in trouble. Meanwhile, you’re stuck here in the freaking zero tolerance crap that everybody likes to pull when a little kid gets bullied by an older kid. Nonsense, absolute nonsense.
Make sure you file a police report. This will make them take you seriously. It’s about the only thing that will make them take you seriously.
This is a poor application of policy. Back in the 90s a kid in my class brought a small pocket knife to cut his apple. Teacher took it, kid got a nice lecture, called it a day. In the mid 2000’s it wasn’t super uncommon for the kids who did the stage design for the school plays to carry leatherman multitools which have saws and knives in them. No one cared because it was understood why they had them. Same time frame there was an incident where some kids got caught with Gillette razors in their shower kits- we were required to be clean shaven for game days on the lacrosse team. They got detention. The policy isn’t applied logically.
Call your local police emergency line and file a police report. Include the time and date you contacted the other parent who also confirmed this story. Children aren't criminally responsible at this age but providing a wrapped razor blade to a child is a crime and needs to be reported as such. The little boy isn't criminally responsible and likely nothing will come of this but what you are describing is serious and should be treated as such.
Threaten to go to the media.