Help needed with legal question, Son was coerced into writing false statement at school.

Self | October 28th, 2004 | Self

[Sonar5]

Hi all,

I need some help and I am fuming about this. Today an incident happened at my son's school that concerns me greatly.

He is in 4th Grade and is age nine. One of his friends brought a small pocket knife to school and allegedly showed it to my son and others at their lunch table. Apparently he did not open the blade, and quickly put it away. No one was threatened. They are all friends in scouts, church, or sports.

One of the other children after lunch, not mine, told a teacher about it. I get a phone call at about 1:15 stating my son was involved in an incident at school. I ask first is he ok, the administrator says yes.

She then explains that my son and others failed to tell an adult or teacher they saw someone else with a knife at school and that she questioned my son. I asked if he was threatened, and she replied no.

She stated the student who brought it would probably be expelled. I thought that was the end of it, since my son didn't bring the knife, no one was threatened, and my son, nor anyone else held it, nor was the blade even shown.

First off, these are 9 year olds. And I'm ok with the kid that told, and whatever happens to the kid that brought it happens. My son didn't feel it was serious.

My concern is the treatment of my son as having done something wrong.

My son got home about 3:40 or so, and I immediately asked him what happened, who was involved, was he threatened, did he or anyone else hold it, etc....

He then told me he was interrogated without my knowledge inside a closed room with only him and the administrator and talked to about what he did wrong by not telling an adult, asked questions, and the administrator was writing down the responses. Two other children who did not say anything were also subjected to this interrogation, seperately.

He and the two others were then pulled out of class before recess and during recess were taken to the office where they, without my knowledge were coerced into writing false statements stating they made bad choices by not telling an adult, and one other example of making a bad choice.

All three were told if they did not bring the form signed by a parent tomorrow, they would miss recess.

So, now my son is made out to have done something wrong. By the way, the administrator signed the form at the top.

My son was never advised of his rights to call us, and have us present, was never advised why he had to write the form, and we were never notified of the form until our son arrived home.

My son is in Scouting and considers a knife a tool, and knows the difference between showing something and getting threatened. He has also been trained in the proper use of a knife, a safety circle, etc... He knew what the student did was wrong, and he knew not to bring those types of items to school.

So what would you do.

We are not signing the form, and I talked to him about his rights, and the fact he did nothing wrong, the student who told did nothing wrong, the only one who did something wrong was the student who brought it, and the way he was treated.

I then went into explaining his rights to him, and about no longer answering any questions without us present.

So put yourself in my shoes, and ask what you would do. I felt the initial incident was no big deal, neither did my son at first. Now I feel my son and we as parents were violated in our rights, as well as our sons.

BTW - I tried calling the administrator who called earlier, and tried to tell her we were not returning the form, and we feel he shouldn't have to miss recess, and be punished, and she replied she didn't like my tone, and then stated the conversation is over, and hung up on me. Nice, huh?

Any help would be appreciated.

Regards, Sonar5

[familyop]

...update from Sonar5 (the poster) in this one, Alia.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1260808/posts?page=255#255

[Sonar5]

Hi all,

Thi smnorning prior to school, I called the school and talked to the principal, and she denied the asst principal told the three of them they had to return the form or miss recess, and said my son must have misunderstood. I then went into my sons training with knifes in scouts, and why he didn't consider it a bog deal, and she said those are the kind of behaviors they are trying to change.

I then told her we are the parents, and it is not up to you, to make those types of decisions. She then stated the conversation was over and was hanging up. Not bad, Two hang ups so far. Libreal Socialist Pond Scum can't handle real; debate, now can they?

In other words The asst principal lied, or my son lied about having to return the form. Hmmm... I wonder which one lied, considering at least one other parent out of the three verified what the asst principal said about returning the form.

Me, I trust my son, since the asst principal signed the form in RED INK, and marked an X next to where parent Signature would go.

Ok, we didn't sign the form and informed the school why in the phone call, and basically warned them not to keep our son out of recess.

There was no mention of it in school today, he went and enjoyed recess, and then I talked to the Mom whose son it was, and NO EXPULSION, NO FURTHER SUSPENSION for him, either.

I am going there on Monday to review my sons records to ensure this is not in there, and if it is I will petition the School Board for a hearing to remove it. I doubt they will put something in there considering I have the form, and they never copied it.

Incidently the knife was a cub scout logo knife with a 2 1/4 inch blade, which means it was legal for him to have it accordig to school code and California Penal Code, as long as he did not open it.

So, thank you everyone for your advice, I did call one link, but said since it was not a religious problem, they couldn't help.

In other words the School District in this case completely caved, and rightfully so, sonce they were wrong, legally, and morally.

Well, another victory for Freedom, and another setback for the socialist pond scum that inherit our schools in the form of administrators, in my opinion of course.

I also told my wife, that we should really consider opening a Private School in our home. We may consider this in the future, but for now, we're leaving our boys 9, and 13, there.

Thanks everyone,
Sonar5