K-12: What's Our 'Stamp Act'? When Will It Be Enough?

American Thinker.com ^ | November 22, 2020 | Judith Acosta

[Kaslin]

You would think we would finally take a stand when it comes to our children. You would think we would be driven by a primal need to protect. But you might think again. There is a blue bubble over the elementary school in an otherwise pleasant semi-rural community. And the children there are under the most insidious attack.

One resident revealed what had happened to his child. Minding his own business, he was randomly, physically attacked in the playground by the school bully. His child was 6, the bully was 7 or 8 years old. The bully walked up to the younger child, kicked, punched and screamed at him. His child tried to protect himself and screamed back, “Get off of me!” When the bully showed no intention of getting off or of mitigating the attack, the younger child hauled off and kicked the bully in the leg, leaving a mark. The bully fell back and started crying and wailing, dramatically and pointedly (“Ready for my close up, Mr. Demille.”) victimized.

What, then, did the school do? They called the little one’s parent in order to warn the parent and blame the child for hurting the bully. (Sound politically familiar?)

They told the parent, “He should have called a teacher first,” even though the teacher was right there and witnessed the whole attack.

As I listened to this latest version of the Mad Hatter Tea Party, some questions came to my mind:

[Mr. Jeeves]

You would think we would finally take a stand when it comes to our children. You would think we would be driven by a primal need to protect.

Nah, we just want the little brats out of the house as many hours as possible. /s

[Lurker]

Send a registered letter to the School reminding them of their legal and ethical obligations to protect your child while they’re acting en loco parentis. State clearly that if they fail in this obligation you will sue them both professionally and personally.

Send a copy, also registered, to your attorney. If you don’t have an attorney pick one at random from the internet and forgo sending a copy. But be sure you cc them on the letter.

This works if you do it. I know because I did it.

L

[BobL]

Being a good conservative, I don’t worry about what happens at the public schools that my children go to (nor who the adults are that they come into contact with at those schools), since MY SCHOOLS have high ratings (and they’re free!).

[Captain7seas]

A real friendly chat with the principal and the teacher in the parking lot also works.

I know because I did it. :)

[FreedomPoster]

Ping

[Alberta's Child]

It’s too late to complain about this sh!t. “Public education” has no place in a free society, and never should have been established in the first place.

[Lurker]

That would have been Step 2.

L

[ConservativeInPA]

99% of teachers give the 1% of good teachers a bad name. Now with that said. Get in the face of the 99% of teachers. Intimidate them. Scare the crap out of them. They are the enemy. Make sure they know that their jobs are on the line. Make sure they know they need to keep their leftist politics to themselves. Make sure they know their lives are on the line.

We've had enough of this crap. It ends now.

[wintertime]

I shun government teachers.

I don’t have abortion workers for friends either.

As for the 1% of “good” teachers, they are like “good” guards in a re-education camp. They support the system so they can throw a few good crumbs at the prisoners.

[BuffaloJack]

This reminds me of when my oldest daughter, then 8, 3rd grade, was attacked and beaten up by three 6th grade boys. We met with the school officials who told us that they could do nothing, because the incident took place off of school property. We got the typical “my kid wouldn’t do that” from the parents of the 3 boys.
We then enrolled my daughter in self-defense karate lessons for women.
Three months later, the same 3 boys decided my daughter needed a beating. One boy lost his 2 front upper teeth, the second boy would up with 2 broken index fingers and the third suffered a broken nose, my daughter walked away with her jacket missing a sleeve.
The school called us in and wanted to suspend my daughter. We told them we’d love to see them in court, and reminded them that in their own words the fight did not take place on school property. They dropped the suspension. For the rest of her time in grade school and high school, nobody messed with Tammy. She was the 3rd grade girl that beat the stuffings out of three 6th grade boys.
That was 35 years ago, and Tammy now has a 4th level black belt in karate.

[tiki]

In HS they had policy that anyone involved in a fight was suspended. My son got sucker punched and both kids were sent to the office and got their suspensions. I offered to punch the principal so he would be suspended. My son was not suspended and probably got in less trouble because they didn’t want to deal with me

They just don’t want to do their jobs and make arbitrary rules so they don’t really have to do anything.

[hanamizu]

“...the elementary school in an otherwise pleasant semi-rural community.”

---

I worked for 29 years at such a school. Yes bullies do go after kids. Yes, in many schools when the victim hits back it’s the bully who pretends to be the victim. I’ve seen this happen many times. So what can a parent do?

I’d start with the principal. If it is a small school, say 300 kids or so, he or she will know the bully and your kid and have a decent idea of who is pushing whom around. Believe it or not most school staff do not like seeing kids get hurt or intimidated and will try to stop it. But some bullies are sneaky, and subtle, and often know what they can get away with. And some (and their parents!) will claim they are being picked on if staff watches them too closely.

If the principal refuses your requests and or is hostile to you, the next step is the school board. They are elected and in ‘pleasant semi-rural communities’ might well be your neighbors. A parent complaining at a school board meeting can make all kinds of things happen. I saw a probationary teacher not get re-hired because a parent spent 45 minutes complaining about her. She wasn’t there to defend herself and had no idea her job was at risk. In many states principals are like probationary teachers, their contracts are from year to year.

Parents who know their rights have a great deal more power than they know when it comes to public schools. This is especially true if their child has an I.E.P. Naturally the schools does not want to let the parents know this.

[metmom]

ANOTHER REASON TO HOMESCHOOL

This ping list is for the other articles of interest to homeschoolers about education and public school. This can occasionally be a fairly high volume list. Articles pinged to the Another Reason to Homeschool List will be given the keyword of ARTH. (If I remember. If I forget, please feel free to add it yourself)

The main Homeschool Ping List handles the homeschool-specific articles. I hold both the Homeschool Ping List and the Another Reason to Homeschool Ping list. Please freepmail me to let me know if you would like to be added to or removed from either list, or both.

[samadams2000]

Would the Founding Fathers have put up with 39% Federal Income tax?

[wintertime]

Yep!

[Nateman]

...And even though all the acts were intolerable, it was the Stamp Act that was the last straw.

The last straw came when the British tried to take their guns away . They only succeeded in getting one bullet at a time fired back at them.

[bboop]

BobL - is that a joke? I tutor in an area fed by a well-to-do area. Don’t believe that those kids are not being: Propagandized by leftie teachers; taught BS Common Core math (bc the district gets money if they teach it); taught BS American History; taught that the world is ending bc of Global Warming.

The parents THINK they are getting a good deal for their property taxes; the schools are some of the highest ranked in the country. I would not send my kids to that district for all the tea in China (can I still say this?). And .. the parents are top professionals in their fields/ so many are conservative. Matters not.

[BobL]

it’s sarcasm on my part, but I realize it can be very hard to detect - that’s why I put in the line “And it’s free!!!”

Anyway, our side standing up to the Left on education is a lost cause. I kept my kids out of our schools because I understood who runs them and teaches in them - but, aside from one Russian immigrant (who still has family in Russia, so has something to compare our nightmare to and thus emulated what I did, with the same results, of course), everyone who knew about my kids that I was nuts getting them years ahead of their official ‘grade level’, by US standards - even if what they accomplished would have been top-tier in Russia, but not off the charts, like here.

[ladyjane]

99% of teachers give the 1% of good teachers a bad name.

That has been my experience. I left public schools behind when I realized how poorly educated the teachers actually were and they even pronounced and spelled words incorrectly. Then the kids came home from school with vulgar expressions - learned from teachers! Expressions like 'tough titties' and 'farting around' are not what you want teachers saying in front of first grade students.

I'm glad I left public schools behind. I hear from friends about the bullying and even death threats. The teachers are aware of what's going on but let it continue. They even cover up for the bullies, especially when one of the parents happens to be a big time lawyer in town.