Bullying in public school has become a real problem. My oldest daughter, who is now ten, had a horrible problem with bullying while in public school. My daughter came home with tears in her eyes, the first week of school, because one of the girls in her school had called her a darkie. Things progressively got worse as the year went on. I was at the school a multitude of times discussing the bullying issue with her principle and the vice principle. I have decided to home school her this year.
At one point a child had called my daughter a squaw and laughingly told my daughters’ friend that it was Indian for Bitch. Thankfully I had the Internet. I looked up the word and showed my daughter that it actually meant woman, but that people often used it as a derogative term. Another child started calling my daughter a crazy black girl.
My daughter was called names, pushed around, lied about, had vicious rumors started about her, and made to feel like she was worthless on a daily basis. What did the school do? Everything in their power to protect my daughter… which amounted to absolutely nothing. No assemblies were held. No class room discussions on why it is wrong to treat others badly. There were some in school suspensions towards the end of the school year for the habitual offenders. However having to sit in the front office for a day and getting a break from school does not seem like a punishment to me. I was assured over and over again that things would be handled. Parents would be called, meetings would be held. But I ask you this: If a nine year old child is picking on another child and calling them racial names, where is this nine year old child learning this behavior? Is calling in the parents and having a meeting with them really going to help resolve the situation? Or are the parents going to brush off the situation as nothing serious? I can tell you from experience the meetings did nothing to resolve the situation, nor did the in school suspensions, if anything they only made matters worse. One of the girls who had gotten an in school suspension got in my daughters face screaming, yelling, and pushing her, telling her what a horrible person she was. This happened in the bus line, with teachers and adults standing there watching. No one did a thing to help my daughter. When she got home on the bus that day she was shaking and crying hysterically.
I called the principle, what was going to be done about this issue; he assured me that he would in fact look in to it and call me back. He never did call me back. I told my daughter all year to ignore the bullies and they would eventually get tired of picking on her. Seeing as how she had gone through an entire school year this way I told me daughter we had a new plan. I told my daughter to start sticking up for herself. The very next day when my daughter came home from school she told me her vice principle had pulled her out of class. In the hall he told her that if she had any more problems that year she would not be allowed to return to school. As you can imagine I was not happy. I called the principle to see what had happened. He told me he did not know but that he would look in to it and call me back in the morning… where have I heard that before? Guess what! By two o'clock I still had not heard from him. I went to the school. There were only three days of school left so my daughter getting suspended the rest of the year really was not a big deal. What made it a big deal was the fact that my daughter had been having problems with the same groups of kids all year and the worst punishment any of them got was a one day in school suspension. Now the school wanted to turn around and suspend my daughter for three days for taking a stand and letting one of her peers know that she was no longer willing to sit still and be a target. I do not think so! When I walked in to the school I told the receptionist I would like to speak to the principle. She asked me if I had an appointment. I told her I did not need one and to let the principle know I was there. I sat in the office for about a minute and a half. When I got in to the principal’s office he apologized for not having called me but he had not had a chance to investigate the issue yet. I told him how disappointed I was in the school and how they had failed to protect my daughter and in the end I felt that they had also harassed and bullied her via the vice principle. I informed the principle that I would be homeschooling my daughter the next year. I took her home that day with the agreement of the principle. I will keep you all updated as to how everything goes for us while we home school.
