A couple weeks ago I sat down to help my 6 year old with his homework.
The phone rang.
“Ms. Tova, this is Mr. A, the Vice Principal from the middle school?”
Me: “Yes.”
VP: “I just wanted to let you know, H won’t be on the bus today. It seems there was a bit of talking in study hall today, some inappropriate conversation within a group of boys. There were some threats made toward the president, so I have the City Police Department coming by to speak with the boys, let them know that kind of thing won’t be tolerated.”
Me: “Um, ok. I was going to pick H up after school at 4:45 anyway because he’s working on a project in one of his classes.”
VP: “Oh, ok, no problem. You can just pick him up as planned. Thanks.”
He hung up.
I looked at the phone. What the??
I sat down with the youngest and after half a page of homework decided something was WRONG, and I needed to get to the school and figure out what was going on. If the police were coming to talk to my kid I wanted to be there.
Bundled up the 6 year old, and off we went to the middle school.
A police cruiser sat out front.
I went into the office to see my son. School had been out for about 30 minutes at this point. The secretary took me to him. He was in a counselor’s room sitting alone at the end of the hall, and another boy was in another room. However, on the way back I saw the police officer in an office with the vice-principal, door closed.
Me: “H. What’s going on?”
H: “I didn’t even know until a few minutes ago. I’ve been sitting here over an hour.”
Me: “And what’s going on?”
H: “Today in study hall a couple of us were talking about white house security. How easy it seemed for people to get in uninvited, and how easy it would be for terrorists to smuggle in a grenade and blow up the president. How ridiculous is it that there is one paltry fence around the white house, you know we use more fencing around our nuclear….”
Me: “I don’t want to relive the conversation H. You shouldn’t have been talking in study hall! Why are the cops here then?”
H: “Well we were talking, mostly I was talking, and when the study hall teacher asked us what was so interesting, someone sitting down the table from us yelled out “they’re talking about killing Obama.” He was joking but the study hall teacher got really mad. She told us to shut up and she was reporting it. A period later they called me to the office and Mr A told me to ‘sit down the cops are on the way’…I had no idea why until just a few minute ago when he asked me to write down what happened.”
Me: “Did you threaten the president?”
H: “Of course not. No one did. We were talking about white house security, that’s it.”
So we waited. And waited some more.
The longer I waited the more aggravated I became. First, my son is a good kid. He doesn’t get into trouble at school, he’s quiet, thoughtful, and all his teachers confirm this. Besides, in his entire life, he’s never threatened anyone or anything. EVER. And that’s quite a feat considering his little brother..haha.
Finally it was our turn to go into the VP’s office. The policeman never asked H if he threatened the president, just gave him a “there are things you can talk about and things you can’t…” speech, “watch who you have conversations with" speech. He then told him the secret service “carries people away for hours” over things like this. Then he said there seemed to be some confusion over who said what, essentially he said, she said.
When the cop is done I turn to the VP:
Me: “First of all, my son said he didn’t threaten the president, and I believe him. I’m not a parent who thinks her child walks on water. I believe in personal responsibility, and we teach it to our kids. H is in more trouble with me for talking in study hall than for talking about white house security. This is America, and last time I checked, discussing white house security wasn’t against the law. And I am unhappy with how you handled this situation. You showed a poor lack of administrative discretion here. We live in (upper class suburb) Ohio. Even if they ALL threatened the president, which I do not believe happened, there is no intent, no opportunity, there is no way to carry it out, they’re 12-14 year olds, what are they gonna do, ride their bicycles to DC…”
VP: ~interrupts and throws his hands in the air~ “Once the president is brought into the conversation IT’S ABOVE MY PAYGRADE!”
Me: “No it is not above your pay grade. Your the vice principal aren’t you?? You could have pulled the group of boys aside, told them its a felony to threaten the president, give them detention for talking in study hall, and…”
VP: Throws his hands in the air again… “It’s common sense! And what am I supposed to tell parents who call wanting to know about kids threatening the president?!”
Me: “You tell them you did your job! There is nothing but he said she said here….big surprise considering its MIDDLE SCHOOL! You could have talked to the kids to find out the whole story, then took appropriate action. Calling in the city police department, who now may or may not notify the secret service is not only a waste of resources, its poor administration on your part.”
VP: “I don’t agree.”
Me: “No kidding.”
The police officer said he was done and we left.
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Ok. Here are my biggest problems with this entire situation.
1. These kids have never been in trouble and are between 12-14 years old, have no obvious intent, means, etc.
2. The kid who yelled out the topic of conversation when the study hall teacher asked, wasn’t close enough to be part of the conversation…he heard (and admitted in his statement later) he was “just joking” and “not close enough to hear all of it.”
3. The VP called my son to the office without telling him WHY…told him the “police are on the way” then isolated him. My son sat there for an hour before finding out what was going on. What was the point of scaring a kid that way? Besides a little sadism?
4. The VP is supposed to be a child advocate. And yet, every step of this process he chose the path that could most damage my son’s future.
How? Read Part 2.