Sexual Assault is Ok in Our Schools

I wasn't going to post this but now I'm just mad and I've done everything I can do and I don't know what I wanted out of stirring the pot but damn it we're still suffering and the school got off easy. It's bullshit!

Ok back in October my son, 5 years old, was in the restroom at school with a friend we'll call D. Korbin and D were washing their hands and getting ready to head back to class......probably having a water fight or standing under the air dryer too. Another student we'll call M. came into the restroom,, walked up to Korbin and D and pulled down his pants M tried to get the boys to touch him. Korbin and D did the typical "eww gross get away" thing and that's when M grabbed my Korbin and tried to pull down his pants. Korbin's pants did not come down because he had on adjustable waist jeans. D was not so lucky. He had on sweats and his pants were yanked down by this other boy. Korbin took advantage of this time to run away and get help. This is sexual assault!

This is the story we were told when we picked up Korbin and D from school that day. October 10th to be exact. We weren't notified during the day that anything out of the ordinary had taken place that day. D's mom and I talked for a few minutes and thus began a friendship strongly centered around our children's experience.

Over the weekend Korbin's behavior changed. He became very defensive and angry and mean. In fact he picked up an end table over his head and was ready to throw it at his brother! Not typical Korbin behavior. I spoke with the counselor on Monday and asked her to talk with Korbin because I noticed his behavior had changed. She assured me she would. She never did.

A fews day later after speaking with D's mom we decided we needed to meet with the principal and find out what, if anything was being done. M was still in class with our kids. Still roaming the halls and still alone with other children. I approached the principal on Wednesday that week and asked if we could meet with her Thursday or Friday. She informed me she was quite busy and couldn't schedule an appointment with us and if we wanted to talk to her it had to be right then. Since D's mom and I wanted to be together as to not be bullied that didn't work for us.

Friday morning we decided to just drop in and meet with the principal right then. She didn't even offer us a seat. She basically just said what she needed to say to shut us up and get us out of the office. At this time the counselor still had not met with my son even though it was specifically requested by me that she do so 5 days earlier. A week had passed at this point.

The following week nothing happened and my son continued to become angrier and more defensive. On one occasion Korbin came home with a note saying he got in trouble for "growling" at other kids. I told the teacher I'd growl at other kids too if no one was going to make sure I felt safe at school.

That Friday D's mom and I both emailed the superintendent of the district to alert him of the situation. The boys had both stated M had tried to get them to touch him and possibly had tried to touch them as well. They were reluctant to talk about the incident.

Monday morning the superintendent assistant called and said he'd look into why the counselor hadn't met with the kids and basically just saying what he had to say to pacify me. Remarkable the counselor met with both boys the next day and did a class (at my request) on good touch/bad touch with the students and appropriate behavior. Then that was the end of it.

Well unfortunately my son continued to become more and more aggressive and get into trouble and be disruptive in the classroom. I took Korbin to the behavioral health child psychologist on post who said Korbin has ADHD and has put him on medication. He stated that he felt that the onset of the ADHD symptoms came on so strong because of the incident but that they would have shown up in time. I went ahead with the medication because of the anger and violence not because he's a wild little boy. We love that about him!

D's mom and I were fed up with the schools administration and in November we both removed our kids from school and opted to home school them.

Well here I am 10 months later stewing over the issue again. I raised attention to the incident with our rear detachment commander at a meeting last month because I felt that the incident was not handled right and that my son was still suffering from the incident and I wanted to know what was supposed to happen in a situation like that.

Today we had a meeting with the family advocacy representative, the rear detachment commander and Kirke's 1SG. They had met with the schools administration and basically felt they did their share to handle the situation. They claimed to be unaware that there was an attempt to force our kid to touch M and that M tried to touch them. They freakin lied through their teeth about when they met with the students.

Today is the day I drop it. The school did not take care of my son and keep him safe and upon realizing he was in the situation played it off as boys being boys. That is not okay!! I'm pissed off but I don't know what I want that would make me not be so pissed off. I want my sweet loving happy little boy back.

The meeting we had today basically showed me that no one but me thinks this is a big deal. They made me feel as if I'm just being an over protective pain in the ass parent. I don't know what I expected but I didn't expect to have the situation minimized once again.

I'm not impressed. I feel like they are saying it's acceptable behavior. If this had happened to a little girl it would have been handled differently. If the other students parent wasn't an officer it would have been handled differently. If Korbin and D's daddy's had been here instead of in Iraq it would have been handled differently.

I miss my lovable sweet little guy. We love homeschooling but it's expensive. It's really been to our benefit that we've pulled them out of public school but damn it's just not right that THIS is the reason why! It's bullshit and I'm mad as hell but I've done all that I can do. I'm just grateful that my children aren't in school with kids who are allowed to bully them and hurt them anymore.

I'm not proof-reading this because it'll just make me mad all over again so forgive my typo's. If you made it this far, thanks for reading.

I just figured out what I want out of this. I want people to stop saying things like this happen and it's gonna be okay. I want people to say "You are right, this is not acceptable behavior and I'm sorry that this happened to your son. We will do everything we can to keep it from happening again!" I'm sick of people in authority positions just blowing it off like it's no big effin deal. It's a big damn deal and it's NOT okay!

~Till They All Come Home~