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KOK Edit: your favorite copyeditor since 1984(SM) KOK Edit: your favorite copyeditor since 1984(SM) Katharine O'Moore Klopf
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Friday, November 16, 2007

Reactions to Our Quest to Stop School Bus Bullying

In the previous episode, I asked my school district's board members to place aides or video cameras on district buses to stop bullying, and Newsday, Long Island's giant newspaper, wrote a story about it that appeared online on Wednesday and in print yesterday.

My first-grader, who'd been picked on by two different children, tells me that at the end of the school day yesterday, his school's assistant principal, the school administrator stuck—er ... um ... tasked—with dealing with bus problems, boarded his bus before it left the school. My first-grader, who'd been picked on by two different children, tells me that yesterday, his school's assistant principal, the school administrator stuck—er ... um ... tasked—with dealing with bus problems, pulled from class every child who rides his bus and took them to the cafeteria. She informed them that the bullying has to stop and that they now all have assigned seats on the bus. But she hasn't contacted my husband and me to tell us this. I hope that they're doing assigned seating for all of the buses, but I doubt it very much. What I suspect happened is that she and/or the principal got a phone call from the school board saying that my son's bus situation must be handled immediately. After all, this is the shiny-bright wealthy school district that doesn't want its image tarnished.

My husband talked with our son's bus driver this morning, and he was thrilled about the news story. He says that all of the drivers would love to have aides ride herd on the 40 or so children on each large bus.

We'll continue to press the school board to resolve the problem district-wide. For us, this issue is about ensuring that our children and everyone else's children in the district don't feel unsafe or ostracized. We want them to rise to their full potential, without fear, because the world will be in their hands one day.



3 comments:

LeftLeaningLady said...

It is so great that someone out there cares enough about their children (and all the children) to do something about this. I think it is fair to say that (by your actions) you may have just helped 1 child who will not kill himself or others later. Give yourself a HUGE pat on the back!

Casey Klahn said...

I'm dealing with this, now, with my small kindergarten boy. I choose, so far, the direct and immediate solutions, rather than the beurocratic one. We live rurally and favor the direct.

My boy has had better and worse days with the bully. The first issue we had, I told him to ignore the bully, and we practiced our "I'm ignoring you" face. You can't believe the huge impact that had for my son! He beamed the next day, "dad, ignoring works!"

One of the problems is the bully is two grades older, and feels territorial about the seating. You have the right thought, IMO, by assigned seating.

Because of more trouble, I told the driver this AM, "Mister Tom, I told (my son) to sit in his assigned seat both ways, today".

Casey Klahn said...

Excuse me, "bureaucratic."

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