I’m looking for some advice from other Military families who have children that go to on public schools (preferably the ones that are actually on installations) who’ve had issues with threats or violence against their child.
My 12 year old daughter was recently threatened by another child (we will call him JJ) in her class. This happened on Friday and she hold us as soon as she got home. The kids ride the bus home and by the time they get here the school is long closed up and no one will answer the phones so we had to wait till Monday to deal with the situation not by any choice of our own.
Here is what happened…..Friday at school They where in class on the laptops, and my daughter had her legs to the side so she wouldn’t hit another child sitting next to her. JJ walked up and told my daughter to "shut up and to move her feet". Colleen told him "No, that she didn’t have to and that it was a free country." Well JJ then proceeded to tell her that "If it’s a free country I’m going to shoot you" Colleen ended the exchange then and told the vice principle who said he would have a discussion with the student.
Well this discussion must not have done much good because the kid was in our housing area (which he does NOT live in) the next day bragging about how he’s gotten away with it and that nothing was done to him. He even made further comments to her about how it was a compliment and that she took it wrong.
Now, a few things here… he was at another persons house when the second incident happened. My daughter left right away and came home, she didn’t even want to go to school on Monday. She is very uncomfortable around him and is actually afraid of him now. She did NOT feel this was prior to last week.
My husband and I went to the school and spoke with the principle and vice principle. Unfortunately, it was basically a waste of our time. All we got was the whole we don’t think he knew what he was saying and doesn’t have the capacity to really carry it out lines. They kept saying he said Well then I could shoot you and that is NOT what he said but that is what he told them he said so they are basically believing him over 5 other students. They also said that they child has a history of saying and doing things before fully thinking them through which is the part that terrifies us. They kept going around and around about how the child is emotional and young for his age.
They hasn’t even contacted his parents about him saying it and that made my husband go through the roof. They where supposedly going to contact them yesterday after we left but to be honest I doubt that it really did happen. They talked about that he’s an very emotional child well so is mine but it sounds like this kid is just playing them especially since he came to our housing area the next day dragging that he got away with it. We have our daughters side of things and have also confirmed it with all the children she says witnessed it happen. They all give the exact same story so this isn’t my daughter being overly dramatic about the situation.
Does anyone have any ideas as to who to contact besides the school board (who’s going to side with the principle) to get this dealt with? I know that if the kid comes to our housing area again and says anything like a threat to her to call the MP’s but I don’t want it to come to that. I’m more concerned that he could or would walk into the school with a gun. Then it’s not only our child in danger but other people’s children too. I will be contacting the Military liaison for assistance and hopefully she can do something.
I’m not usually one for getting commands involved but is that going to be my only option to resolve this if the school won’t do something? Is to find out who this kids sponsor is and have my husbands command go to his command? Seems like a lot of go around the bush to me but if it works I’m willing to do it I just want the kid to realize that you can’t threaten people like that and get away with it.
The really bad part is my daughter isn’t doesn’t want to do to school now. Any advice would be great and please no tell her to suck it up. She’s got two brothers and can handle her own quite well thank you but this really scared her. She’s never had something threaten her life before and she never have someone do that especially at 12 years old.
kleighs mommy Typical out of line comments….. IF you’re not going to read the WHOLE thing the do us a favor and do NOT comment.
ALL the students where sitting the same way. It’s the way the room is laid out.
My daughter did NOTHING wrong to this child. She was no rude to him and did move but wasn’t going to be told to shut up when she wasn’t even talking.
Please stay off my questions from now on. Thank you.
To answer some of the questions aske dno it’s isn’t a DoD school It’s a El Paso ISD School that just happens to have it’s campus on post. There are a few DoDea schools in CONUS (Knox for example).
We don’t know the parents and the school refused to release their names or phone numbers so we can contact them to address the situation. From what I know as of today they still have not been contacted and told about what has happened.
Thank you to everyone for the support and ideas on what to do with the situation.
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