I first wrote about this July 13th, 2011. Today is April 3rd,2012. I hate to say, but my brother is still dealing with the issues of bullying and our county's way of dealing with it. He was in the group home 6 months before being returned home. Once home it took 20 days for them to get him enrolled back in his old school. during this time, he went anyway for four of those days. The school counselor, in her effort to help put him in alternative school. The teacher assumed he was a behavior problem and belittled him until he didn't want to go.  Finally they had a meeting with a probation officer and an MDT meeting shortly after. They decided he would be put in regular classes until next year. Then he would go into the path way. They were all agreed that he would stay home and continue this path. He had no problems getting to his regular classes. The day he was there to get his schedule to start, he was kicked by a student while waiting in the hall. So court date came and the judge was told things that never happened. And feed lies by the prosecuting attorney. The judge gave him words about yellow suits and hand cuffs and sent him to a ranch. At this ranch they did not take him to his doctor appointment nor have they sent him to school. Due to the fact that he will be going back to the group home he was in. They can't understand why he wasn't bullied at the school he went to in the group home. Well that's just it. He was in a group home and most kids there are in the home for doing bad things. The judge was told he didn't miss days and wasn't late while at the group home. Not true. He had to pay them gas money on three different occasions to take him to school when he overslept. He had trouble sleeping the whole time he was there. On days he had appointments or court they didn't bother sending him to school. These were not excused absences. However, when at home, he has to go to school when he has appointments and court and he did just that. He has managed to get his panic anxiety under control, but has so much anger after all he has been put through. The probation officer, attendance director and judge have talked very disrespectful to my parents and my brother, with no cause to do so. This has stopped except for the judge doing so. The reason for truancy court is because most students who don't attend, eventually drop out. And according to their statistics, drop outs end up criminals. However, my brother has never met the criteria for a potential drop out. He had really good grades until this all started with the court and being stabbed with a pencil during class. He has NEVER been a behavior problem. Despite the fact that he gave his best. That he went to all appointments, and this being after the hundreds paid to find out what was wrong, he was able to learn the coping skills and get his panic anxiety under control despite being bullied by students, teachers and the court system. Despite doing all he has been asked to do, they are still treating him like a delinquent. To this day they will except or address the fact that the reason he missed so many days was because he was bullied and after many attempts that my mom made for help and nothing being done about he developed the disability that made it very hard for him to attend. Why are they treating him this way and why is this still going on? There are plenty of lawyers who say we definitely have a law suit yet none in this state that can do it. The ones who can are lawyers for the schools. I am so tired of this county not addressing the bullying our kids go through! I realize the need for truancy court, but with the bullying epidemic, it needs revised. I have emailed our government and senators who all agree and have wrote letters back addressing it, but there's nothing they can do either. My brother has a good home and should be there like he deserves to be. Our county has always had school trouble. The state took over, but from what I'm seeing nothing has changed. Are kids are suppose to safe environment to learn, teachers who educated to teach, and that care about their students. This year my son has not had but one incident of being bullied thus far. However, my daughter started kindergarten this year and has come several days crying. She has been hit by boys wrestling around, which shouldn't be happening and pushed down the steps on the slide. I went to the school after the first incident and it's looking like I will be back. My daughter started out loving school. Now she hates it and hates going! This has got to stop! And the bullying problem is just a piece of the problems our schools have :(

School Bullying

This is my first blog. I started because I want to share my feelings about the bullying our children face in school. And that many schools are not doing enough to address this issue. My brother has been dealing with bullies since he moved to this state. The schools and the school board have been made aware of the issues several times and yet nothing changes. He started high school this past school year and because of bully's he started having panic and anxiety attacks. So he missed a lot of school. He went for several doctor appointments and they found that he had mono at one time and sent him to a place to help with the panic and anxiety. The school was aware of this too. Nothing changed. They took him to court for truancy. They put him on an improvement period. He did the best he could and made it there, but he was late. So they put him on probation. He had to see a social worker, and be home by 8pm. The social worker found there was no need for her to be there. This goes on for months. The day before the end of the school year he was stabbed in the back with a pencil, in class, with the teacher present. They had to cut his back to get pieces of the pencil out. My brother has done everything the probation and courts have asked him to do to the best of his ability. This past Friday they went back to court. His lawyer brought up him being stabbed. Neither the prosecuting attorney or the judge would address this issue. They sent him to a group home. This group home is two hours away. He had to be taken out to the van while having a panic attack. His first day there he didn't eat, drink or even go to the bathroom and had several panic attacks. Today he went on an outing and got sick and had to go to the doctor. The school he is in is suppose to have a zero tolerance policy. So why is he the one being punished? Why won't they address the issue of  him being bullied? I read on line that this school he is in, is being looked into by the federal government because it has one of the highest rates of bullying in the country. My son, who has Down Syndrome, goes to the school where the trouble started for my brother. My son was suspended three days end of the school year for defending himself. Another kid was choking him and it broke into a fight before the teachers aides decided to step in. It doesn't seem like many of the parents here care about this either. It is time that as parents we speak up for our children. The schools we send them to should be safe and there is no excuse for them not to be! And there is no excuse for a child being bullied to be the one punished! He has been fighting this for years. I see no justice in what the judge had or has decided for my brother. I just pray that the place he is in can help him with the panic and anxiety attacks. Something good has to come out of this.