Our little business owner...and a shocking story if you keep reading

So Harrison has been learning in school all the ins and outs of running a business. He had to run his own store selling dum dums and laffy taffys. He did quite well if he says so himself. He had to do a business plan for it, get funded...yes, I funded the start up for the store. He had to do a commerical and a printed advertisement. It really took him a lot and he had a lot of fun. After his class was done with their stores they went on a tour to Peter Piper Pizza and learned how they run their store. They had all these stations to do different things in learning about the store and even made their own Pizza's. He thought it was the best field trip ever. It was fun to see him having fun and interacting with his friends, yet he loves me so much that he preferred to have lunch with me than with the class. It sure made me feel loved.

Now, if you have read far enough you get to hear the flip side to his week. You know one of those weeks that starts out so good, and ends up so wrong. So I'll start by saying it straight out, why beat around the bush. My 3rd grader, straight A student, who has never been in trouble, (other than normal kid stuff), HARRISON WAS SUSPENDED!!! Seriously. Okay, so I know the questions that follow... What??? Why??? When??? What happened?? Not only have I heard those questions from everyone we've told, I asked them all myself. To start off, I don't agree with what was done, but we taught him to accept the punishment given as best you can once you've gone through the proper channels and know what you did and didn't do wrong and leave it in the past.

So this is how it all happened. Tues morning before school Harrison had walked out to the bus stop. He noticed a hard plastic tube thing on the ground which I had made the boys throw away the day before at the park since I didn't think it was a good idea to have at the park. He went to pick it up to throw it away again, especially since a middle school boy had been hitting several kids with it the day before. This same middle schooler, we'll call him "N" noticed Harrison pick it up and started yelling at him to put it down that it was his and he was playing with it. Now this N kid was playing football so obviously not currently hitting anyone with the stick. But Harrison decided that he was going to hold to his ground and protect the other kids from him by throwing it away. We can pause from the story for a minute to note that had he been successful the kid could have just pulled it out of the garbage can again like he had already that morning, but my sweet 3rd grader never thought about that. So back to the story, This kid got mad and started yelling at him to give it back. He kept heading for the garbage can. The kid grabbed the back of Harrison's shirt and kept pulling on it choking Harrison. Harrison turned to face him to stop it from choking him and they had a tug of war for the plastic piece. Harrison finally threw the stick past the boy to get him away. The boy took a swinging punch at Harrison but he ducked it. (Luckily the boy didn't have great fighting abilities.) Harrison open handed hit back at him and landed a slap on the kid's leg. The kid then turned and grabbed for the stick. While his back was turned to pick up the stick...again remember he's already hit kids with it for no reason the day before...Harrison lunges forward knocking him over, then takes off running for home and protection. When I find out what happens I go down to talk to the kid, as I walk up he says, "I didn't choke Harrison, he's lying" Now let's evaluate this, I haven't said anything to him and he's denying what he hasn't yet been accused of, can only mean he's guilty in my book. I ask him his side of the story, he said that he was just minding his own business and Harrison started hitting him with the plastic stick so he had to push him away. Now that was about as believable as Harrison's first telling, I was just walking by doing nothing and this kid started choking me. I figured the truth was somewhere in between the two. While talking to the kid the bus finally arrived. Now can I also note that had the bus been on time there would not have been time for any of this. But alas the bus was over 15 min late allowing time for trouble to happen. So I sent the kids on the bus and went home to my sleeping baby and call my husband in tears. It's just the way this mom reacts to stress. He insists I don't wait for the the principal to return my call but go straight over to the school and insist on seeing him about it. So I woke Ellie up and we went to school, we were both a site I tell you! I couldn't get into see the principal as he was busy in meetings so we spoke to the teacher who is in charge of researching things like this for the principal. She told me that the only way I can find out if there is actually any punishment taken on the other kid is to call the police and press charges. Really, they can't just say, we suspended the bully who is over three grades older than your son??? How hard is that? So they said they would research the situation and let me know "when it's taken care of" So they called later in the afternoon to inform me that they are suspending my son. Seriously???? Yes, they suspended the 3rd grader who was being attacked by a middle school-er because he fought back. He received one day of in school suspension and is not allowed to ride the bus for the rest of the year.

Now to vent a little on how completely stupid this is!! What kind of punishment is it to him that he can't ride the bus, my kids and every kid I've ever met, hate to ride the bus, it's only there for the parent's convenience, like how I get to wake my baby up to drive them to school, then I get to wake the baby up from her nap to pick them up from school. This only punishes me not him!!! Also, when they told him he was suspended they didn't actually tell him what that meant. What does that say about him and them? He is a good enough kid that he has not ever even heard the word suspension to know what it means. Also, they are so used to assuming all kids a trouble makers they just assume every kid knows what a suspension is. Also, when they sent an e-mail to the teacher saying he was being given 1 day in school suspension and they needed her to give them enough "busy work" to keep him doing something the entire day in the front office. I have to say it was one of those moments when I was reminded how much I like his teacher and not the administration at the school. She went down and told the principal what a ridiculously stupid punishment they gave him for being bullied. How does that encourage kids to stand up for themselves if they are punished for it. Also, she said, if you are going to suspend a kid for defending him self then do it right and have him miss school and the work, but a gifted kid like him could not be kept busy at the office for an entire day. She said she could send the entire amount of busy work for the week and it would keep him busy for a couple hours and he would learn NOTHING for the entire day. The point of going to school is to learn not to be kept busy. So they needed to decide what they really wanted to accomplish with this and adjust accordingly. They compromised with her wanting the suspension revoked and allowed him to serve it with his gifted coach but away from the rest of the class.

So, the moral of the story, don't defend yourself or report it if you are bullied or you will get out of ever having to ride the bus again, and you will not have to be bothered with all the other kids for one day but get one on one treatment with one of your favorite teachers, spending time building a roller coaster thing for a marble to go on.

Yeah, we gotta love public education!