Yesterday I was called to a meeting at my daughters school. The week before, she along with other children had been present at a fight between one of their classmates and a girl that attends another school. The kids of the parents at the meeting had not been physically involved, but they had prior knowledge that the fight was going to take place. The school has an excellent reputation and the children involved have brought shame upon the school. The children, including my daughter have had a Saturday detention and lunchtime detentions all of last week. At the meeting, some parents showed annoyance that their child was being punished just for being there. Others wanted to know when the punishment would end. After sitting down and thinking This is what is wrong with the world for a few minutes, I broke my silence and said something like: Our children are just as accountable as the child that fought. They were not merely there, they were part of the mob, encouraging the fighter and intimidating the child from the other school. Imagine for a moment one of the kids had brought a gun and your child was accidentally shot, would just being there have been so harmless? Or imagine on the day of the fight all of our kids had gone home the girl involved with no audience would have gone home too. I am not raising a child that follows the crowd. I am raising the child that thinks for themselves and isnt afraid to speak up and say this isnt right... All of the other kids parents hate me, lol, but I stand by what I said. All of the areas of my life are connected. My neuro typical children have the opportunity to stand up and create the world that my child with special needs can thrive and be accepted in. Following the crowd, especially when the crowd is overtly doing the wrong thing isnt going to help change the world.
Posted on: Tue, 07 Oct 2014 08:00:30 +0000