Many thoughts, and a lot of frustration.
My stepdaughter is 15. She is being transfered to the alternative school because it is the school district's policy. There is an appeal process, but we have no intention of going there.
I don't believe that they were harsh, in any way: what if the little girl went into a coma, or even died? What if she ended up getting more kids to do the same, merely by example? What if she started selling other drugs? There are many, many consequences to what she did, and it's clear to us that she doesn't fully understand them all. I would even argue that she could have put our household in danger, from reprisal of that boy, or his gang (if he had one).
As for the boy, the school's police officer said: "So... I see you're following in your brother's footsteps!". I think that says it all. We'll be contacting my stepdaughter's friend's parent, to let him know that he would do well to keep that boy far, far away.
Right now, my wife and I are looking into transfering her to a christian school: we don't believe that my stepdaughter would do well in the alternative school, with fellow soon-to-be-criminals (as described by one of our church members), since she fell to peer pressure. We believe that we should be focusing on changing her environment, instead of (or as well as) letting her be punished.
But either way, she'll have a taste of the alternative school, for a week or two.
Jtroutma: I certainly appreciate any info you can get to me about this. We're also concerned about how any of this could (or could have) affected us legally, as parents/guardian, either directly or indirectly, but I think we'll be consulting with a lawyer about it.
Thanks to all for replying.
|