Ramblings from the outside of nowhere

Reading through the local news I came upon this disturbing little story involving a 4 year old preschooler, and his understandably upset mother. The full story is here, and, if you are like me, when you read it, you are going to be furious.

Evidently, the little boy in question, did something that upset his teachers, and I use the term 'teachers' for lack of a better one, so they ripped his pants off, spanked him, and, when he wet himself, they dressed him in a dress. To punish him. The mother stated she had clothes there for him, a change of clothes. Then they sent him home. And, like all school systems in Virginia, and probably everywhere else in this country by now, they do not feel the need to explain their actions to anyone. WAVYTV-10-on-your-side is pretty good at getting results, but even they can't do much about the school system "wall of silence".

Many moons ago, my son's friend, BW, came home from school with a broken jaw, no calls made to his parents, he just got off the bus, holding his jaw together. After being hospitalized and having his jaw wired shut, and his father was furious, as is this mother, and tried to sue. His lawsuit went nowhere.

Travis came home from kindergarten with a broken collar bone, for Christ's sake. When I went to confront his teacher, and whoever was in shouting distance, she said he had complained about his arm hurting, but it was time for the buses, so she just sent him home. Though I hopped around and said obscene things, it basically boiled down to not being able to prove exactly when the bone was broken. Travis remembered clearly when it was broken, an older kid pushed him against the wall, but, we had insurance, we didn't pursue it. However, now, they knew my name. The superintendant knew my name. I visited his office on a regular basis. He hated my guts. He hated my guts and liver.

Anyway, from my research, the school in question in this article has to be Bowling Park Elementary School, not Bolling. MSNBC.com's proofreader's suck. The phone number is 628-2515, which is also the fax number. The address is 2861 E. Princess Anne Rd., Norfolk, VA 23504. The principal is Mrs. Brenda P. Shepherd.

Michaell Spencer, Chief Operations Officer, may be reached at 628-3930, or by fax at 628-3977. All of this information can be found here. The mission statement for the Norfolk District School System Reads as follows:

"To educate each student to be a successful, productive contributor to society by providing powerful teaching and learning opportunities."

Some how, I get the feeling this little boy is going to have a hard time taking advantage of those opportunities in the future. God, I'm so pissed.