Hate, Bullying and Threats

It must just be a Z week. Yesterday was an interesting one....bordering on scary. Z has gym his last hour and coming out of the bathroom, he was shocked to find a great big piece of scary looking graffiti on the wall saying that the high school would be blown up on April 29, 2011 (Friday). (Picture to the left is not actual written threat!) He said the whole thing kind of shook him. Since no one else had said anything about it, he assumed it was pretty new and he wondered if anyone else had seen it. He decided he better report it, because you just never know if someone is actually capable of such an act or not.

The kind of shocking thing (at least to me anyway) is the fact that when he went to the office and told them, their reaction was........AGAIN????  My reaction to their reaction is.....REALLY???? If there have been threats against the high school, even if they turn out to be bogus....shouldn't parents be told? Were parents told and I simply missed the call or email? I thought as unlikely as that scenario was, that I would check with a few parents. I found out that no one apparently had been told about any possible threats. What is going on here?

There was a time when if kids were at school, you were about 99.9% sure that they were safe. However.....after Columbine (picture to the right), Jonesboro, VA Tech, etc......big questions are brought to mind about just how safe our schools are. We send our most precious assets (our children) every single day with the expectation that they will return to us in the same condition we sent them. And I applaud the precautions most schools now take: you must ring and be let into the school during school hours, resource officers, vigilant teachers and staff and hopefully students who are not afraid to speak up and speak out when they feel something isn't quite right, but much still lacks.

What has proven to be the real danger to our kids is not what comes from outside the school....but what comes from within. Kids are teased, tormented and bullied to the point where they seek retaliation.  You take a kid with low self-esteem and a border line mental issue and add to that mix constant and continuous teasing and bullying and you have all the ingredients for a Columbine. I find that truly frightening because I know without a doubt that right here at our own school.....bullying goes on a pretty regular basis. I am sure teachers and staff will be quick to say that they stop it when they see/hear it, but come on people......kids aren't stupid. They are not (in most cases) going to do the act within earshot of anyone in authority. They are going to be sneaky and threatening and some kids who get bullied, just don't have the fortitude to stand up to their aggressors not even to simply report them  to staff or parents......until they reach their breaking point. By then....it is often too late and everyone pays....not just the tormentor.

I am extremely curious why if there have been other threats made against the school....that parents have not at least been made aware of the incidents. I know of at least two recent lock downs at the school...one the kids had no idea what was going on and the other was a drug bust. On only one occasion were the parents notified. I personally think that if anything happens that affects my child to the point of having a lock down, threat or danger of any kind....that I as a parent should know about it.

Honestly....I know it is spring. It has been a long 8 months. High school hormones are peaking and kids have ambivalent feelings about graduation, finals, school ending and summer. It is a boiling pot about to spill over of  kids acting out or saying and doing things that might just be attention seeking. However....in this day and age, after what we have seen... the terror and heart ache that other schools have had to go through, every threat should be taken seriously and parents should be made aware.

Yes....I know I am on my soap box yet again, but when it comes to my kid, I think that is where I need to be. I only have one 15 year old Z and I would very much like to see him grow to be a very old man. I do believe I will be calling the school today....for my own peace of mind.

Well....it is time to do something other than blog. MAN!!!! If I could just sit and blog all day.....wow....what an awesome job that would be. Back to the real world. I must go workout!

I will now leave you with this video. This to me, is extremely powerful and very much in keeping with my blog today. While the name of the video maybe off putting to some...I encourage you to watch the video. I love Pink because she says what she says.....and makes no apologies! I think this video sends a really strong message to all but especially to parents. Here is Perfect by Pink.