What Are My Children's Rights?

[Tadbit]

I hardly ever have a rant, but I needed some information and I knew if anyone could help me, the people on here could. My granddaughter, whom I'm raising, was punched in the nose yesterday at school by a boy a year older than her in the lunch room. She did nothing to provoke this except say hi to this kid, which is in no way a reason to be hit. Anyway he gave her a bloody nose. The kid was suspended for 2 days. What I want to know is he is just in the third grade, but can we bring assault charges against him or his family? My husband says yes we can, but I didn't know. The main reason I'm upset is because no one from the school even tried to contact me about this incident when it happened.
This school is over crowded to begin with and there are only 3 people in the lunchroom to supervise these kids and that includes one para, a janitor and one lunch lady. That's not nearly enough people to watch that many kids at a time, especially when most of these kids are problem kids with a lot of issues. Most of the parents of these kids don't get involved with their kid's teachers or care what happens to them at school or at home for that matter.
I just happen to catch this kid's teacher leaving school early for an appointment and I went up to her car to say hi. That's when she asked me if anyone called me. Then she told me what happened, but had I not approached her, I probably wouldn't have known about it until my grandkids told me. When I went inside the school to pick the kids up, the principal was standing in the hall and she never said anything to me about it.
When the kid's grandma came to pick him up, I told her what happened and it was at that time, the principal told her that she had been trying to contact her all day but couldn't reach her. She then took this lady to a policeman who talked to her. This grandma came back to me and said my grandson hit your granddaughter because she was up in his face pointing her finger, which wasn't true, as I later found out. I said well that doesn't give him the right to hit a girl in the nose and she said, (and get this) well women are always fighting for equal rights. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!! I told her her grandson doesn't have a right to hit anyone at this school, much less a girl!
Well the principal never did talk to me yesterday and when I went home and told my husband, he was livid. I told him I wanted to talk to the principal before I took any other steps and so I did this morning. She told me that this kid had rights because he was a specials need kid and that they had to take certain steps before they could place him in another school or take any other actions besides suspending him. This kids had already kicked another little girl in the head this year. How many chances does he get? Does he have to kill some one before something is done? Anyway, what I was wondering, is what our my granddaughter's rights? Can we press charges for this or take any other measures to prevent something like this from happening again by this boy? By the way, my granddaughter is only in the second grade and this boy is only in the third. We live in Kansas. Does anyone know what the law says about this and what we can do?
Sorry this was so long but I felt it needed to be so you knew the whole situation. Thanks for any help, in advance.

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[DBackFan]

I am no help when it comes to the laws there but I would be one pissed of grandma too...so sorry that happened.

[DrGrin]

I hardly ever have a rant, but I needed some information and I knew if anyone could help me, the people on here could. My granddaughter, whom I'm raising, was punched in the nose yesterday at school by a boy a year older than her in the lunch room. She did nothing to provoke this except say hi to this kid, which is in no way a reason to be hit. Anyway he gave her a bloody nose. The kid was suspended for 2 days. What I want to know is he is just in the third grade, but can we bring assault charges against him or his family? My husband says yes we can, but I didn't know. The main reason I'm upset is because no one from the school even tried to contact me about this incident when it happened.
This school is over crowded to begin with and there are only 3 people in the lunchroom to supervise these kids and that includes one para, a janitor and one lunch lady. That's not nearly enough people to watch that many kids at a time, especially when most of these kids are problem kids with a lot of issues. Most of the parents of these kids don't get involved with their kid's teachers or care what happens to them at school or at home for that matter.
I just happen to catch this kid's teacher leaving school early for an appointment and I went up to her car to say hi. That's when she asked me if anyone called me. Then she told me what happened, but had I not approached her, I probably wouldn't have known about it until my grandkids told me. When I went inside the school to pick the kids up, the principal was standing in the hall and she never said anything to me about it.
When the kid's grandma came to pick him up, I told her what happened and it was at that time, the principal told her that she had been trying to contact her all day but couldn't reach her. She then took this lady to a policeman who talked to her. This grandma came back to me and said my grandson hit your granddaughter because she was up in his face pointing her finger, which wasn't true, as I later found out. I said well that doesn't give him the right to hit a girl in the nose and she said, (and get this) well women are always fighting for equal rights. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!! I told her her grandson doesn't have a right to hit anyone at this school, much less a girl!
Well the principal never did talk to me yesterday and when I went home and told my husband, he was livid. I told him I wanted to talk to the principal before I took any other steps and so I did this morning. She told me that this kid had rights because he was a specials need kid and that they had to take certain steps before they could place him in another school or take any other actions besides suspending him. This kids had already kicked another little girl in the head this year. How many chances does he get? Does he have to kill some one before something is done? Anyway, what I was wondering, is what our my granddaughter's rights? Can we press charges for this or take any other measures to prevent something like this from happening again by this boy? By the way, my granddaughter is only in the second grade and this boy is only in the third. We live in Kansas. Does anyone know what the law says about this and what we can do?
Sorry this was so long but I felt it needed to be so you knew the whole situation. Thanks for any help, in advance.

Special needs or not, it doesn't give the boy the right to be a bully and be aggressive towards other children. If this is a continual problem with him, then the special needs advocate could require that he have one on one supervision while in the presence of other children in situations where he has been proven to become aggressive towards others.

I agree with you, your grand-daughter has the right to feel safe when she is at school. However, I don't think pressing charges against the child would do anything but make the ones who did it look foolish. Depending on his special needs, he may not know the difference in right and wrong, and just thinks it's okay to go around punching and kicking people. I would be more pressed to see if I couldn't get a special needs advocate to step in and get a little more supervision for him.

[ahippiechic]

Special needs or not, it doesn't give the boy the right to be a bully and be aggressive towards other children. If this is a continual problem with him, then the special needs advocate could require that he have one on one supervision while in the presence of other children in situations where he has been proven to become aggressive towards others.

Yes, this. If he is special needs, pressing charges might not get you anywhere. But you should have been called when it happened, I know they can't call over every little bump and scrape but a 2nd grader getting a bloody nose from being hit by another student should warrent a call to the parent.

[cabby92]

Take it above the school's head. Contact the administrators or school board. They are at fault. It's like having a mean dog. If you know it's mean it should be more carefully guarded. They need to protect other students from their mean dog.

[Jolie Rouge]

I would call someone at the PD and get their opinion. One - it will give the school and the family of this child a reality check. Filing a report may be as effective as pursuing the charges.

[Tasha405]

Special needs or not, it doesn't give the boy the right to be a bully and be aggressive towards other children. If this is a continual problem with him, then the special needs advocate could require that he have one on one supervision while in the presence of other children in situations where he has been proven to become aggressive towards others.

I agree with you, your grand-daughter has the right to feel safe when she is at school. However, I don't think pressing charges against the child would do anything but make the ones who did it look foolish. Depending on his special needs, he may not know the difference in right and wrong, and just thinks it's okay to go around punching and kicking people. I would be more pressed to see if I couldn't get a special needs advocate to step in and get a little more supervision for him.

ITA!

[Shann]

I don't have any advise either. Is your granddaughter OK? I would be livid as well and if that boy's grandma came over to me and told me that, she would have to worry about being punched in the damn nose... see how she likes it There is no exscuse for his behaivor, he's all ready proven that he's violent, something needs to be done. I would also be fuming if the school didn't call me. I agree w/ the above poster, contact your local PD and file a report, hell even put in there what the grandmother said to you about why your granddaughter was hit... I'm sure the boys parents would like to see that... but if she said that, the parents prob would feel the same way

[Tadbit]

Thanks for everyone's input. I just wanted to clear something up. The special need this kid has is that he has ADD, so he is aware of his actions. He has been in trouble so many times and knows what the consequences of his actions are. He was a problem last year as well and I know this because he was in my grandson's class. I use to help in the classroom last year so I seen this kid in action. I talked to the principal about this and I felt she basically just blew me off like she did the parent that had their daughter kicked in the head by this kid. I told the principal at that time that I felt someone should be watching over him and she said well there is people monitoring the lunchroom. Ok the "people" so she says that is watching the lunchroom filled with over 100 kids at a time is the lunch lady, who is busy handing out food and taking lunch tickets, a para, who is about 65 years old, and a janitor. I don't classify this as much help. I told her there was no way just these 3 people could keep an eye on that many kids and she said yeah I agree, things can happen so quickly that it's hard for everything to be caught. DUH!!! Do you think? Personally I don't think it should even be a part of the janitor's or the lunch lady's job.
We won't be pressing charges and that really never entered my mine as this is just a 3rd grader. It was my husband who had brought that up, but I still think that just suspending this kid for 2 days isn't going to solve the problem. Shoot he's probably having the time of his life not having to go to school.

[hblueeyes]

ADD, special needs or not, he has a proven record of excessively agressive behavior and should be in a school for such kids or he should be segregated until he is placed in one. Yes file charges, it will go to juvenile, but it will definitely be a wake up call for his parents as they are accountable. Get CPS involved also about the mothers attitude. This will put the parents on notice to take corrective actions with their son.

Me

[gmyers]

If they have problems with the special needs kids being agressive or violent maybe the school could let them eat at a different time than the other kids or have their teacher take them to the lunch room and stay there with them. Thats what the teachers in our school used to do. Stay in the lunch room with their students.