Frayed ends of Sanity

Welcome to the United States of America
Welcome to the United States of America.

Today we bring you the story of Alexander, a seven-year-old second-grader. He stands before the people accused of terrorist activities.

On Wednesday, September 14th, 2005, Alexander was in school. As class was dismissed, he and another child were associating with one another after Alexander expressed dismay over his pencil point breaking several times over the course of the day. The conversation as I am told it went something like this.

Little girl -> I can turn your pencil into a pen if I run it under water.
Alexander -> [holds out the tiny, broken-off pencil point] Well, I can turn this into a sword and stab you! [touches the little girl's arm with the pencil point]
Observing Teacher -> That's it! You're going to go see the principal.

At this point, the teacher resumed preparing all of the children for their impending departure, and shuttled them on to their respective buses.

Sometime afterward, between when the children left, and school started the next morning, the school's acting principal was indeed alerted to the heinous threatening act, and sometime in the beginning of the day, Alexander was brought before the woman to stand accountable for his crimes.

Alexander then honestly explained his part in the wrongdoing in full just as I have described to you here, and the acting principal (the normal principal is away on an education sabbatical) told him that this was wrong of him, against the law, and that they were going to call his parents and the police.

The local police were indeed called at this point, and a police report was filed. Evidently the principal explained that Alexander "stabbed another child with a pencil." (I am waiting to verify that this is actually what was printed on the police report.)

Finally, his parents were called to the scene. They work commute a rather long distance from the school, and it took them some time to arrive. During this time, Alexander was held in the principal's office, left to entertain himself as the principal went about her daily business. He read a few books, ate part of his lunch, and had several conversations with the acting principal, an elderly woman.

When his parents arrived, the principal was summoned to the front reception area of the school's office, and she greeted them before gesturing for them to step into an adjourning conference room. Alexander was nowhere to be seen, and before entering, his father expressed some concern.

"Where is my son?" he asked.

"He is waiting in my office," explained the acting principal, "but I wanted to talk with the two of you before we brought him in."

"Is he supervised?" asked the father, already knowing the answer to his question, "If my son has become this menace you're about to accuse me of, do you think it's wise to leave him unsupervised where he might commit further wrongdoing?"

The acting principal appeared much like a deer caught in the headlights of an approaching car, and immediately scurried to find someone to monitor the little terrorist while she talked to his parents. I am not positive that this was accomplished, but we will assume for the time being that it was for lack of evidence to the contrary.

Once the acting principal entered the meeting room and closed the door, she prefaced everything by saying that Alexander was a wonderful, intelligent boy who is very creative, nice, and has a promising future ahead of him, and she explained that she had spend most of the morning with him in her office, finding him very helpful, polite, and honest.

The father and mother offered faint smiles before the father finally had to stop the acting principal in her gushing appraisal of their wonderful son by asking, "We know Alexander is a wonderful boy, so let's just get down to the 'but'.

The acting principal smiled nervously at his prediction, and nodded, explaining the situation, shortening "pencilpoint" to pencil, one can only assume for convenience' sake, and perhaps embellishing slightly by noting "he made as if to stab her with it." She then noted that it was against school policy for one child to threaten another, and that the school district had a zero-tolerance policy for violence.

I think we can all appreciate such a measure, since schools, especially elementary schools, deal primarily with small children, and no one in their right mind would want to see innocent youth harmed or even put in harm's way.

The father expressed his approval and agreement with such policies, but he found it a bit disturbing that either of these acts would constitute a threat.

The acting principal smiled apologetically before revealing a sealed envelope and laid it on the table before her explaining, "Well, I'm sorry, but it is. Effective today, Alexander is being suspended from school for a period of five days, and will be readmitted thereafter. We will then arrange for counseling for Alexander with our Guidance Counselor so that Alexander can work with us to prevent any further occurences--"

She clearly wanted to go on, but the father and mother would weren't quite ready to simply accept the matters as she had laid them out. "I think it's time we brought in Alexander," said his mother.

"I would also like a copy of this handbook that you say outlines what he did as wrong," requested the mother

"Why don't you go ahead and call the district superintendent, as well," his father requested, "because I don't think this is very logical."

The acting principal agreed to do both, and scurried off out of sight to find Alexander. This evidently took some time, and his parents waited patiently, talking to themselves, before it dawned on his father that perhaps they were trying to coach his son, but it became clear as to why when she returned with the school's guidance counselor.

Alexander looked frightened and alone as the two women escorted him towards the room, so his father greeted him warmly in a hug, and told him not to be afraid, that everything was okay. Then all of them returned to the meeting room.

Introductions were made, then the school guidance counselor sought to explain things, but the father cut to the chase and asked for his son to explain his version of the events, again telling him there was nothing to worry about, and to just tell the truth.

Alexander then hesitantly revealed the circumstances as they played out, this time noting the pencil *point* was used, not the pencil itself. The father glanced to both of the school officials present, who nodded in unison, and the principal added, "This is exactly the same description he gave me earlier. Alexander has been very honest and helpful."

"But you said he made to stab her with a pencil, and that is clearly not the case here. He said the word stab, but he only touched her with a broken-off pencil POINT," contradicted the father.

Both of the school officials smiled in a condescending manner and shook their heads. The guidance counselor explained apologetically "It doesn't matter. It was the intent to threaten harm."

The father looked at the woman incredulously. "There was no intent to harm her at all here!"

The mother was equally baffled and noted that it appeared the children were playing as they were preparing for dismissal, but it was clear immediately that the school officials were not going to change their course on this.

Forcing back an obvious outburst, the father turned to the acting principal and asked what the status of the superintendent was. She stepped out to check with the receptionist, and closed the door behind her.

It was at this juncture that the guidance counselor began to explain that the school had to take all threats of this nature seriously, and that the punishments were of a mandatory nature.

The father disagreed again that there was any threat, and then noted that they hadn't even treated it as a threat when the event occurred. She disagreed, and offer another condescending smile before telling him he was simply wrong.

The father is normally a composed man capable of keeping his temper, but the combination of the condescending attitude and know-it-all attitude was a bit much for him to swallow repeatedly.

"Let me explain something to you," he said to the guidance counselor, "your teacher WAS negligent here. If she saw a genuine threat made between two children with a weapon involved, she should have immediately taken action - not put them on their buses and sent them home." His voice was tense, his body was tensed, he was very clearly emotional about this.

The guidance counselor shook her head, and began to interrupt, but he wasn't finished, and raised his voice to continue. "If your teacher had seen MY son threatened with a weapon, and didn't bother to do anything about it until the following day, I ASSURE YOU, THERE WOULD BE HELL TO PAY FOR IT." His voice raised significantly at the end of this, and he banged the side of his fist on the table for effect at the very end as the woman continued to take control of the conversation, and he could see both the principal and the receptionist outside looking. The acting principal made to return, and the reception went for the phone - probably the elder official instructed her to call the police.

"You have no right to yell at me," said the offended guidance counselor, and the father disagreed, "evidently it's the only way to make you listen, because you kept interrupting." He was still speaking loudly, argumentatively, and the acting principal asked him to call down and not yell. He was red in the face, and quite angry, but finally sat back after speaking his mind. "Where is the superintendent?"

"He is on his way, it will take him twenty minutes to get here," explained the acting principal.

"I called his office before I came, and they told me that the superitendent was actually here visiting the school," explained the mother.

The acting principal expressed a look of shock, much like earlier, that look of a deer trapped in the headlights, and shook her head, "Well, no, he's supposed to be visit us sometime today, but he's not here."

The mother pressed the issue, "When I spoke with his office they said he was HERE."

The two officials both denied the presence of the superintendent, and the father forced a smile while folding his hands on the table. "We'll just have to wait." An uneasy silence fell on the room. Alexander, who had been sitting beside his father the entire time, hugged up against him, and his father reciprocated before deciding that they could wait outside until the superintendent arrived. A look of relief washed over the officials' faces as they agreed, and the family took their son out front of the school to wait.

Outside in the reception area, a rotund old gentleman in a police uniform waited, reading a magazine. He watched the little terrorist and his evil father with hawklike eyes over the top edge of it.

The father took a short stroll down the sidewalk with his son to go over the events once more, while the mother began making calls to confirm the whereabouts of the superintendent and such.

I'll note now that this is a small school in rural southeast Pennsylvania. The school follows a strict policy that once school hours begin, and the children are brought in, the doors are closed, and the only way to enter is to be buzzed in by the receptionist, who can see the entry door by means of a closed-cirtcuit camera and intercom system for communication.

They were finished after about ten minutes, and the mother needed to heed the call of nature, so they requested to come back inside, which was amazingly granted. Alexander showed his mother to the lavatory while the father waited in the hallway just outside the office. The glassed-in reception area of the office was devoid of life except for the receptionist herself who was working the phones.

The father strolled about, reading schools signs and placards on the walls, and noted that a new lady was meeting with the acting principal and the police officer. Finally, his wife and son returned, and as they did, the acting principal came out and informed them that the assistant superintendent had arrived, and was ready to sit down with them. This struck them by surprise, as no one had actually entered the school.

Obviously, they had been lied to. There was no other way the woman could have snuck in without them seeing her. Not the superintendent, but the assistant superintendent had been there THE WHOLE TIME, and the superintendent was never on his way.

Introductions were made. The assistant superintendent had a doctorate, and introduced her as Dr. ____, who I shall keep nameless just as I have almost everyone except Alexander himself. There's no need for name pointing yet.

The Doctor listened to the parents patiently, and explained that there was no other recourse in the matter, that the school policies were there in response to prior problems and federal law - in fact, this precise event was covered by federal anti-terrorism laws: threats of any nature are simply not tolerated, and there was very little recourse.

She offered one thing to the disgruntled parents: if they were willing to allow the school's guidance counselor to counsel Alexander once a week for six weeks, they would lower the suspension to the "bare minimum" of three days, instead of five.

Some lenience! What more devastating evidence of terroristic acts could the counselor dredge up over the course of SIX WEEKS?

The parents, while declining, quite politely requested a copy of the guidelines, and asked if his schoolwork could be given to him before or during his suspension so he could at least keep up with his schoolwork. The acting principal balked at this, but The Doctor promised it could be made so.

Alexander's father promised to call the next day to give them their decision on which suspension they would accept, and then arrange to pick up whatever schoolwork was available.

This story is not over. Alexander's father has spent the day afterward trying to talk to everyone who will listen: the real superintendent, the school board, the local newspapers, the Department of Education, even his state legislators and his congressmen.

I'll be busy with all of this for a little while, I suppose, because I am not willing to lie down and let these pompous school officials dictate my son's future, but I promise I will share with all of you the end result...

...I *am* Alexander's father. He has done nothing heinous, and does not deserve this treatment. I would be doing him an injustice to just let this lie as it is, and I like to think of myself as a good father.