School harrassment

[sdevo]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? South Carolina

My daughter is in 7th grade at our local middle school. Since the school year began, she has been teased, taunted, made fun of, tripped, etc. I have been calling and emailing the principal, administrators, and the district to get resolution. To date, nothing has been done. I was told they will "monitor" the situation to see if there are any repeat offenders....I told them this was completely unacceptable, because they are "Monitoring" this at my daughter's expense....still, nothing was done. She doesn't want to go to school, her grades are falling, she's totally stressed out. Additionally, my daughter has an IEP (individual education plan) and when stressful things happen, it affects her concentration, grades, confidence, etc. Yesterday, I received a call from my daughter, who was very upset about an incident that occured yesterday in class. A boy was messing with her purse and lunchbox, past experiences with this child has made my daughter very uncomfortable and she asked to be moved. Later in the class, this boy started asking my daughter if she was racist...she ignored him.....he then took a comb, put it down the front of his pants, kept it there for a second, then removed the comb and put it in my daughter's hair. Needless to say, after this digusting event, she was crying her eyes out, talked to the teacher and had to remain in school feeling totally disgusting and violated. Imagine hearing your 12 year old daughter explaining this course of events. I immedately called the principal (who knew nothing of this) and the district (who has yet to return my call) and sent emails to both, as well as spoke to the math teacher, who's class this happened in. She told me she was walking a referral down to the administrator in the morning. I informed the school that I want this student out of my daughters classes and nowhere near her during the school day.

I need to know if I have enough resources to file a formal legal complaint against the school - if I could press charges against this child (and family if need be) and what I have in my favor.

Thanks

 

[Antigone*]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? South Carolina

My daughter is in 7th grade at our local middle school. Since the school year began, she has been teased, taunted, made fun of, tripped, etc. I have been calling and emailing the principal, administrators, and the district to get resolution. To date, nothing has been done. I was told they will "monitor" the situation to see if there are any repeat offenders....I told them this was completely unacceptable, because they are "Monitoring" this at my daughter's expense....still, nothing was done. She doesn't want to go to school, her grades are falling, she's totally stressed out. Additionally, my daughter has an IEP (individual education plan) and when stressful things happen, it affects her concentration, grades, confidence, etc. Yesterday, I received a call from my daughter, who was very upset about an incident that occured yesterday in class. A boy was messing with her purse and lunchbox, past experiences with this child has made my daughter very uncomfortable and she asked to be moved. Later in the class, this boy started asking my daughter if she was racist...she ignored him.....he then took a comb, put it down the front of his pants, kept it there for a second, then removed the comb and put it in my daughter's hair. Needless to say, after this digusting event, she was crying her eyes out, talked to the teacher and had to remain in school feeling totally disgusting and violated. Imagine hearing your 12 year old daughter explaining this course of events. I immedately called the principal (who knew nothing of this) and the district (who has yet to return my call) and sent emails to both, as well as spoke to the math teacher, who's class this happened in. She told me she was walking a referral down to the administrator in the morning. I informed the school that I want this student out of my daughters classes and nowhere near her during the school day.

I need to know if I have enough resources to file a formal legal complaint against the school - if I could press charges against this child (and family if need be) and what I have in my favor.

Thanks

You should have called the police to the school the moment you hung up with your daughter.

 

[sdevo]

I spoke with the school resource officer who was extremely rude and said he wasn't made aware of the situation...I told him I'm now making him aware. He said he would look into it and call me back...so far I haven't received a response from him. I called our Sheriff's office today and they told me I have to go through the Resource Officer at school first...my next step is to call the Sheriff's office back today and make them aware of how rude and unwilling their Resource Office was to help and to file a report.

 

[GaAtty]

GaAtty

Yes you can press charges against the young man for simple battery. In some states you can go directly to the juvenile court, in others you have to go through the school resource officer. As for your child, 59-63-140 of the South Carolina code establishes anti-bullying policies for the schools. Most states have this. Call the school district office or the state board of education and ask who is the proper person in each school to whom the bullying must be reported. Usually it is the principal, and usually you must report this in writing and you must state the name of the student who did this. Just a phone call will not be sufficient. If it continues, call an IEP meeting to address how the teachers will stop it.