re: 10-year-old boy charged with assault following dodgeball game at school

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Now, because the boy being punished is black and the boy who was injured is white, some critics are calling the incident racist

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the Principal disclosed that the injured student has a pre-existing condition

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It really is. What ever happened to common sense?

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Let me tell you the story that I would like to call: The Straw That Broke the Camel's Back.

Once upon a time, there was a ten-year-old boy. For the sake of privacy, we’ll just call him “Boy #1”. Boy #1 attends an elementary school, as ten-year-olds do. At said elementary school, Boy #1 has many friends. However, Boy #1 also has a bully at his elementary school. We’ll just call this bully “Boy #2”.

Both Boy #1 and Boy #2 typically engage in today's normal “boys-will-be-boys” behavior: Playing on the Xbox together, playing games together on the playground, you know, ten-year-old Boy-stuff. Boy #2 starts calling Boy #1 rude names over the Xbox. Boy #1 tells him, flat out, that it is rude to talk to other people like that. Boy #2 persists, more-so now that he thinks that Boy #1 is a goody-two-shoes. Boy #1 tells his mother (we’ll call her “Mom #1” for the sake of simplicity) about his then friend, Boy #2's, behavior. Now, this is not the first time that Boy #1 has been bullied over the Xbox. In the past, when Boy #1 told his mother that he was being bullied by another child, she communicated with the other child’s parent(s) and resolved the issue with no problem. Mom #1’s philosophy: If they don’t learn that treating other people that way is not appropriate now, they’re going to grow up thinking that’s how they can treat other people for the rest of their lives.

This philosophy has served well in the past, as previously stated. When this happened before, the parent of the child thanked Mom #1 for letting them know that their child was bullying her son. The parent then grounded their child from their Xbox for three days, in order to teach them that crazy “actions have consequences” thing that we try to get across to children on the regular. No harm done, the lesson was learned, and those two boys are still friends and play together on the Xbox (appropriately, I might add) and on the playground at school as if nothing happened.

Because they’re kids. They forgive— that’s what kids naturally do. Most of the time, kids don’t want conflict or trouble. Kids want to have fun playing with their friends and learning new things about how to handle the whole life they have ahead of them.

Following what has worked in the past, Mom #1 talks to the school to get into contact with Boy #2’s mother (you guessed it, we get to call her: “Mom #2”). There isn’t anything that the school can immediately do about cyber-bulling because it happened off of the school’s premises. Because of this, Boy #2 escalates his poor behavior. At school, physical threats and attacks are directed at Boy #1.

Now that the bullying actually is taking place on school property, the school can do something about it. The school holds a meeting with both Boy #1 and Boy #2 to discuss appropriate play and behavior. A safety plan was put into place. After this meeting, the friends of Boy #2 joined in on verbally attacking Boy #1. Boy #1 is hit in the head with a ball on the playground, twice, in the matter of a few days. Boy #1 tells his mom that “[Boy #2] apologized after the ball hit [him].” And that “it’s okay because [they] are still going to be friends”. (Remember that "Kids forgive" thing I said earlier? Yeah, this is it.)

Now, you see, Boy #1 has a medical condition. This specific medical condition isn't any of the public's business, so please respect the privacy here. However, this condition is important to this story because it makes any head injury dangerous for Boy #1. There is a medical file in the office of the elementary school that has a procedure set in place if Boy #1 sustains any head injury in the slightest. One of these steps, obviously, is to notify Mom #1 of the injury. The school has a plan and the plan was followed correctly.

So, Mom #1 tries to contact Mom #2 on multiple occasions because “if [her] kid was bullying someone, [she] would want someone to tell [her] about it”. Mom #2 refuses any sort of communication with Mom #1, as she did not think any of it was necessary. In a final attempt, Mom #1 agrees to let the Principal disclose her son’s rare medical condition to Mom #2 to try to explain the severity of Boy #2’s actions. Mom #2 does nothing.

(And let me stop your “if it’s dangerous for him to be hit in the head, then he shouldn’t be on the playground!” cries right here. That’s a really, really stupid thing to say, or even think, about a ten-year-old boy. He is going to play on the playground. He is intelligent and completely aware of his condition. He knows not to hecking hang upside down from his toes on the monkey bars, and not to do anything else equally as stupid either. It’s not like he was expecting his friend to throw things at his head.)

The boys were all outside playing a game at recess. This game is a game that the boys call "Tips" (how do they come up with these names? I swear...). In this game, the group of players stands in a circle and throws a ball up in the air to each other while they jump in the air. A couple of rules-- In order to catch the ball you have to be jumping, and if the players break the circle, the game is over. This game, if you ask me, sounds very exhausting. No thanks.

When the circle was broken (for those of you keeping score at home, that means the game was over) and everyone was chasing the rogue ball, Boy #2, I guess, did not cope with the loss (?) well. Boy #2 proceeded to stand less than a couple feet from Boy #1 and throw the ball they were all playing with directly at Boy #1’s face so hard that it made the recess attendants cringe. After the incident, Boy #2 said, “That’s what you get!” and walked away from Boy #1, leaving him in tears.

See, no, what Boy #1 did actually get was a Grade 2 concussion, a bruised nose, and a black eye. After missing work to go to that rushed Doctors appointment with her son, Mom #1 reached out to Mom #2 and received no cooperation once again. sigh

The school issued a one-day suspension to Boy #2, and that same night, Boy #2 engaged in even more cyber bullying behaviors directed at Boy #1. Mom #1, with no cooperation from Mom #2 and nothing else left to do, called the police to file a report.

Mom #2 still did not want to talk, even with police mediation. So, when the box came along on the paperwork that asked if Mom #1 wanted to press any charges, she checked “Yes”.

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Now, because the boy being punished is black and the boy who was injured is white, some critics are calling the incident racist

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This country is fricked.

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