Zero on TOLERANCE is not acceptable as a rearing effort for any growing child: No to a 0-Tolerance!

 

October 28th, 2022

Good day to all attending;

Administration Representative, 

I hope this letter finds you well, even as I am myself frustrated, disappointed and disgruntled. This is a discussion regarding our social culpability and participation and policies that we're not built with our success in mind. As a parent I find myself for the second time feeling helpless and frustrated with policies that do not work and instead hinder our progress as a culture and a community. This letter is in regards to the intolerable zero-tolerance policy. Any parent will acknowledge that there is no possibility of zero tolerance when dealing with children. Because in order to teach our children we must allow for learning curve as well as the flexibility for them to make mistakes and learn from them under proper guidance, discipline and appropriate reward and punishment, so that they may grow into healthy adults who serve their community and your families, for the benefit of our culture, greater community and country. 

Zero-tolerance policy needs to be addressed and revised, not victimize attackers or attack victims! The learning curve must be allotted for both children, new parents, new teachers, and  everyone responsible for the rearing of the children of our community.  Any real parent knows better than to assume any active child will make mistakes, whether it's hitting by mistake or intentionally slapping another, cannot be looked at with criminality or even a possibility of harsh judicial judgments that disproportionately view our children as animals or worse criminals in the making. Let us for a moment actually read the policies associated with a zero-tolerance legislation meant to Bowman public school to prison pipeline ordinances that we must examine before instituting and or allowing our children to be caught in the net of a system that is built to ensnare and enslave them from childhood.

On October 27th, 2022, during the play in a high school auditorium, my daughter, was unwittingly caught up in just this type of bureaucratic netting. She was attacked by another student and they received an equal punishment because she defended herself against, what on the footage appeared, a violent attacker. Currently the administration has suspended her five days, the same punishment as her attacker received as if she were at fault. 

It is no wonder that so many children emotionally and psychologically withdraw and turn inward as victims who don't tell anyone that they are being bullied, and allow themselves to be beaten  And abused to avoid the consequences of being involved in and altercation, which could in fact have protected them, before they become suicidal and emotionally depressed so often, I experienced this with my oldest daughter in this same situation, and later when she was attacked again she didn’t tell anyone, but became sullen, withdrawn and depressed, which later led to Feelings of worthlessness and thoughts of suicide.  Bullying, physical assault, and social media attacks are the leading causes of social withdrawal, mental health issues that could last well into adulthood, and thoughts or at self harm, and ultimately lead to suicides.

With better leadership training and more applicable policies that are purposeful, effective and   implemented using both discernment and character references, and can change these poor choices allowed in a prison pipeline disciplinary effort to discipline children. In real world experiences, [which is what we should be training our children for,] the attacker would be restrained, and the victims would be protected. Yet instead of playing some proper responsibility on the adults in the room, instead both assailant and victim are equally punished arbitrarily and without explanation, representation, purpose, meaning or any lesson or moral coding, being learned at all. It is not the purpose of higher education…to learn how to operate in the real world experiences; We should be training our scholars with every experience how to operate in their best character and representation of our families, our culture and the community politically, legally and socially!

Apparently if our student scholars shared that they have been abused, (under the Ineffective  although often implemented, and under-considered zero-power policy, they are subject to the same penalties as their abusers, assailants or attackers. Once again leading to children turning in on them selves, becoming depressed and violent, if not suicidal and/or attacking others. This issue must be addressed: The intolerance of the zero tolerance policy which does not allow for students to defend themselves from an oncoming attack or respond as if in a self-defense matter! 

Furthermore, I don’t believe it should matter whether an administrator or teacher is available to stop the attack, to help the victim, if they can help themselves, the should be allowed self defense in a fight or flight human natured oriented situation. Without penalty or prejudice, the victim should be allowed to protect himself as an any real world situation. In an effort to adjudicate and justifiably I defend against the attacker, this should be considered especially when there's video footage and other students give affidavits in defense of the victim’s self defense responding to the attacker’s offense. 

Physically aggressive attacks should always be met with purposeful disciplinary factors.  Also, both the attacker and the person being attacked should get mentally and physically assessed with immediate attention in those moments following any physical altercations.

1. Particularly the attackers should also receive mental attention to help evaluate their stability and ability to deal in social settings with others for the long term safety of all students.
2. This is both for the safety of the student who would unreasonably attack others,  who themselves may be experiencing  other issues in their home life or with their external environment or even with their parent(s). 
3. The attacker should also be punished with a mental evaluation, remote learning instead of returning to the general population of the school. 

This is how bullying begins, it is further fomented by the suspension time breeding contempt and rallying lother friends to bully online as well as being reinvigorated when the student returns to the brick and mortar institution. I believe that the zero-tolerance policy is an eight political effort to direct more black bodies into the public school to prison pipeline. However, my daughter is a straight A student, an athlete scholar and offers opportunities to some of the top schools in the world. In her senior year and she was attacked by a freshman, Record is now presenting as if she is also a violent criminal because she defended herself against attack.Regarding these circumstance that has negatively impacted my family, I would prefer this case be taken by Officer X to be removed from the victim's permanent record immediately. Not only does this jeopardize her opportunities for acceptance to quality higher education institutes, it also impedes scholastic pursuits, besmirches her academic and permanent record as if she were problematic in a behavioral disciplinary matter and that should never stand being a matter of self defense and a lack of protection by the adults in that area and at that time!

Moreover, in rearing my daughters to speak up to injustice and bullies through nonviolence, conflict resolution and de-escalation of any confrontation with words if possible. At the same time, I've also taught them how to operate in self-defense for their own personal safety. In this case the attacker got out of her seat with an intent to harm through an act of obvious aggression and entered into the un personal space after unacceptable allowance of her unattended maneuvering, (which should have been addressed by the acting staff before it escalated any further), at which point, were she being monitored, and should have been redirected to her seat.  It seemed that the students who would later become the attackers, initiated every instigation by flashing their cell phone lights in the dark during the play, disrupting the students' sitting in the foreground.

Clearly this initial issue should have demanded the attention of the administrative staff attending the play, "assuming" they were monitoring the auditorium or were in placement to secure the situation.  This attacker was allowed to walk down steps, two rows down, into my daughter’s row of seating, crossing over several students in order to attack my daughter, who stood up to this little bully as she was instructed. There's nowhere for her to escape two, and when being attacked by or flight response is engaged, she defends herself as she was taught. Apparently there is no space in the (zero-power)=Zer0-tolerance policy for students to defend themselves against an oncoming attack. I've spoken to six administrators, attempted to contact the principal, spoke with the school superintendent's office representative and contacted the school police regarding getting records of the video that indicate her exoneration from this matter.  

I am adamant as an advocate for a well managed student who has never instigated any violence in her life,  that this be removed from a permanent record, and she be again admitted into school on Monday, since she is in no way a threat to anyone, unless provoked by an attacker.  All rules and policies should have applicable and reasonable purposes, application in fairness with moral codex  and intentionally formulated outcomes. However, the policy used in this determined outcome, where all students are equally punished, seems to be very one-sided in an effort to deter students from violent behavior. Since in this case it was not effective for the attacking student, nor in particular cases where students are bringing guns to school.  Likewise, this situation is using extreme force against students who are responsive in defense of their-physical safety while on campus, and that is being discouraged, although in the real world or a right-to carry state we are conversely encouraged to defend our person and family by any means necessary. 

Finally, the spirit of the law should be applicable, as if the attacker began the original offense of disturbing the peace, verbally attacked (bullying) the victim, and actively came into the victims space with the intent to harm and later fomented a cohesive response to the victims request for her purpose of physical aggression,  premeditating an attack as a statement of intent to harm as an actively violent threat and encouraged  her sister and friend to join in this attack, which is being mislabeled as a fight as if all parties were deliberate in creating discord.  This is mis-managed and the various eagles of footage taken by both the school security cameras and the audience members who were also recording from various angles, proves this point.   

Rules and policies are made to maintain order, however when they are arbitrarily enacted without the spirit of the law being purposeful, the letter of law becomes oppressive, (today's generations of the descendants of freedmen have been witness to for over a century).  Let us make the policy value-added and not allow our children to be funneled into a system in which the letter of the law is not meeting the purpose and spirit of the purposes we have upheld them with, or those we institute for them to be best served under the system we are attempting to protect. Most importantly, we cannot silence the victims of violence by making them equally culpable in their attackers' violence and/or the offenders’ punishment.

We must implement and uphold the rules that make sense, in order to be able to train our children. Our scholars should be able to apply these lessons to real world experiences, otherwise we are teaching young women to be victims, -remain victims, and be silent about their attacks less they, too, be punished for being involved in an attack at all. We are saying, with these edicts, that punishing both assailants and victims gets equal treatment in the eyes of the authority figures, because you were present. More precisely, it appears we encourage them- “just let the attacker violate you until help comes,” making for a mentality of a cowed victimization! This only breeds more kowtowing to violence and apathy to seek justice for victims who do not have personal autonomy or the security of authority figures, (who should be in support of their efforts to protect and defend themselves,) when under attack.  

Character building requires tolerance, patience and standards of implementation of rules that are individuated enough to be useful and effective in their nurturing of the nature of the future leaders from our communities.  So, if we teach our children to cower or run away when they're being attacked, how does that speak to our greater effort in raising adults who know to respond within their “CIVIL” Rights- in self-defense, when de-escalation and nonviolence fails them, in real world experiences. Needless to say in fact, in a real world experience her attacker would be in jail, and she would be exonerated under ones’ civil right to self-defense, further supported and presented in the video indicating that the attacker taunted, instigated verbal bullying, physically aggressed with intent to harm and finalized her intention of a full on violent attack against a student scholar upon entering her personal space, premeditating verbal threats and then violently assaulting her. The administrator suggested, while she was locked in theater-style seating and would have most likely harmed other students if she would have considered their suggestion, by running from this little emotionally unstable bully. 

Human nature has a built in safety response mechanism; The fight or flight automatic response must be acknowledged, this is instinctual and emergent when the body is being threatened with violence. Thus, I do not agree with, nor believe in the administers, who-collectively, erroneously came to the conclusion that, “the victimized” should suffer a punishment equal to that of her attacker. Nor does it appear that they have put themselves in this fight or flight response momentum when considering her position.  Nor do I see any fairness, moral codification of intentional outcomes or even behavioral correction being gleaned from this attack; “investigation” or punishment experience moving forward. 

Additionally, in the video the teachers that came to break up the fight seem to bypass the attacker and jump directly to the person defending themselves from the attack. I take great issue with this offensive response in an effort at a defensive response, which resulted in four adults holding on to my daughter, and as she was being manhandled by multiple adults/staff/teachers, additional attackers were allowed to join in the violently attacking her, even as the attacker was allowed pull her in an opposing direction and then after one person disengaged her was then allowed to go free once he was extricated from the malai, even if she was later apprehended by security officers. 

I am willing to concede that there may be another methodology that could be implemented in these types of occurrences: Clarify said methods to all and it should teach everyone what to do if you are being attacked and how to break up a physical attack without hurting those being attacked further victimizing and traumatizing our student scholars. Surely, there is a remedy if we expect them first to be considered in the future. The actions undertaken by the senior who has everything to lose in this matter of her permanent record, besmirching her character, potentially losing hard won college acceptances, scholarship and internship opportunities being scuttled and the social capital built over these four years of student activism, participation and representation-and most insidious of all, her reputation being destroyed! This cannot and should not be allowed in our community.  Please reconsider the judgment with new eyes, empathy, character and reputation, record of nonviolent and repute. No, conversely this student has had an impressive excellent academic tenure, has represented this school as an ambassador, scholar, an athlete and student leader!  

Ultimately, this scholar's record will boost the values and percentages that make LHHS appear to be an institution built for quality secondary education, training for higher learning and offers opportunities for academic excellence! The future leaders and athletic scholars who build our future with scholarships, that potentially could equal millions, which means she is considered an assent to this institution, not ostracized like a violent criminal and not allowed on campus at all.

In closing, I am an offended as a parent of a student who was attacked on school grounds; LHHS staff and administrators were there and yet, still she was harmed on their watch.  Even now, I am still being encouraged and assured that her safety is a priority, although it was not successfully executed in this instance, as this was my second child who was attacked and harmed physically on the same campus. 

Likewise, in similar fashion my oldest daughter was also punished for someone else attacking her. Yet, I still suggest considering leniency for this young lady, even as I was originally intent I'm pressing charges for assault and battery, bullying, physical harm that resulted in bodily damage and I was willing to also bring her mother up on charges for threats made in front of a number of staff and students, after school on the day of this occurred. I have softened in my approach, particularly considering my argument here. I'm tolerable when it comes to equitable exchanges, purposeful rewards and punishments and amaro fortitude that must be built into every decision we make as parents, community members. 

Thank you for your time, attention and allowance for betterment in our scholars' social and academic endeavors of success and positive growth. If we want to be forward move in, forward thinking and progressive, we must remember that our children in need of the flexibility guidance, patient parenting and a community that wraps around them in safe security and protection, sometimes, even from themselves! Their need for controlled learning environments, an ability to grow and a learning curve must be tolerable. We cannot have an intolerable approach to rearing people who are still learning. I am entreating you to examine more closely this Zero tolerance policy and its effects on our community at large, particularly the [Public school – to prison] – Pipeline.

Again, Thank you for your time. Let us all be safe, be blessed, and be better!

Best regards,

Parent, Community Member