It transpires ' school law ' operates, ( in our Fairy Tale script,) somewhere off shore, as it were. Like teeny, backwards sanctuary cities. You can pretty much begin in these rarified atmospheres by chewing up the Constitution, wipe your feet on a few Civil Rights, blow your nose on the sleeve of a suicidal teenager, coerce private, American citizens into parting with 50G's ( or else ), chase HIPPA around the secretarial pool, run legal cases inside Federal buildings and beat kids up. OH yea. And function as medical offices replete with legally supported diagnosticians. Who aren't.
But all of these unlikely scenarios exist inside our Fairy Tale. It would be unimaginable, an unfolding narrative inclusive of any of these shocking claims. What would be more shocking would be the deafening silence. None of this was at all out of the ordinary. Or against any law anyone seems to have heard about. The imaginary child in this made-up story nearly lost his life. Twice. That was just fine with everyone, too. No, really. Ask them.
Our much vaunted American Freedom is a good deal. We agree to be law abiding folks, pay taxes, contribute to society, don't spit on anyone, agree across the board it's a bad idea to drive on sidewalks and mostly agree it's just fine, eating food that'll kill us. Freedom. We're free to send out children to safe schools, too. Right? Right?
Not so fast.
Tragic tsunamis rolling over our children have their genesis somewhere. A lot of shrugging, for one thing. Gun laws, school law, law-law- none of it marginally associated with law and order, have collided in a stupendous, largest, bloodiest show on earth ( if the best paid ) . While wildly culpable, ' guns ' are the tool. Pretty handy, blame the problem on ' guns '. Sure, we'd lose less children without those idiotic things and they must go. Not talking about the other billion dollar, billable hour elephant in the school board room guarantees we'll still leak students. We won't talk about it, be sure. That would mean lawyers. And law, meaning something and schools being allowed to be structured around children.
Image of a student who began having headaches around 4th grade. If anyone knows what they're see- it's a brain abnormality. A good kid, one of the bright ones, a little quiet. Funny, very bright. Your proverbially ' good ' family, 3 honor roll athlete siblings, all through college. It would have been his path. No drugs, no gasp ) delinquent, a good kid. A nice kid. A lot of missed school was dealt with initially in a professional yet compassionate manner. Bright and willing, he caught up. Then Ugly happened.
By age 19 the same student had become suicidal, missed a grade, had been savagely beaten inside the school, re-diagnosed by schools whose staff does not include a single employee with those qualifications, turned in as truant, threatened with police intervention and pursued inside the psychiatric unit trying to save his life. That was the first time. He was to spend a total of two months is a psych unit, balancing the idea life was not safe with the idea adults were the reason. And wondering if it was worth it. The school stated he was faking headaches, seizures, tremors, anxiety and depression, common symptoms suffered by those with this 'issue'. He remains in cyber school, struggling through a final semester still weighed down by trauma inflicted by a school administration.
A Fairy Tale? Grimms?
No one did a thing.
The family, social services, mental and emotional health services and clergy sent up flares- to the state, to organizations pledged to uphold our schools, in increasing panic, to the governor- to the president. Anywhere. It transpired either no one cared a child nearly died and still could or- more terrifyingly, it was all perfectly legal. Schools were allowed- encouraged,to terrify a child and terrorize a family of private citizens. They sure do not fill you in, when you show up for Kindergarten orientation. None of this was against ' The Law '. Nothing, so far.
There's a hazy kind of field, ' Educator Misconduct '. But wait, we said- this is all criminal- crimes, out here in the Grimm world- Come Get ' Em! Well, no, please fill out this form. Then, they said, the criminal and yourself will sit down and we'll all talk about it. What we're telling you people is, our son nearly died. Because a school interfered. Please come do nothing.
Prehistoric, deafening crickets, if there were meat eating crickets.
Update, a few months later. No one tells parents schools come with Black Box warnings. He declined to graduate and why? With one class credit to go, once again the inevitable happened, The Ugly. Ending this jolly little tale for this post. The next introduces a cast of characters that would give Mueller more gray hairs.
