Yesterday there was an incident. It was in a way all my fault. i had an out of control child. i followed my usual procedure ... i had the child wait with me for the parent to arrive. i had a quiet chat with parent and child and asked for the parent's help. When the parent left - he was witnessed kicking and throwing the child (10 years old) into the car. He was witnessed leaning over the front seat to punch this child. When another parent shouted out to him and tried to stop him, he peeled rubber (i think the expression is) out of the driveway and away from school.
i was stunned. i was sick to my stomach.
i called the principal - because i wanted to call the police.
i was told to wait till this morning and we would call DYP (department of youth protection) and speak to the child's worker.
As i lay in bed last night i could see all the children in my care this year. What i saw made me realize there are more children than i can count who are coming to school scared, beaten down, and beaten up, and abused. i mean .. my god !!! .. if i know of all these children....... what about the ones i don't know about like the lil guy last night???
It makes me sick to my stomach.
This will be my 3rd DYP case in less than a month..........
This is definitely more hurt than i can heal.
So sad to see children being treated like this and at least you're doing what you can.
ReplyDeleteRememeer the old saying it's better to light a candle than curse the darkness. You're lighting the candle for the kids you can help.
FD
I was very lucky with the parents that I got but I grew up on a very rough council estate and there were plenty of kids that I knew that got treated like this one and even worse, the kids that got neglected (these were the ones that grew up to be the habitual criminals and drug users). The worse thing about it was that people seemed to go out of their way not to notice, in those days. This meant that myself and other kids grew up thinking that there was nothing wrong with a parent punching a friend in the face, it was an attitude that we adopted that some moms and dads were just like that and no one seemed to think that it was wrong. I was well into my late 20's when I could have read a post like that and still have thought "Why is she making such a big deal about this?".
ReplyDeleteI hope that you can help this child but even if you can't, just being seen to be taking notice and trying to help a child will be noticed by other children and will send a message that this is not right and not how parents should act. Kids do see the actions of adults and will pay attention to them more than they will the words of adults.
By even being seen to try to help this child and others like him, you are helping all the children. A lot of these kids will be parents themselves one day and many before they reach their late 20's. It is good that they have practical examples of the right ways to treat children and that mistreating children is wrong and will be acted on.
Prefectdt
I just want to say that what happened is *not* your fault. You are not the one who punched a kid. You followed what sounds to me to be like a very sensible procedure. Don't blame yourself for not predicting someone else's behaviour.
ReplyDeleteI hope that things end up best for the kids.