Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy DS punched at school!

Austin, I have found your post slightly controversial (in my opinion) so felt that I had to reply

Sorry, still haven't learnt how to quote so here goes...

"Has your son learned the real lesson here?
You do not get into a fight unless you are prepared to accept the consequences. Had a teacher seen him in the midst of the fight, he'd have been expelled or suspended".

Austin, my son did nothing wrong, he stood between two boys to stop a friend getting hurt - he did not "get into a fight". The only reason he tried to push the other boy away was because he was "strangling" my son. My son did not hurt the other boy even though DS is proficient at karate. If a teacher had seen him there is no way any action would have been taken against him- he was not in the "midst of a fight", he was being hurt! He would do the same again to help someone being picked on.

"While what the other boy did was wrong, your son was wrong to intervene. He should have gone to find an adult".

Austin, this I agree with (although not that he was "wrong") - in an ideal world this would work, but realistically when you are standing in a small enclosed area with no adult supervision (and teachers can't be everywhere all the time) there aren't always adults to hand and by the time he found one it would be too late. This is just my response to your thoughts, and my feelings are that they are not entirely valid to our situation, but thanks for taking the time to respond and share them because it is always good to hear other people's points of view.

Thanks everyone for all your thoughts. The school have taken it very seriously and it has all been sorted out - DH and I had a long meeting at the school today.

Kriston, thanks for the list - I found it very useful and also good suggestions for different situations.