**Life Lessons**

As I have said I am a single mom with 4 sons and over the last couple weeks I have had it pretty rough and so has my one son. On September 2 he was attacked at school by another student who tried to stab him. Now my 13 year old has a propensity to tell lies so when he came home that night telling me this I didnt believe him, why because if this had happened the school would call and tell me my childs life had been put in danger right? Well that never happened.

Two days later he woke up and had 3 bloody noses before school so I called his teachers aide to let her know. She then says BTW I did tell the principal Tuesday after that incident and he found the knife on the other student. I immediately saw red. I thanked her and made a call to the principal who just happened to not be there so I left a message to call me the next day to discuss why I was not informed about any of this. Needless to say he didnt, I had to call him.

He tries to first off tell me that my son didnt tell anyone until the next day ( hmmm teachers aide said she told him right after it happened ), then he says it wasnt 1 knife but 2 ( so now its 3 knives total ). I find all this out at about 2:45 PM and cant really talk when the kids are home so I need to wait all weekend.

As I said I am an RPR, so I have a great training on how to approach this. On Monday I called my RPS ( supervisor ) and she said to take the steps I already knew to take but her confirming it made me feel better.

My first call after her was to the Division of Exceptional Learners where I spoke to a wonderful lady named Kylie. She said as far as she could tell none of IDEA or article 7 had been violated but that my parent rights had. I thanked her for her time and decided to make my next call.

I then called the superintendant to MSD of Steuben County, of course he wasnt in so I left a message but decided that wasnt good enough. I called back explained briefly to the person on the line why I wanted so desperatly to talk to him and she put me through to his secretary. I then briefly explained to her why I wanted to speak to him. She took my name and number and said when he came in from lunch he would call back. Not 5 minutes later the assistant superintendant called me and asked how he could help, after a lengthy explanation he said I needed to have a new case conference and I said I definately agreed and was working on that.

The next day, as it was too late to make any more calls that day I called Mary Custer who works at Northeast Indiana Special Education. More left brief messages but it took Mary about 10 minutes to call me back. I gave her a complete run daown of everything that had happened up to that day and time and she said so far I was doing all the right things. She said she would ( if she could ) attend Travis' case conference, if not one of her very qualified staff would be there for me. She also said I need to talk to the police as I had the right to file my own police report against the child. I thanked her for her time and called Angola City Police.

Officer Hamblin was not in but I left a message to please call me back and why. He did call but at a time I specified I would not be home and not able to talk. So I called him back today. Left another message and waited for hours for him to call, he did. I explained why I was to be blunt angry. I asked why I wasnt allowed to file a police report and to be honest I still dont know why. He even told me that the student ( Andrew ) is still in school. Let me tell you what this really got my buttons hot but I didnt lose my temper.I got off the phone with him and took a minute to relax and collect myself.

This was now the time to call the school, it was 2:55 and soon the boys would be home. I asked to speak to Mr. Stayback Travis' teacher. I finally got him and asked him if Andrew was indeed still in school, he said yes, but he is in the basement, ok like this is going to ease my mind. I asked him why he was still in school when his offense demands he be in OSS for no less than 10 days or expelled. No answer other than I dont know he is in the basement.

Well who should call me tonight but Sundaye. Gosh I do love Sundaye. I told her all the new info I have found out, plus the extra counceling I am taking Travis to. Oh and I forgot to mention that officer Hamblin stated that more than likely the prosecutor will do nothing to this child. I have decided I am writing him myself and told Sundaye that and she says its a great idea. Tomorrow morning I am calling Mary Custer to let her know that Travis' rights are being violated in more ways than one.

The saga will continue and more will come I am sure.