YOU OWE ME A CAKE

‘Oh ya, he was right infront of my class that was crazy, someone turned around to me and said “omg I thought that was the end of my life” and I asked what it was and she said a guy was holding a gun…like who would take a real gun to school and take it out’, came the long and unexpected explanation from my older daughter this morning. Another incident at her high school, not even a month after the bomb threat.

Her response was to my having texted her letting her know of an email I had received from the principal at her school and the one at the middle school next door. It was one of several issues I was dealing with today as I decided to stay home to try to rest. Rest was the last thing I got today.

Shortly after my son arrived at school, he texted me that someone stole his food. Again. Within five minutes of having walked through the doorways of the school, a girl grabbed the bag my son was holding as he gave another bag of food to his other sister who was at the middle school. They both had STAAR tests today and looked forward to eating sandwiches and snacks after their 4-hour long tests.

Initially, I understood that someone had taken the food from his backpack. However, when my son came home, he explained that his former friend – a girl he used to hang out with – grabbed my son’s bag of food and ran away with it. My son then found the room where the girl was assigned to take the STAAR test and demanded that she return it. He recovered all but the pretzel crisps and Z-bar that he really wanted and had made a special trip to the store to get it last night.

Whilst waiting for a call from the high school staff, I was able to get a hold of the middle school assistant principal who informed me that she and Sage had been dealing with Ruthie and another boy who seemed to be an accomplice. All of this was starting to sound like one of those afterschool movies. The boy would be dealt with in some way undisclosed to me. Ruthie would be required to buy the items she stole from my son, give it to the assistant principal as confirmation that she did replace the items, and the assistant principal would then give the food to my son.

So much drama. And for what? This was the same girl that my son went trick-or-treating with back in October and spent hours texting. The one who shares the same birthdate with my son. They will both turn 13 this coming Monday. She was seemingly uninterested in him, yet somehow started to be mean towards him. If she wanted attention, she went about it the wrong way.

Meanwhile, the call from the high school revealed that a group of students from the middle school somehow walked into the high school yesterday afternoon with one of the boys having taken out a BB gun. Apparently that boy will now be attending the LEO disciplinary school where all of the troubled kids are sent. There will also be consequences for the other boys as they knew of the gun prior to it being brought to school.

Whatever the intentions of the students, one has to question the roles of the parents. Sometimes we assume that the parents are too busy to give their children the attention they need at home so that they end up getting it elsewhere. The kids want to look cool and be accepted. Or perhaps they simple want to scare and impress. Unfortunately, this is a rather common occurrence in schools in the States.

As parents, we strive to do everything in our power to protect our children. There is nothing more important to us. But sometimes we are limited in our ability to do what is needed to get justice and need to trust a somewhat broken system.

As the day went on, I was glad that I heard from all of my children. I was especially glad to hear from my older daughter as she texted me ‘U gotta make me an entire cake…’ as her sister gets snacks and lunch from their brother when he brings it to the middle school.

‘I get nothing’, she continued. I offered to walk over to her school in the morning to bring her a sandwich with German salami. ‘No that’s OK but you owe me a cake’.