Benjamin Franklin Intermediate School

…I am extremely disappointed from the result of the discussion I had with the principal of the school. My son is a Grade 7 student from the school and yesterday he bumped into an issue with another student and eventually the student sought the help of other students so they followed my son and the rest of them until my son reached the gas station where I was waiting for him. This is evidently a clear case of harrassment, bullying, and threat. according to my son, the student whom he had an issue yesterday asked him to look after his bag & his cellphone, which the student handed to him. they were not close. they were just acquaintance, and for the student to leave his items to someone he’s not close with, that was his responsibility and his risk whether what he owns would be lost missing or whatever consequences it would cause him. students are not required to look after personal belongings of other students. they go to school to learn not to be bullyied, not to be threatened not to be harassed. My Son who does not want to take full responsibility of looking after someone else’s belongings (and was brought up with the thought that he should not mind other people’s items are belongings) handed it over to one of the kids there whom he thought was part of the group. By virtue of fate the cellphone got lost. Thus, The harassment of the student and his group following my son.
so I immediately reported this to the school at around 420pm. yesterday and from the voice message that was recorded, i only had the option to leave a message to the assistant principal, being the highest authority and not the principal because he was not part of their options. still not satisfied this morning after I dropped off my son to school I immediately called the school again leaving a message to the school office, asking them if they could call me back so we could talk about and discuss at length whatever transpired yesterday. prior to this, I already spoke to my son last night and mentioned to him rationally that he made a mistake by handing it over to another person he does not know instead of talking to the person who handed it over to him and give the phone back to him.
nevertheless I would like to move within the peripherals of the fact that these are kids we are dealing with and not mature people so there’s always a tendency or possibility for them to initially commit wrong decisions, be impulsive and insensitive to others.
At 9:45 am, which i thought was way too
long a wait for a response from the school, I finally received a call coming from the principal Mr. Parish. Initially I felt this huge sigh of relief after knowing that an administrator from the school is finally responding. The relief was short-​lived after realizing that the principal from the tone of his discussion already made a decision in favor of the other student without even dissecting further into the issue. on top of this he was demanding my son to pay $ 50 for the phone that he STOLE again I repeat the word he STOLE and I said excuse me stolen it’s totally different from missing that’s what I told him. And I even asked him what was his basis of accusing my son from stealing the phone. I was extremely furious when I heard him accusing my son of such an act when in fact my sos n’only resort was to avoid being responsible for something that he does not own. so I finally told him I would report this matter the unified district because of his predicament towards the issue. and possibly because of such a decision I actually shared with him he said he would just call the cop and let the cop deal with this because something is missing. so I told him now you call it missing and not stolen. in addition to this I could not accept the fact that he was very judgmental to the point that he told me if you care enough for your son then you would’ve been here with him and I said carrying loving a kid is not represented by presence alone. and besides I thought this issue would be handled responsibly that I don’t need to be there to solve the problem I just need to call them which they responded so late.
and I mentioned to him if he understands the repercussions of the cop being involved in that kind of particular issue where in we are dealing with kids and the trauma that The kids can possibly feel after seeing the cop in sight. besides being a principal I think he should assume the responsibility In handling and addressing that situation on his end and successfully resolve it without intervention of another officer because if not then he’s not inclined to be effective iand efficient in his position
And worse this principal has never mentioned any resolution to address the issue of people or kids like that kid who are harassing, intimidating and threatening same kids like my son. nothing there’s no plan of sort. what is magnified is the context of the phone being lost or the phone being stolen according to