Cleveland. Great Lakes Christmas Ale. Nuff Said.

Punching Teenage Girls in the Face

Sorry folks, we're going to get a touch personal. And you're going to get pissed off. It's either write this post or do a shot of bourbon at 11am. And depending on how this goes, don't be surprised if this post disappears in a day or two so the story can be detached and reassembled with my real persona.

There's a boy at Irish Dancer's school. He's not a nice boy. In fact, he has a bit of a history talking shit to young ladies and has expanded his repertoire this year to smacking a few with the reason that they are girls and girls only speak when spoken to. Obviously, you don't learn that kind of behavior from your buddies or video games.

This past Friday he was getting into Irish Dancer's face at lunch time and having had enough she told him to "back the fuck off." He punched her in the mouth.

Allow me to let that soak in: A 14-year old boy punched a 14-year old girl in the mouth. She was afraid to retaliate because the VPrincipal was like 20 feet away.

Yes, she is okay. Lip bleeding, she talked to a trusted teacher and then to her counselor. And then? Then the weekend came. No, that's not odd; the weekend comes every week end, but this happened over 3 hours before school was over and we didn't get a phone call, the kid was still in school, and, well, let me just continue.

[Breaknote: What the fuck!? I'm not that old, and when I was in HS in the early 90's if a boy hit a girl in the face, no loyalties or social divisions would exist for him. He was getting knocked down at least once during lunch with a guaranteed jumping after school. You don't fucking hit a girl. EVAR! My belief on why there was no retaliation? We live in a snooty little upper-class suburb where most of the kids are spoiled, entitled, and stoned. I guess that's what we get for moving into a neighborhood where we don't fit so ID can get a great education.]

Mrs. Shambles and I calmed ID, made sure she understood she did nothing wrong, that he was the one way the hell out of line, and that what he did no one should ever do - or have to put up with. I know that sounds simple, but that's the reassurance just about everyone needs in a situation like that.

So after some bourbon, beers, breathing, and talking it over the weekend, we both walked in Monday morning (yesterday) with one clear goal: This kid would be removed from the 2 classes they shared. But when we got there and met with the Vice Principal, he had NO knowledge of anything happening on Friday. Shocked, all we could do was let him know and wait for him to do the due process thing before passing on our expectations.

Within 90 minutes, VP interviewed ID, witnesses, and bad kid and confirmed it with the video (our taxes are at least purchasing something useful). Bad kid was suspended - for 3 days. And ...that was it. He left school early yesterday.

So I spoke with VP again today, expressed our need to have the kid removed from ID's classes. Nope, he didn't agree. He ascertained that bad kid was impulsive, but not dangerous, and the school's kinda small so they'd end up seeing each other in the halls anyway.

What?! Okay, final card: FYI, we're looking at pursuing filing a police report. "Well, that would be your prerogative."

*brain explodes*


So in a world where all of the media is horny as hell for another bully story, in a school where a boy has a history of verbally and physically abusing young ladies, this boy escalates to assault (an offence listed in the student handbook as punishable by expulsion) - of which they have video proof - but they do not want to ensure the psychological well-being of my daughter because they don't think it's necessary to mess up his schedule.


So even though ID said she doesn't want to go to the police, she doesn't want him in her classes more, so if she agrees we'll be taking her this afternoon to make a statement. Luckily it's a softball event; the school has video proof, so there's no question to her integrity. Bad kid also apparently has had a few run-ins with the local police, so this might get bad for him.

And we might take it media if we feel the need. Every local station is drooling for a national connection. But that might mean making ID a spectacle and all we really want is for the kid to be out of her classes, not more of a circus.


Comments, thoughts, advice always appreciated.

(UPDATE & RESOLUTION in Comments)

Pro-Life Protest Particularly Apropos

Awwwshitt. You know what's gonna happen tomorrow? This is! W00t!

Tens of thousands of pro-life students in high schools, middle schools and colleges and universities across the country will take a vow of silence tomorrow. They will refuse to speak to their friends and teachers because they are representing the voices of millions of unborn children killed in abortions.

Hell, I'd go just for the free red tape.

No, hold on a minute. There's something serious happening here, happening tomorrow, happening all across the country, and it is making a somewhat redundant but wholly unified and powerful statement: Religious conservatives do not, nor will they ever truly understand the very basics of symbolism.

Allow me to explain to the dim: You're putting a piece of red tape over your mouth, preventing you from speaking, and writing LIFE on it. You're already into the realm of sex and babies so let's take that red and us it as an allusion of sin and shame like lovely Hester Pryne. And then let's seal it with LIFE.

You kinda look like you're on the other side.

A woman walking around with red tape labeled LIFE over her mouth in a protest situation says to me: The outside-imposed sin, the religion-into-policy, the government-up-in-your lady parts is trying to alter the laws in this country, and is charging towards a religion-based, a Sharia law all of it's fucking own, where a woman has NO say over her own body and must have that child despite choice, despite rape, despite incest. Her voice is no more.

And you'd better keep an ear out on birth control because the nutters pushing this bullshit don't wantcha fucking with a condom either because their image of a perfect world is every family in the US of Jesus as devout Christians breedin' like the Duggars until we burst our seams to all of North America of the Bible and ship the QEIII over full of damn kids to march on the Holy Land and kick them Palestinians out like worked with that Childrens' Crusade! Oh, wait...

Anyway, one more notch in the "Conservatives don't understand" belt: Humor, Technology, and ~*NEW*~ Symbolism.