Newsgroups: alt.parents-teens
Subject: Re: harassment at school
From: abel@vax.sonoma.edu (dan abel)
Date: 19 Aug 92 08:59:23 -0800
Organization: Sonoma State University

In article <92232.21249.6042230@LMSC5.IS.LMSC.LOCKHEED.COM>, 6042230@LMSC5.IS.LMSC.LOCKHEED.COM writes:
> Well, I posted at the end of my daughter's school year about the things that
> were happening to her at school. Here is a brief summery: My daughter was in
> a fight at school with another girl. She was suspended, which I agree with,
> but the school mad it sound like it was a racial incident being that the other
> girl is blond with a fair complexionand my daughter is dark haired, dark eyed
> and has an olive complexion the school thought my daughter was hispanic. The
> asst. principal kept referring to my daughters color of clothing as a sign of
> her being gang related because she wears a red tee-shirt or sweatshirt to
> school occationally. Well, yerterday it started again. In my daughter's
> english class there are flags posted on the wall made by other students. These
> flags have green and white stripes, simsilar to the flag of Mexico. When my
> daughter and her friend Jamie made a flag and wrote their friends name in it
> they were sent to the office because the teacher thought it was gang related.
> My daughter said some of the other flags on the wall had the numbers "4" and
> "3" on them which she tells me is a gang symbol. The asst. principal told my
> daughter she cannot wear anything red to school anymore. The staff at her
> school has asked her over and over again if she is gang related and she has
> continually told them she is not. I have even told them she is not. She is a
> good kid and I have no problems with her at home (she is fifteen). She doen't
> smoke, drink, do drugs, or stay out late. I always know where she is and who
> she is with. For the age of fifteen, I don't think that is too bad considering
> some of the stories I have heard from other parents with kids of the same age.
> 
> Last year I contacted the ACLU about some of the matters going on at the school
> where my daughter attends. They advised me to take tha matter higher than the
> asst. principal. When I called the district office they referred me to the co-
> principals. I asked for one of them to call me. Instead they talked to my
> daughter, told her if they didn't call for her to let me know they resolved the
> matter of her wearing red. He told her to not pay any attention to the asst.
> principal because she over reacts about these colors, but it is better for her
> to over react than not to react at all. So here you have conflict among the
> ranks of the staff and kids who don't know what to do. I should have taken it
> above that level when no one contacted me personally about this matter. But I
> let it drop because we were all getting pretty tired of the whole thing. I
> guess I shouldn't have stopped there.
> 
> By the way, we live in Lodi, CA. There is no danger of these kids wearing red
> or blue. If there were, i would agree with the school and discourage my
> daughter from wearing these colors. (And she does were other colors besides red
> and blue).
> 
> Any advice would be appreciated.
> 
> Donna
> 
> 
I went to high school quite a while ago.  If you had told me back 
then that students now had their present freedoms I would have been 
amazed.  Girls were not allowed to wear pants to school (they were 
sent home if they tried).  Boys had to have extremely short hair on 
their heads and absolutely no facial hair.  Of course, then if you 
had went on to say that students couldn't wear anything red, or wear 
jackets with certain sports team names on them, I would have laughed 
myself silly!

Maybe gangs are not a problem in Lodi right now, but either they will 
be soon, or else people will be so frantic about it that they might 
as well be a presence.
Newsgroups: alt.parents-teens