Enough!

Today my 12 year old son was threatened by a fellow classmate. Without going into detail, the boy told my son that he would kill him. The way it was presented was no idle threat. As far as I can tell, my son did nothing to provoke this. The other boy even went so far as to acknowledge that fact. This was a first time offense for this other boy. As far as anyone can tell me he's never caused any problems and there has never been any tension between him and anyone else. My son told me "it was totally random, Dad".

I was told by my wife. Apparently the school was smart enough to call her instead of me to share this information. I had to step away from my work desk to collect myself. I went into my bedroom, logged onto Facebook (because that seems to be what I do to collect myself). I subscribe to Yahoo News and the first thing on my wall was the story that broke today about 3 students being shot at a High School in California. Wow, I really didn't need that.

I called the school. Spoke with the Guidance Councellor that handled the situation and was told that the other student had been disciplined. The Guidance Councellor wouldn't tell me the other boy's name or what the discipline was. I don't really understand why I couldn't be told what either of those were. I got the kid's name from my son (like I wasn't going to find out that information). As for the level of discipline, I feel as the parent of a child who was threatened I have the right to know what level of punishment was given to the offending child. If I disagree with the punishment I can then appeal to the School Administrators. I just want to make sure this is taken seriously and that we reduce the chance of anything else happening.

I had been working on a blog entry to address the shootings in Arizona last weekend. I was having a hard time putting into words my thoughts on that one. When this all happened today it prompted me to action. So, what do we do about this as a society to rise above all of this? Do we censor media consumption by our youth? Video Games, TV, Movies, Music, etc...? To a degree, yes and no. Just like "guns don't kill people", this media doesn't make us bad. It's up to parents/adults to understand what our children are consuming and help them understand what it is they are consuming. We have to know what their limits are and hold them to it. It's up to us to set positive examples for them to follow. We have to rise above and show them how to contribute in a good way to society.

Wow.