Off the Deep End

This whole Zero tolerance thing has been taken WAY too far.  C (7 years old) was freaking out on Friday morning as the bus pulled up. He was  truly panicked.  He said two little girls were trying to kill him on the bus.  Obviously, my common sense told me that a Kindergarten and Second grade girl were not trying to kill him.

Because this all happened as the bus was coming, I didn't want to shove him on there without knowing what was going on.  Therefore,  I drove him to school and we talked about what was transpiring. He replied that the girls were growling at him and scratching him- I later found out that they're pretending to be wolves.  This has been happening for some time though.

As I waved the bus along, earlier that morning, the bus driver expressed concern for Caleb.  He informed me that he would not be driving the bus in the afternoon. This is a long weekend (no school till Tuesday) so I wanted to let him know now so that he can have a few days to figure out the situation.  I called the bus garage to leave a message for the bus driver to call me so that he could know how C is doing and to let him know what the problem was.

The receptionist was happy to take down my number.  She was going to give my number to the bus driver to call me back.  But then she said, "hold just a minute please."  When she got back on the phone, she commented that she can not give any of the drivers a personal message and that she needs to know what is happening on the bus.  I told her with reservation...because I wanted to speak to the bus driver first.  Maybe the girls hadn't been spoken to about this situation.

She informed me that what the girls were doing is considered bullying and that they need to look through all the videotapes to catch them doing it.  The "videotape girl" will then call the school and let the parents know.

Am I crazy, or has this public school gone off the deep end? I love C and don't want him to get hurt but, there are several steps to consider before labeling this as bullying and sending the task off to the videotape girl.  If I were the parent of the girls, I would want a chance to speak to my kids before it went to the videotape girl and the school.  But, sadly, these parents don't have that choice.