Just bringing our saga up to date-long About This Page:

[Suzie]

I waited until I finished writing my trip report from Feb. before I started on this story. I felt like I have had so much drama in my life lately that everyone was going to be tired of hearing about it and so I wanted my most recent posts to be something nice about Disney.
Anyway, this is why it took me so long to finish my report (which was only for a three days trip for goodness sake!).
My youngest son, who as you know has been having a very hard time dealing with the loss of his father, had been working very hard at school to bring his grades back up to qualify to go on the 8th grade class trip to Washington DC. He was going to study table in the morning, staying after to work with a teacher on two nights, working with a math tutor on Thursday nights and attending grief counseling. His grades were beginning to improve a lot.
Then about 3 weeks ago I got a call from the Vice-Principal saying that Leon was in serious trouble at school. He said that Leon had taunted a kid from his class during gym. I was taken aback as Leon is really not the sort to do that kind of thing (which the VP also mentioned. )but then, mothers don't always know everything that goes on. I asked what he had said and the VP said, "He told the boy that he ran like his coach's son." I waited a moment expecting something more. That didn't sound like much of a taunt to me but then maybe the coach's son ran funny? Nope, that wasn't it. The problem was that the kid that Leon "taunted" was autistic and when he gets upset he has to miss school, sometime for a couple of days.
Well, I felt terrible. I know about autistic kids and I know that several people on these boards have kids who struggle daily with this. The idea that my son would intentionally bother someone with this problem was very distressing to me, not to mention sounding out of character for Leon who has attended school with kids with special needs ever since kindergarten as they mainstream them in our system. I had heard Leon complain that this "little" kid in his class (Leon is very big, Taylor is quite short) had been pestering him for some time. But he always laughed when he said it and never indicated that it was a big deal. Anyway, I asked the VP if Leon knew that Taylor was autistic and he said no. The VP said that he regretted having to discipline Leon so severely for this since Taylor tried to attack him after he was "taunted" but that Taylor could not be punished because of his disability. Leon was going to get 6 points ( 12 points and you can't go on the trip) and Saturday detention. I told the VP that I understood that if Leon had done something unacceptable, he needed to be punished.
I could hear him sobbing in the background and I asked the VP to tell him that I loved him and that we would talk later.
When Leon got home he was quite upset and gave me the paper that I had to sign saying that I had been informed of the infraction of the rules. What is said was that Leon was getting 6 points and Saturday detention and another 6 points for interferring with another students right to education (since Taylor would presumably be missing school). He was devastated because now he could not participate in the class trip that he had been working so hard for. I did call the school the next day and ask about the points as I had been quoted 6 and now it was 12 and they said they didn't know that they had to give points for both things (?). Anyway, he said that he had just been joking around with Taylor and didn't mean anything horrible by saying "you run like the coach's son," he was just being silly. He swore that he didn't know that Taylor was autisic and he felt really bad that he had upset him so much. He was really afraid about what would happen when Taylor got back because he didn't know how to treat him or respond to him as now he was paranoid that something else would happen.
Turns out he was right to be concerned. On Tuesday of last week in English class, Taylor, who sits in the front of the room, got upset about something and in the general chaos of class, someone laughed (according to Leon, not AT Taylor) but Taylor thought it was directed at him. He turned around and ran back to where Leon was sitting and slugged him in the eye. The teacher, fortunately for Leon, witnessed the whole thing and said Leon wasn't laughing and did nothing to provoke Taylor and in fact didn't even react when he hit him. So she took Leon to the nurse and Taylor to the VP. (The VP has since apologized to Leon for being so hard on him, but of course that doesn't change anything about the trip.)
I am glad that Leon has been cleared of being deliberately mean to Taylor. What is sad is that he was working so hard for that trip and now he is just depressed about it. As if he needed more depression.
And what is saddest of all is that Leon liked Taylor, and until this all happened, they were friends. I feel sorry for them both. They are, after all, still just kids.
Anyway, I was kind of hesitant to write about this, especially when it first happened because I didn't want to make my kid sound like a bully. He really is not.
Thanks for listening.
Suzie