http://moms.today.com/_news/2011/02...d-to-psych-ward-against-moms-wishes?gt1=43001 The school had him committed to a psych ward, putting him in an ambulance over mother's protests. His military dad is deployed.
I see where the school was coming from frankly they have to play it safe these days. If they didn't do anything and it came out he had drawn this picture at school the finger pointing would begin. That said I feel sorry for the mother and the trauma her family suffered because of this situation. I do hope the boy got the help he needed.
Clearly mom was more than prepared to deal with the situation. She wasn't going to ignore it. If she had, THEN the school might have the right to step in. But to call an ambulance before giving her a chance to parent, well, that's wrong. I can't fathom how it's legal. There would be blood if it were me.
I can see that the school did what protocol said they had to do. However, as a parent, I don't like it at all. I would have been very upset to say the least.
I could totally see this happening to my family. We are a military family and not to long ago it came to my younger children just what daddy's ship does and what he could have done while in Iraq. My son draws lots of pictures of ships,planes, bombs and guns and has his 101 questions about dying and death. It's one of the perks of being a military family:? As usual there must be something more going on then they let on in the article. Also this school just may not be military child friendly. A school that deals with active duty families is much different than a school that deals with researvist going active.
I don't think they defined "violent picture". On the one hand, it could be something as relatively mild as a soldier shooting a gun, or a plane dropping bombs, or a ship firing rounds, without showing the direct results of that action, or it could be something with lots of red and "up close and personal" .... or anywhere in between. But yeah, this was apparently no surprise to the mom, and she was prepared to handle it, and should have been given the opportunity to take him herself that very day to the help she thought was appropriate. He's SIX! Mom could've sat right there in the principal's office and called the help she wanted to handle it, and made arrangements to go directly there from the school with the boy. Now, not only is the boy feeling the hurt (and fear and whatever else) about dad being absent, he's stuck by force alone in the strangest of places with the strangest of people for 72 hours! How is he supposed to understand that this is "for your own good"???
I agree with this completely! Also, when my DH was in the military it seemed to be the trend that most wives packed up and moved back home for the duration of the deployment, which means that it's completely possible this child was in a school that doesn't deal with military families at all. Unfortunately for the child. What the school did was inappropriate IMO, you just can not put a one size fits all rule in place when dealing with children. The mother was not sweeping this under the rug, she was not ignoring the problem, she was intending to deal with it immediately! The school had no just cause to react the way they did when the mother was obviously intending to get her child some help. What the school did is only likely to make matters worse at this point, and I feel terrible for that family.
For me, the big thing that stuck out was that it was more than just the picture, it was that he wrote that he wanted to die. Now, I don't agree with sending the kid off in an ambulance, especially since mom was ready to take him for help. I was curious with what the article was going to be about since I have a six year old who loves to make pictures or cut out people and most tend to have a weapon of some sort. He makes knights with swords or military or police with a pistol. Makes me glad that he homeschools and can make what he likes. I remember teaching first grade and any time I brought out building blocks that snapped together, I would have to remind the kids that weapons were not allowed at school. I have thought that if ds were in ps, I would have been called into school by now for a discussion about weapons.
A younger cousin of mine (he was about 12 at the time) drew a picture in art class of a hotdog shooting a frog. It was a very cartoon looking, crudely drawn picture, with no blood or anything... just silly looking. My cousin and his friend were laughing about it, made up a whole story about how the hotdog was going to sell the frog legs as hotdogs so he wouldn't get eaten or some such mess. He was suspended for 2 weeks. I understand that the violence in schools has gotten completely out of hand, but instead of using common sense in a case-by-case approach, they do everything by the book, which is total crap. If I had been that mother I would have immediately left with my son. I wouldn't have waited around for an ambulance. Poor boy.
But rules must be objective; we can't rely solely on personal judgment. Look at the case today in Florida where the authorities are being slammed for not stepping in and removing children from abusive parents - leading the death of one child and severe burns to the other. Is it better to overstep, and send a child for evaluation against the wishes of the parent, or to pussyfoot around, and end up with a child who's dead? It's a difficult call, and someone will always be criticized when it turns out wrongly.
I never think ANY government agency has the right to trump my parenting style as long as I'm not breaking the law. Abuse is illegal, so, by all means, someone should remove a child from an abusive parent. Otherwise, not a chance. I AM THE PARENT and I am free to parent as I see fit within the boundaries of the law.
I showed this to my husband and he's in agreement. Hands off our child. Again if it was us and this happened we'd hope the school would come to us first so we can take care of it. Being military there are resources that could be used for deploying families. If we ignored what school was telling us then go and do what you have to do. There have been a few families at our last duty station to where I wished the school did do something because the parent (the mother) wasn't very caring and didn't really parent, imo. It took a member of our community going to the command to get something done because the school didn't want to get involved. So CornishSteve is right it can go both ways. Schools can go overboard and others way under and those are the ones that make the news.
