Unexpected Bullies

What is an unexpected bully? Unexpected bullies are bullies that you would not consider bullying you. The most shocking situation is when the bullies are directors in school systems, school board presidents, and other school administrators. We must be aware of school bullies and how to deal with them.

The article The Child Welfare Surveillance State: When the school bullies include the School Board President, from the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform (NCCP) Child Welfare Blog dated July 22, 2019. It describes a Pennsylvania district from Luzerne County. The district has more than ¾ of the students economically disadvantaged. Some of the parents fell behind in paying for their children’s school lunches. About 1,000 students owed a total of $22,467 an average of $22.47 per child.

So the district sends out a letter to the parents warning if they didn’t pay up, their children might be taken away. The letter tells the parents if they don’t pay, they are considered to neglecting their children to food and they will be taken to court and the children may be taken away from them. For parents that are struggling to keep a roof over their children to be threatened by a school district is bullying. The district also had offers to pay for the debts and the district refused. The district finally accepted the donations only after the County Manager demanded the district cease and desist. It is really disheartening that a school district could do that to families and have no regard for all the trauma the kids and families would have to deal with.

Administrators do not have any clue about the enormous trauma a CPS investigation causes the families. Another article They stood up to NYC schools for their disabled Child: Then child protective services arrived, from the website The74 by Asher Lehrer- Small June 1, 2023. The summary of the article is that the parents of an autistic and nonverbal 7-year-old boy arrived home from school with bruises and a lump on his head. The parents began to worry, and they asked the school to investigate it. The parents also requested a new paraeducator. The parents were searching for answers. But they did not expect the school to point the finger back at them. The next thing the parents received was a knock on their door from an Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) worker who showed up at their door. The parents felt it was retaliation from the school. They went through an intrusive investigation with an unfounded result. In 2022 the federal office of civil rights received 1,708 retaliation complaints from families.

This is what families must deal with from school districts. It is totally unexpected. We need to ask for change. We need to provide school personnel training on trauma. Include how retaliation-producing practices affect the students and families. We need administrators to understand the trauma of calling CPS or ACS on a family. These retaliation practices need to stop. For more information on this topic please listen to Navi Parent Podcast titled Unexpected Bullies.  Listen here