This is a warning to parents of impulsive kids.
My son is 14, in 8th grade. We live in California. He has a diagnosis of ADHD, and has an IEP in place (ineffective, but in place). Yesterday he made the stupid mistake of buying a toy pellet gun from another student. Of course with the “zero tolerance” laws he was treated like a criminal. Police were called (fortunately he broke no laws) and he is now suspended. We will have a review to determine if he will be expelled.
I have discussed these rules with him in the past, knowing that my lectures would mean nothing to a kid with no impulse control.
He is not a discipline problem, and is seen as a polite, normal kid in school. He misses way too much school as it is (he gets migraines) and now here he is missing 5 days of school.
Hopefully this suspension will be the end of it, and he will be able to enjoy all the graduation events with his class. I’m just very sad about the whole thing.
Re: Zero tolerance and ADHD
Things went from bad to worse. Let’s just say that for all intents and purposes, the school year ended a month early for him. He won’t be expelled, but that’s about the only good thing I can say about the whole experience.
You’re probably right about him not repeating this mistake, but I wonder what other rules he will learn about the hard way.
Re: Zero tolerance and ADHD
So sorry that it went badly for your son. At least it was at the end of the year. I’m assuming that they passed him to the next grade level.
My son, who I do not consider ADD, wrote an essay on state testing in High School that could have got him in big trouble with the current zero tolerance. He had to read a passage from a story about wonder horse and write an essay. He stated in his essay that anyone who writes such garbage should be shot. He didn’t score well on the essay but he still passed the test. My husband and I told him multiple times why he should never write something like that. Luckily there were no repercussions from the essay.
Helen
Sorry to hear about that. How did he make out since you last posted?
There are supposed to be disciplinary limitations in place for disabled students. Such as a limitation on suspensions (after so many have already occurred), if the behavior can be related to the disability. But in this post-Columbine environment, where there is paranoia in addition to prevention, zero tolerance thrives. In my son’s elementary school, hitting another child can result in a suspension. But we know that one child can be hitting another child back and get into trouble, and if a disabled child has behavioral issues (and I understand yours does not), it’s tough.
The good news about this is that because impulsive kids tend to be hard-way learners, you probably won’t get a mistake like this again.