In the small rural community of Turlock, California a six year old child was stabbed in the neck with a pencil at Crowell Elementary School. The student was walked from the classroom to the office where his grandfather was contacted and advised to pick up the child. No immediate medical attention was sought by school officials and the assault occurred after three failed attempts by the victims family to stop the bullying. <?xml:namespace prefix = "o" ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

The callous manner for which this student assault has been handled by Crowell Elementary School administration is both alarming and unethical. Although bullying has had a constant presence at Crowell Elementary School, all parental attempts to remedy the violence has proved useless.

According to new reports, Principal Alaniz states that the victim stabbed himself and states that “Parents can say what say whatever they want, but the police report and school report match.”

The victim has since been transferred to another school and the victimizer has received a lunch detention. This notion of punishing the victim is nothing new to Crowell administrative staff. An eight year old student of the school was not only bullied by another student, but the students parent as well and now must wait in the office for five minutes past the first bell prior to going to class, leave class five minutes earlier than all the other students at the end of the day, and have lunch at a different period to avoid the constant bullying. Essentially, the poor child must tip-toe around the bully.

The moral and ethical implication of such actions not only destroys the confidence in our children, but further reinforces the notion of bullying and fear associated with it.

I plead for parents to please sign this petition to hold administrative staff at Crowell Elementary accountable and make safety and well-being a priority in our schools.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNaiCmmiN5w