Picture this...two Ohio students having sex on a school bus during a field trip. Another student sees whats happening and reports it. Guess who gets into trouble? If you guessed the reporter, you are correct.
This story comes to us from Dayton, OH where students from the Dayton View Academy were headed on a field trip to tour out-of-state colleges in April. A 14-year-old girl shared a seat with another female student on the bus, but exchanged seats with a boy who wanted to sit with the other female. After the seat exchange, the 14-year-old noticed the two students having sex. She says she was afraid to tell school officials for fear the boy would retaliate, so when she got home she told her mother.
Her mother told school officials and they said that they would investigate.
Apparently, after the investigation, school officials informed the girls mother that her daughter would not be allowed to attend the eighth-grade prom or the upcoming class picnic, but that she could graduate with her class.
Well, needless to say, the mother is furious.
"They punished my daughter- who did the right thing by telling what she saw - but did nothing to the eight chaperones who were sitting in the front of the bus watching a movie at the time and should have been watching the kids. If they are not doing anything to the chaperones, how can they punish my daughter?"
The mother feels that the actions taken sends her daughter the message that she shouldn't have said anything. Understandably, her daughter was very upset over the schools decision because she had been looking forward to the prom all year long. The dress her daughter was going to wear will be giving to a kid in her church.
According to the school, the girl was punished for not reporting the incident to the chaperones when it occurred. The two students who had sex on the bus were both suspended, but school officials would not say what- if any- further disciplinary action they might face. At the time of this news report, the mother was keeping her daughter out of school and looking into home schooling her for the remainder of the year. She had also contacted a lawyer and will ask the school to revoke her daughters punishment.
I have a few questions regarding this story...
1. If the girl was punished for not telling at the time the incident occurred, why weren't the other students? I'm sure someone else saw these two students getting bus in the back of the bus and
none of them said anything.
2. Why were the chaperones all in the front of the bus watching a movie? I've been on a class trip before and I
know what goes on the back of those buses. I think the chaperones should've been placed strategically throughout the bus and doing their jobs.
3. Does this send the wrong message to students
not to say anything when they see something happening that shouldn't be? I mean hey, we hear a lot of stories about teenage girls becoming pregnant, some of us even know a few personally. What if it were our own child... Wouldn't we want to know?
4. Was the girl's punishment given by the school too extreme? Personally, I think it was. She expressed that she was afraid of the boy retaliating, should anyone wonder why she was afraid of him? I'm not sure if the children had assigned seats on the bus or not. As children, we had assigned seats on field trips, and in the schools here the children have assigned seats on the buses so the teachers and chaperones can easily keep up with them. If this were the case, maybe she didn't say "no" to him when he asked to swap seats because she was afraid of him. I'm not trying to make the kid out to be a 'bad guy' because obviously, I don't know any of these people. I'm just saying...you've gotta look at this thing from all angles.
What do you think readers? If you were the school officials, how would you have handled this situation? If this were your child, what would you do?
Deuce, Smooches...
Nena Grace
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