Date: Mon, 13 Apr 2015 15:45:01 +0000 (UTC) From: Bob Smith Subject: My Boys Chapter 21 This is a different chapter for me. I wanted to expand the boys' personalities but not sure it worked. It is kind of far out but I'm allowed to do that in fiction. Again, these are just stories and not real. Never was. Never will be. I enjoy getting emails so feedback is always welcome. See my other story (Camping with Ace) if you want to see my first attempts at writing . Nifty can always use a little financial help. Consider sending them a little financial help ****************************************************************************** Chapter 21 I am not sure if the boys were sexual with Ben after that but I do know that I wasn't part of their activities. Maybe they were just messing around with each other and their friends. I don't know. What I do know is the boys seemed to thrive with me. Both of them were getting solid "B" and "A" grades and growing bigger, stronger and healthier each day. Curt particularly seemed to be growing like a weed. He was on the cusp of puberty and he had developed a solid muscular body in the process. He was much stronger than most of his age group and seemed to be leaving Devin and the other sixth graders in his dust as he grew taller each day. They seemed to be popular with the kids in the neighborhood and their teachers had nothing but good things to say about both of them at their conferences, so I was a surprised when I got a call from the school telling me Curt was suspended for three days for fighting. The vice principal was cryptic when I asked for details so I scheduled myself for a visit with him the next morning. I wanted to know what had happened but first I wanted to talk to Curt before I visited with the Mr. Dudley, the Vice Principal at the Middle School. When the school bus stopped, I could hear the loud voices from the neighborhood kids getting off. Their voices were much louder than usual. As soon as I opened our front door, I was assaulted by the local kids, all wanting to tell me that Curt was suspended and it was unfair. Once I got everyone settled I asked Curt what happened. He told me he was walking to his gym class with a few of his friends, when he saw two boys trying to push Devin into a gym locker. The boys were much bigger than Devin and were roughing him up as he tried to resist them. Curt rushed to Devin's defense and told the bigger boys to knock it off and leave his brother alone. One of the boys told him to mind his own business and gave him a push, knocking him down. He got up and tried to insert himself between Devin and his harassers. The older boy gave him another hard push. He fell on the floor as the two nasty bullies continued to try to push Devin into a locker, laughing at the same time. Devin was an inner city lad and could fight as well as anyone but he was in the sixth grade and his attackers were in the eight and there were two of them. The maturity and size difference between the boys and Devin was significant. Never the less, he was giving a good measure of himself in resisting his assailants. So much so that one of the boys punched Devin in his stomach to stop his resisting. The punch hurt and forced Devin to bend over. Devin wanted to cry but held back his tears as he was punched for the second time this time by the older of the boys. He fell to the floor as his assailants laughed. This happened so fast none of the boys watching could react and defend him. Over the past few months I have notice that Curt has a temper but it is hard to ignite. Most times he is a gentle, easy going kid who lets things roll right over him without a reaction. Generally, when he is angry he closes down and becomes silent. This time when he got off the floor, and saw his brother being punched, he was beyond angry and his temper was in hot mode. He got off the floor and again told the boys to leave his brother alone and when the larger of the two turned around, ready to push Curt to the floor again, Curt let one go and punched the boy, hard, in his nose. The kid fell to the floor, blood pouring from his broken nose. The eighth grader took one look at all the blood in his hands and on his shirt and started to cry. His buddy was shocked. No one ever fought back against the bullies. Unfortunately for Curt, just as he let the punch fly, a teacher walked around the corner, and saw Curt punch the boy. Like many American schools, their middle school had a no tolerance policy for fights and since the teacher only saw one punch. His conclusion was that Curt was the only one fighting so off to the principal's office he went. The older boy was sent to the nurse's office to treat his nose. Devin and the other boys went to the office as witnesses. Each of the boys told Mr. Dudley what had happened. Devin explained the punches to his stomach and identified the boys who hit him, never the less, when all was said and done, the only "fight" was the punch thrown by Curt as seen by the gym teacher so he was the only one suspended. I was stunned that my son was the only one receiving punishment especially when he was only defending himself. I was taken back even more when the kids in our family room told me these two boys harassed everyone in the school. They hit kids, stole lunch money, and called students names. They were the school bullies. All the kids said they had told teachers about them. They even told Mr. Dudley but nothing was ever done about their behavior. They were the main bullies in school and yet they remained unscathed by the school administration. I made a few calls that night to prepare myself for the meeting with the vice principal. The next morning I presented myself at Mr. Dudley office with Curt. Mr. Dudley told us the school policy and the reasons he was forced to suspend my son. I agreed that, in fact, Curt did hit the boy and had no real issue with the in-school suspension. I did want to know what the punishment for the two bullies was going to be. He said there was not going to be any punishment for the other boys since no one in the administration or did any teacher see them violating the fighting policy. I told him it was my understanding these two boys started the fight and were harassing my son. Dudley remained steadfast. "There is no other punishment to be given" he said. I asked Curt to leave us alone. He waited outside the office with his brother. "Devin was assaulted by two older boys; I have witnesses that confirmed the assault and that the same witnesses tell me these boys had bullied lots of sixth graders." I repeated. "Thank you for coming in." Dudley said as he rose from his seat. I was not going to be dismissed so easily. "Can you ask the police liaison office to join us please?" "What?" "Can you ask the police office to join us?" "Why?" "I am going to formally change the two boys with assault of my two sons. Since you don't want to handle it, I will." "You can't do that." "Watch" I said. By the time the police officer arrived, Devin had gathered, as I requested him to do, a number of his fellow students to the office. All these kids had been bullied and harassed and in some cases hit by the two boys in question. All had reported their being attacked to Mr. Dudley. "Officer, I want to charge these two boys with assault" I said as I handed the officer the names of the boys who hit Curt. "My witnesses are all outside the office. In addition to my boys some of the other kids have been assaulted by these two. Their parents are also willing to charge the youngsters with assault." "It's about time." said the officer. "Everyone knew they were doing this stuff but no one made a complaint and I couldn't act until someone came forward or I saw it happen. They were smart in hiding it from me. It will be my pleasure to hold these kids responsible for their actions." I turned to Mr. Dudley. "I checked with my attorney last night. I am sure you are aware that failure to act on the bullying and abuse is both against state law and school board policy. Each of the kids outside your office will testify that you were aware that these two eighth graders hit others, stole their lunch money and bullied numerous kids all year long and yet you choose to do nothing. You risked a criminal complaint against you and the loss of your job. Is it really worth it to sit there and tell me only my son is going to be punished?" Mr. Dudley was turning a sickly color green. "What would you have me do," he asked. "Their parents are very influential. They could end my career." "If something is not done now, your career is already over and you might end up in jail. If the officer agrees, what I want done is the following: Both boys get in-school suspension for at least a week and they need to return the stolen money to the boys they took it from. The boys outside will tell you what they lost. Curt will serve his suspension for three days. He did hit the kid even if the boy deserved it. Officer, can you add anything to my list?" "Yeah, both boys need to apologies and do some community service in the school for the rest of the year and their parents need to be told what kind of kids they have raised. I can point out that we have a criminal complaint about their attacking fellow students and it will be dropped if they comply with the restrictions we have outlined" "What about me?" Mr. Dudley asked. "Fred, you run a good school. My boys love it here. The annual test scores are terrific and you're a big part of that. On the most part, it is a safe school with a lot of parental involvement. I don't want to be the guy who ends your career, but you can't let anything like this to ever occur again. It's not fair to the bullies and not fair to the kids being bullied. I am willing to forget the past if the officer is, as long as it never occurs again." "I agree," Mr. Dudley said as color returned to his face. I stood up and held out my hand. "If you do what you promised, I am satisfied. Have a nice day and good luck with the other parents." As I left the office the boys wanted to know what was going to happen. Mr. Dudley heard me say, "Well. Curt will have in-school suspension for fighting. After that it is up to Mr. Dudley." Two days later, all the boys came rushing into the house to explain that the two bullies had apologized to everyone over the loud speaker. They also said they were getting back the money stolen from them and the two kids were leaving the middle school and going to a Catholic school and on top of all that in their homerooms, all the teachers talked about bullying and how it won't be allowed in our middle school. That night over dinner, Curt asked me if I had anything to do with the changes at his school. "My job is to protect you guys. I will defend you when you're right and punish you when you're wrong. The changes at your school are mostly because you defended your brother, Curt and for that I am very proud of both of you. That's what family does, watch out for each other." "Yeah and kick ass if someone messes with us," piped up Devin.