Zero Tolerance Nightmare in the Poconos

I hear a lot of heart breaking stories that people share with me. Below is the story about Micheal's run in with the monsters that run his school district. I say monsters because of all the stories I have heard I believe what these school and law enforcement officials did to this 11 year old boy borders on child abuse. That makes them monsters in my book.

Barbara's Story:

Our families ZERO TOLERANCE nightmare began on March 16,2000.My son Michael has ADHD and insomnia. We moved from N.J. to P.A. in 1997. Mike attended elementary school K-4.He had some difficulties due to his ADHD but seldom behavioral, though he had always been a behavior problem at home. During the summer of 1999 I took him to his doctor to see if his Ritalin should be increased from the currant dose of 10mg. in a.m. and 10mg. at noon because his behavior was getting worse at home and he had some weight gain. I also spoke to him about his sleeping problem. He told me he measures behavior in three areas, home, school and outside of home and school. If a child misbehaves at only one place it is not a concern. When it becomes 2 or more then it becomes a concern. He did not increase his Ritalin but prescribed a antihistamine to help him sleep at night. I later learned during our nightmare that you do not mix Ritalin and antihistamines.

In the fall of 1999 Michael entered 5th grade in a new building with his classmates. His behavior problems at school began here. I attended two school meetings, the first on Oct. 20th and the second on Feb. 2nd. At the second meeting I requested that all his teachers fill out Conner's Rating Scales (a form w/59 questions to monitor behavior in school) to take w/him to the doctor. I learned at this meeting that it is my eleven year old son's responsibility to remember to go to the nurse to take his medication. I also learned from his learning support teacher that his disability won't be taken into consideration to avoid behavior problems. Also please note that between Oct. and Feb. I had asked Michael's guidance counselor if his classes could be switched due to the un-cooperation he was receiving from this " learning support " teacher. I was told no. At his school the kids receive points for misbehavior. I set up a behavioral "reward" system at home. I included school behavior in it. During the next month " guess what " he didn't get any points. As a matter of fact his points went down. Between Feb. 2nd and March 16th I spoke to guidance and the assistant principal at least 3 times asking them when I would be getting the forms I requested at the meeting so I could take Mike back to the doctor. I was told they would be mailed. It has been 6 weeks and still no forms!

I felt you needed a little background on my son and our situation before I told our story. Now here is our ZT nightmare!

On March 15th I received a call from Michael's assistant principle informing me that Michael had brought a camera (Cannon AE1 w/auto rewind and a flash) to school and was pretending (there was no film in it) to take pictures in the boys bathroom and that he had made some sort of threat. He said he still had to talk to the other boys that were there. That night we talked to Mike about it. He said that one of the boys started yelling "MICHAEL'S A TERRORIST, MICHAEL'S A TERRORIST " over and over again. Michael told him to " shut up or I'm going to kill you, I'm going to get in trouble ".

On March 16th I took Mike to school to talk to the assistant principle about switching his classes again and to get the camera. While I was standing in the hallway waiting to see him, the guidance counselor handed me the forms I had asked for 6 weeks ago. She also talked to me about Mike possibly having TS because she has noticed a lot of motor tics. Mike and I went into the asst. principal's office. He began to question Mike about the bathroom incident. He asked him if he had made any threats to anyone and Mike said "no". Mike didn't consider it a threat. The two boys had said that to each other plenty of times before. He then asked Mike if he had made any threats maybe a couple of weeks ago and Mike said I might have told "no name " that I was going to kill him. We say that to each other all the time.

Well that was it! Mike was searched and I was told he would be suspended for 3-5 days. He sent Mike to class and told me that he still had to talk to other kids and Mike again. I was told it was up to the school whether or not they would call the state police. He said he would call me in a few hours to let me know. I left and wasn't home 20 minutes when he called and told me they were calling in the police.

My husband and I went to school. When the police arrived they read Mike his rights and asked our permission to question him (never indicating to us that he was facing arrest). We said yes honestly believing they were trying to teach him a lesson. The officer asked Mike several questions over and over again, going back to an earlier question apparently to see if he would say the same thing. He was being interrogated. He asked him about a "hit list " and a plan after spring break. Mike said that another boy had said that stuff. Obviously frustrated and scared by all the questions and accusations when asked if he said he would kill someone he said "I might have said it", I was only joking. We all know when a kid says "I was joking or I was kidding", it's their way of saying they didn't mean it.

At this point the officer left the room. He came back and told us he had called probation and Michael was being arrested and sent to a juvenile detention center 2 hours away from us until his first hearing on Monday, March 20th.We couldn't believe it. My husband begged the officer not to do this. His outburst of emotion convinced the officer to call probation back and see if Mike could go home with us. The probation officer asked to speak to my husband and told him ever since Columbine this is standard procedure. My husband continued to beg the school officials and the officer to let us take Mike home. He said to the officer "tell me you never told someone you would kill them" and the officer replied "maybe when I was a kid". His own remark prompted him to call probation back again but they still refused us our son. The officer drove Mike to the state police station. From there we were told he would be driven by the sheriff's dept. to detention. We followed. When we arrived Michael was handcuffed and shackled which prevented him from hugging us. He was crying so hard he couldn't even tell us good-bye. They walked him out and took him away.

The next day when we spoke to the detention center they told us they also noticed several tics. This prompted me to go on line to get info on TS. This seemed to fit Michael to a tee. The only time we were allowed to visit Mike was on Sun. afternoon for an hour.

Monday morning we went to court for Mike's first hearing. There were 3 other sets of parents and kids there for the prosecution. They walked Mike in again in handcuffs and shackles right in front of his classmates. Our attorney explained our concern for him not being properly medicated (we felt 20mg. per day of Ritalin for an 11 year old 133 pound boy is not enough) and that he didn't have his meds on time of the day in question. Also the mix of Ritalin and his sleeping medication, which we didn't know was a problem until this weekend and the possibility of him having TS. He explained that we were more than willing to use our own insurance to take him to his doctor, a neurologist and a child psychiatrist. He also said that we had sold every gun in our house the day after this happened. The judge released Mike to us with a court order that: He must be with an adult at all times and that he is not allowed on any school property. One of the prosecutors came out in the hall and told us " you seem to be very concerned parents. Just take Mike to the doctors you said you would and everything will be fine". He also was pleased that we had receipts to show we had sold all our guns. We were still very upset but what a relief! Our boy was coming home.

Tues. morning I took Mike to his regular doctor. Wednesday night we took Mike to a psychiatrist. We spent 2 hours with him and he found Mike to be no threat to himself or anyone else. He wrote a three page report on Mike for us to take back to court the following Monday, his next court appearance date. He also increased his Ritalin another 10mg. per day and changed his sleeping medicine. On Thursday I took Mike for a neurology exam. We found he does not have TS.

Monday March 27th we went back to court. We met with our attorneys first. Things didn't look good. They explained that the prosecutors have now said that during the week Mike has been home that he made threatening phone calls to one of the kids. We only allowed him to use the phone to call two friends in our presence. We felt quite sure this was made up to help the prosecutors win their case. Also they explained that if we asked for a continuance Mike would have to go back to detention until a new court date was set. If we fight the charges and Mike convinces everyone that even though he said it he didn't mean it, it won't matter if the boy gets on the stand and says he was afraid. We would lose. Our attorney told us the prosecution has offered a deal: If Mike admits to one count of "terroristic threats" the prosecution won't bring up the supposed phone calls and he could go home with us. We chose this for Mike's benefit. We wanted to do anything to get him home with his family where he belongs. He was so scared when they took him away the first time, we couldn't let that happen again if we could help it. We then went upstairs for court. In the hall there was another prosecutor and a woman from probation. She told us they already had a bed waiting for him at another detention center 170 miles from our home. They insisted that he go for a 30 Day diagnostic. All the doctor's visits and reports we got were not good enough. We were court ordered to bring Mike to the sheriff's office the next morning at 8:00 a.m. At the detention center he was allowed 2 phone calls home per week and one visit on Sundays. We called twice per day and were told every time that he was having a little trouble with all the rules but that was normal since he was so young. They also said that he has a good attitude and is trying very hard. He cried a lot because he was so home sick. We cried a lot too! He did so well that after 10 days he was released. They said that he was found to be no threat to himself or anyone else and should be home with his family, exactly what we had said 11 days ago. When we picked him up he was so happy he smiled from ear to ear all day long.

We got a new court date of May 11th for his final hearing. He received 1 year probation.

OUR OPINION: First, if the school had sent me the forms I requested in a timely manner Mike's medication could have been changed long before this day. Also if the school took responsibility to call him to the nurse for his meds on a regular basis this may have never happened. We feel the school over reacted by calling the police. They should have know quite well Michael's not capable of "killing anyone" The police do not know him at all. Even the school rules on terroristic threats clearly states " with intent ". They know there was no intent. The school also took the statements of three kids in the bathroom that day, after they had 2 days to talk about it. One of the boys who filed a complaint is one of the other boy's friends and Mike says he wasn't even in the bathroom that day. There was a boy who said he heard the one kid say Michael's a terrorist. That boy was not called by the prosecutors for court. We are quite sure the kids exaggerated the whole story by putting together bits and pieces of what different kids said (like the kid Mike told the police about) and the events in the bathroom.

Our son has changed into a depressed, lonely child. He feels he can't trust anyone. After all, the kids in the bathroom were all friends.

OUR GOALS: Zero tolerance laws as we know them today must be changed. Each situation has to be handled on an individual basis. No we don't want violence in school, Mike will be going back and we have another son in school but we don't want to be afraid everyday that we send our kids to school that by being "a kid " they might get hauled off to jail.

We want to do what we can. Perhaps we can all write to our government and our schools and eventually get these laws changed.

Update: During the summer we spent much of our time trying to convince the school to implement a proper I.E.P. for Mike to begin the new school year with. We also wrote a letter to the school board and sent a copy to the superintendent. I requested that they change their policy on " zero tolerance " and judge each case on an individual basis. The superintendent wrote back to me informing me that they do judge each case on an individual basis and we should now be focusing on Mike's future. I never heard from the school board.

In our county each school district is assigned a different probation officer, while a child is in a detention center they would have yet a different officer and during the summer they would have a different one. Since this is the way it works, we never met the probation officer assigned to Mike's school until Aug. prior to school starting. This was the same man that sent him to detention back in March. This concerned us a bit and we were worried Mike would resent him. So we went to meet him and talk to him about Mike. While we were there he asked Mike to leave the room. He explained to us that the Vice Principle painted a totally different picture to him than what had actually back on March 16th 2000 when he spoke to him. He told him, Mike had made several terrorist threats that day, rather than the supposed one 2 days before. He also told him he was in the bathroom taking pictures of the boys while they were going to the bathroom. Remember he was well aware that the camera was empty when he talked to me on the morning of March 16 th. The probation officer had to base his decision to send Mike to detention on that phone call.

School started in August. What I thought was a great I.E.P., with a behavior plan in it, was missing one important thing. The bus ride! One day in Sept. Mike got into a verbal argument with a friend of his. As they arrived at school the other boy said something to embarrass Mike in front of the whole bus. After he got off the bus Mike told the bus driver (who was made aware of Mike's problems by me) he was going to hit that kid. The bus driver said " no you won't" and let him off the bus. Well, Mike did hit him on the side of his head with his forearm. Had this been another child or if Mike wasn't on probation he would have been given a bus warning. The school officials chose to call probation and the boy's mother. His mother went to school and told the principle that she blames her son as much as Mike for bringing him to that state by teasing him and that she knows boys fight and boys will be boys. The principle told her " we have had trouble with this boy before". Mike was suppose to start school with what this man called " a clean slate". Apparently this was not so. We pulled Mike out of school because we felt they could not provide him the education he is entitled to with his disabilities. We have now learned that he does indeed have TS along with ADHD and insomnia. This school district does not offer any small classroom situations because they are "all inclusive". He was given homebound instruction again while we looked for the proper placement for him. We have now found a placement for him. He began school on Jan 22nd. So far, so good.

Barbara