Date: Mon, 13 Apr 2015 15:45:01 +0000 (UTC)
From: Bob Smith <bobmflorida@yahoo.com>
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.