Fire Alarm!

Gena called me at work on Monday and told me that Trevor was in the Principal's office because he had pulled the fire alarm at his school.  Wow, that's not good.  Surely there is a reason why he would do something so stupid. 

Trevor's explanation was that he had looked at the alarm and the small glass safety bar was missing and the lever was pulled at a 45 degree angle and slightly crooked.  He was standing by another boy and said that the alarm didn't work.  The other boy told him to pull it and to prove it didn't work, Trevor put two fingers on the bar and intended to push down, but before he could apply much pressure, the lever fell the rest of the way down and the alarm started sounding...ooops.

The principal told us it was a "level 5" incident and because of this Trevor was assigned a required 20 days of AEP.  AEP students are not allowed to be on campus and can not participate in any after-school activities, including his first ever Christmas Concert for band and the performance of the Juinor High One-Act-Play, which Trevor was one of only two actors to receive an all-star-cast award for in the competition...bad news for sure.

Gena researched the handbook and found a definition of a fire alarm to read..."the student must knowingly initiate the false report."  In other words, in order for it to be considered a level 5 incident, the student had to know that his actions would cause the alarm to sound.  Obviously this did not apply in this case since Trevor was trying to prove that the alarm was not working.  If he believed the alarm lever was in working order, he never would have pulled it.

I armed myself with this knowledge and talked to the principal...he disagreed.  He said Trevor knew that pulling the lever would cause the alarm to activate.  In other words he was calling Trevor a liar.  Not a good idea.

The AEP hearing was set for the next morning at 8:30am.  I took a day off of work and Trevor and I arrived at the principal's office on time.  The principal then asked why we were there when the hearing wasn't until Thursday...I basically called him a liar and strongly suggested that he call whoever he needed to call to make it happen now.  He made a few phone calls and sent me home to wait.  He called at about 10:00am and said he was able to get the AEP officer to agree to a meeting at 11am.  Trevor and I returned and told the story to the AEP officer who "thought about it" for a few minutes and then agreed with the principal...why are people so stupid?

I found out in a round-about way that because Trevor is a teacher's kid, they are both trying to cover their own rear-ends by proving they do not give favors to anyone.  So in other words they are giving him the maximum punishment because they want to make an example or prove a point...again, stupid.

I left the principal's office and headed straight to the Superintendent's office where I filled out the paperwork required to start an appeal of the AEP hearing.  Unfortunately I have no idea when I will get a call back on that and Trevor has already served two days of suspension and he started AEP today.

I never thought the hair-brained and hard-headed politics of some administrators in Van Vleck ISD would become any part of my life, but if the Superintendent proves to be as closed-minded as the first two yahoos then you just might see me in front of the school board, possibly with a lawyer.

People who think they are in power can be so stupid.