What do you do if you find out that your teenage daughter has been harassed on the bus? And not just a little harassed, not just picked on or laughed at. What do you do when you find out that a group of boys is sexually harassing your teenage daughter on the bus. Every day. To the point where she doesn't want to ride the bus anymore.
And the boys aren't just making comments, either. The harassment includes grabbing her, dropping their pants in front of her, and rubbing themselves.
What do you do if you find out that she's told her bus driver about it and the bus driver told her to "deal with it yourself."
Do you call the school, the police, the boys parents? Do you just keep your daughter of the bus and say nothing for fear of having her deal with the repercussions of calling the boys out?
It saddens me, deeply, to know that these things happen in places where we, as parents, are trusting other adults to keep our children safe. But it doesn't shock me. I remember the bus when I was in school. I remember how unruly it could get, how one driver who has to focus on the road would never have been able to control the amount of kids he or she was supposed to be in charge of.
But sexual harassment was, thankfully, not something I had to deal with on the bus. And it scares me to know that I might have to have my kids ride those buses when they are older. Right now they ride buses with kids ranging in age from 5 to 11 and these kinds of concerns haven't come up. But next year Bug goes to middle school, where things get more complicated and meaner.
I'm just horrified.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
I'm horrified... and terrified...
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3 comments:
I'd call the school principal, the head honcho of the bus company, the school superintendent AND last but not least, the police.
I would phone anyone and everyone who might listen and I'd follow every call up with a letter and a personal visit until something was done about them and lastly I'd probably wait for them to get off the bus and beat the crap out of them. I'm not an entirely rational person when it comes to my daughter, but something should definitely be done about them before it escalates. The more they get away with now the more they'll think they can get away with in the future.
I agree with both previous posters - I would be calling and writing EVERYONE I could think of to report this. If you don't speak up, the boys will continue to get away with this behyavior. While the threat of retribution at school is a real concern, you can NOT allow this to continue, or to let teenaged daughter think this is not a serious problem and it is okay by not addressing it to the school, bus, administrators, parents of boys, everyone. You are her only voice. And I may not be rational either, but I have experience, unfortuantely. Hope it works out.
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