Today after I dropped off the flowers, I went to my son’s classroom. The principal came in and asked for me to step outside to talk. We went into an office nearby.

She said that she had heard about the flowers I took to the paraprofessional, and she said, “You shouldn’t have done this. This brings a lot of attention.”

I was so surprised by her statement. She sounded a bit upset and I was not expecting this.

She then says, “I understand why you did this, but you shouldn’t have done this. It wasn’t right.”

And I lost it.

I let her have it.

I told her how dare she says this to me. I told her how all she has been doing is re-victimizing us. How she has never acknowledged what happened to our son. I told her to read blogs of victims, and most of them look for validation. When that doesn’t happen, they feel they are being victimized again. I told her how what happened to my son was very hard. But what happened after was worse. How the school, the district, the board, did everything to not side with us. How all we wanted was to know was what happened.

That is it. Tell us what happened to our son.

She told me that she feels confident that she followed all policies correctly. I asked her do you not hear yourself? We wanted to know why our son came home with bruises?! If this was your daughter, wouldn’t you want to know what happened? Yet you have done nothing to assist us. Have you not thought how is it that the TEA ruled against you and your school? Have you not realized that maybe you are in the wrong?

She started crying and telling me that she loves our family and she thinks about us all the time, even in the weekends. I told her that that means nothing to me. What I care about is how she had the power to do the right thing, how she still has the power. She asked me what exactly you want me to do? I told her how about you address the elephant in the room? How about you acknowledge what happened to my son versus always asking me if there’s something wrong at home, or in the bus, or maybe he didn’t sleep okay? All of those questions hurt so much more. Simply say I know what we did to your son are causing these bad behaviors, what can we do to help him overcome this?

See how simple?

But she didn’t budge. She kept insisting that she feels confident she did the right thing. So I kept at it.

I told her how about having a meeting with all of your teachers, talk about what happened to my son, talk about the only witness that had the courage to do something, and tell everyone that the safety of the kids is your number one priority. She said that main office would never let her do that.

After much back and forth, she finally said that she wanted me to know that she is here for me for whatever I need. And now that my son is leaving, for me to know that I am welcomed in the school anytime.

I told her, “With all due respect, I can’t wait for tomorrow to end. As the last day of school, I am happy that my son and I will never take another step inside this building ever again.”

And then I left.