Irony of BAD district policy

I found it very ironic that this last week Albany High School suspended a student for brining a bottle of soda pop on campus while they still have not suspended a group of children who threatened to kill, attempted to kidnap and beat my son.

Only after a warning and TWO MORE incidents did they suspend ONE student involved for 5 days and that was for disobeying a direct order by district staff to not return to the Middle School property during school hours.

This group of students through Friday morning continued their online threats, harassing phone calls with death threats, and then PUBLICLY using Facebook to organize a new attack planned for Friday afternoon on my son at/near AMS and planning/suggesting they would vandalize our family home &/or car. It has also been reported to our family that this group has continued to return to AMS daily in hopes of catching my son.

If ever there was a need to review the discipline procedures and priorities for the district the time in NOW. This includes violence, threats of violence and bullying -- written documentation by the students involved -- not just the adult, safety & discipline council to review cases, reporting internally to school board, possible need for independent ombudsman that reports directly to the school board & public, in-district suspension school so that going violent is not just a "vacation", referral to police for investigation, student run grievance/mediation process, community service/youth court, etc.

A friend of my son's was shot at this weekend in Oakland just walking down the street in front of his own home with a friend. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Your child could be equally hit in "cross fire" of any kind when student discipline problems are left to fester because it is easier to ignore than it is to deal with the reality that we are living in an increasingly violent and uncivilized culture and that this reality reaches even our small community. Especially in the case of "Black-on-Black" crime when the youths involved are Albany born and bred but feel they must prove themselves to the "tougher" out of district kids so they focus on bullying down on special education students, immigrant children, children of LGBT families, etc.