Onto El Cerrito

So one of the incidents occurred in El Cerrito which is another City and another County -- we just happen to live less than a block away from the dividing line. So I need to work with them to file one of the incident reports of the attempted theft and ongoing intimidation / harrassment. Luckily there are both adult witnesses to the initial threatening behavior and cameras that cover parts of the areas where the incident took place.

Some of the kids involved in continuing lunchtime harassment have thought they could run across city/county line and not be touched. This is not so and the El Cerrito police officer responsible is well aware of their past activities and patterns.

This early morning post to the AlbanySchools Group

I want to be clear the incidents with my son have for more than a week risen to the level of repeated, premeditated crime. It was teasing, then bullying for multiple years and now it is flat out crime and "organized" almost entirely using Facebook, mobile phones, texts and emails -- both at school and at home.

As a Christian, I think everyone is given the opportunity to be saved but a penitent heart is required before reconciliation and salvation.

We can all say isn't it a shame that people end up and prison and more could have been done and miss the victim entirely. Both my mother and one of my sisters worked for years on educating prisoners and helping their families. However, both have clearly said to me -- there is a reason for prison and even working within the system for change -- there are definitely people who should be in there. I'm no fan of a California's prison system vs. education -- but interventions need to take place early and sometimes it takes being hit by the sword of justice to open offenders eyes to their choices/responsibilities so that they can be reformed.

I leave it up to the police and prosecutors with media scrutiny to decide where the lines are and unless there is some travesty -- I won't have to move forward with civil lawsuits on top of the restraining orders to get parents to control their children.

Raising a young black male who is growing up in the "urban" culture is challenging for a number of reasons - but when that child reaches about 13 years old they are no longer cute and this type of behavior if not stopped is a potential death sentence. I had Tupac volunteer with McCollum Youth Court earlier this year for his 8th grade service project to see what happens when kids start making the wrong choices.

Tonight, Tupac had multiple telephone death threats and further harassing calls that are now being traced by the police. There were additional veiled and not so veiled threats posted online almost simultaneously and the police responded properly to investigate these.

Unfortunately, it was reported to our family by multiple people that the AHS students involved in this continuing series of incidents were AGAIN on AMS school property Thursday afternoon defying school district orders that they are not to be there. Tupac was still recovering from an unrelated asthma attack so he was not in school on Thursday. These kids tried to enlist other AUSD students to be lookouts and to tell them where Tupac was so that they could attack him.

Tonight part of this core group has been using Facebook to organize another attack for tomorrow and vandalism at our home to further the intimidation. Other "nice" AMS and AHS students are cheering these kids on which only seems to increase their boldness. Luckily another growing group of students and their parents are now forwarding the illegal activity to the police department directly as well as contacting me.

I have not posted too many kid quotations directly on this site -- but know I and Tupac have both previously been targeted with Hate Speech and specific threats of violence even after the start of the police investigation. You can find the gory details on my blog: http://safecommunity4albany.blogspot.com


Here is a sample from some of the "nicer things" said publicly just last night/recently:

Student 1 MALE:
hahahasaaa lol tupac dad is a nerd did u here bout dat
website he mad brehhe doin to much kuz fuck him though yea nigggaa itz
bad for tupac
4 hours ago

Student 2 MALE:
Real bad niigga tomara
4 hours ago

Student 1 MALE:
windows willl be brokin
4 hours ago

Student 3 MALE:
wat did he ever do to u
3 hours ago

Student 1 MALE:
everything
3 hours ago

Student 4 Female:
whts tha website called
2 hours ago

------------------------------

Student 1 MALE:
WOW HOW SAD
March 16 at 11:30pm

Student 5 MALE:
Wats so sad
March 16 at 11:36pm

Student 1 MALE:
TUPAC DAD IS A FAG
March 17 at 8:48am

Student 5 MALE:
I no
March 17 at 2:34pm

Student 1 MALE:
lol
March 17 at 6:15pm


--------------------------------

Student 6 FEMALE:
http://safecommunity4albany.blogspot.com/2010/03/safety-concerns-incidents.html
[WEBSITE TUPACS DAD CREATED.!!!!!]
Safe Community 4 Albany: Safety Concerns & Incidents
safecommunity4albany.blogspot.com
Link to online version of this so you can easily print it
out...PDF:https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B_Q8hqVqc30yMWQzNTQzOWYtMmM4OC00ZDQ1LTkzMjktMWU5MDMzMWQ2MmYy&hl=en
5 hours ago · Comment · LikeUnlike · Share

Student 6 FEMALE:
http://safecommunity4albany.blogspot.com/2010/03/safety-concerns-incidents.html
[WEBSITE TUPACS DAD CREATED.!!!!!]
Safe Community 4 Albany: Safety Concerns & Incidents
safecommunity4albany.blogspot.com
Link to online version of this so you can easily print it
out...PDF:https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B_Q8hqVqc30yMWQzNTQzOWYtMmM4OC00ZDQ1LTkzMjktMWU5MDMzMWQ2MmYy&hl=en
5 hours ago · Comment · LikeUnlike · Share

--------------------------------

Student 7 FEMALE:
.
what the fuckk, funniest shit everr.
okaay. go to: http://safecommunity4albany.blogspot.com/
and go all the waaay down and read like the last two paragraphs,
its abouutt tupac. lmaoo.

Student 8 MALE:
so much bullshit haha
2 hours ago

Student 8 MALE:
im reading this right now
hella funny
2 hours ago

Student 7 FEMALE:
i know rightt.?!
2 hours ago

Student 9 MALE:
ahahahahahah omfg this shit so fucking funnyy!!!!!
2 hours ago

Student 7 FEMALE:
i know.!
2 hours ago

Student 6 FEMALE:
Hahahah I know right I was like wtf. I'm about to have someone disable
this. ahahah and restrainingg orders woahh now.! Lol.
2 hours ago

Student 7 FEMALE:
hahaahahaa lmaooo.
2 hours ago

Student 6 FEMALE:
Fuckk what'd those paragraphs say, .
about an hour ago

Student 8 MALE:

about an hour ago

Student 6 FEMALE:
Ahaha ohh.
about an hour ago

Student 7 FEMALE:
it says that on therre?
about an hour ago

Student 8 MALE:
yea
about an hour ago

Student 7 FEMALE:
damnn.
about an hour ago

Student 6 FEMALE:
Woopsy. Lol.
about an hour ago

Student 7 FEMALE:
hahaah.
about an hour ago

Student 6 FEMALE:
To badd. Lol.
about an hour ago

Student 7 FEMALE:
lmaoo.
about an hour ago

Student 6 FEMALE:
I cann suee him, to.
about an hour ago

Student 7 FEMALE:
do itt!! andd why what did he doo.?
about an hour ago

Student 6 FEMALE:
Ahaha can't biologicals don't knoww. Andd for putting my information
onlinee with out my permision. Plus he's not even my friend how the
fuckk does he get it.? Through Tupac.?
about an hour ago

Student 7 FEMALE:
damnn. hella wierdd.
about an hour ago

Student 6 FEMALE:
Yuup, but it's stupidd. Lol no need to worry.
about an hour ago

Student 7 FEMALE:
ahha yeah.
about an hour ago

Student 6 FEMALE:
Lol yuup.

This afternoon / evening -- more threats

Tupac received multiple threats by phone tonight. We called the police, they came out and took the report and they will be running a trace. About the same time this same group of kids + one or two others posted comments to Facebook that were also being reported to the police.

The bullies are trying to scare him to say they will kill me -- his father. As he already has lost his birth parents, my partner and I have been hospitalized and recovering from a series of heart attacks in spring/summer 2008. This is a particularly cruel move/low blow. But Tupac remains resilient.

We have had other AMS students report back to us that two of the three main sponsors of violence including the one student who is currently on suspension were again on AMS property today this afternoon looking for Tupac to assault him and telling kids to inform them when/where he was so that they could "end him," "end this" and "kill him". As this is a violation to the school district personnel directive (which they supposedly have all been warned of) on top of the illegality of the menacing and threatening -- these kids just can't seem to keep digging themselves deeper and deeper.

For the students now reading this...

Tupac is very sick with an asthma attack today -- he's had it since birth. We are headed into the hospital but he will be fine. He generally misses 2-3 school days when it gets this bad before he recovers.

He is not hiding. He is not out of school because he has been bullied or threatened. He is genuinely sick and it is entirely unrelated to the other stuff.

As a kid, he had HUNDREDS of trips to the Dr.'s, surgeries, etc. His day-to-day health is significantly better but he will have asthma and his other problems forever and can only do his best to control them and avoid things from time to time that might make it worse.

My response to the AlbanySchools Moderators choice to remove my original message

We are headed to court tomorrow/Friday and these and more will be public records and technically youth are not protected other than at 18 they can have youth criminal records sealed for past behavior. Any reports in the media, their behavior online or in public are not protectable and they have no rights/demands to squelch hide -- in this internet age that is their punishment. These kids need to know that their behavior now will have consequences forever -- just like the psychological damage they are causing. Any further attacks after restraining orders are in place -- this group of kids will be charged as adults.

Please make your policy statement public so that people on the list know -- transparency is best in moderation.

On a personal level, I have been threatened by one child's parents who has broken my sons nose twice on school property -- they also similarly abuse & bully school staff which is one of the reasons why the school staff did not follow through on the policy! There is a reason why their kid is a bully. If any list moderator has been threatened by them now or in the future please make sure they know they should immediately call 911 and save any evidence, gather witness names.

Please know, I will attempt to repost that message with edits saying student 1, student 2, etc., a note that the original message was removed referring to your post on the removal with my disagreement but understanding. If you want any further edits to that before the repost -- have the moderators review and offer them back. This is too important a topic to have it completely silenced/erased.

I will make a statement in that re-post to let people know that putting the names public has allowed other parents to contact me, the district and now the police to report crimes and have conversations with their kids that has uncovered unreported bullying/crime. This has clearly helped show that there is a multi-year, multi-site, multi-kid pattern of escalating intimidation, bullying, threats and violence and expose the severity that several kids have received over time from a core group. It has also shown that the district has not dealt with these kids in a long term, comprehensive student discipline based view that could/should have resolved this matter under existing behavior rules before it escalated to repeated violent attacks.

I have also gathered the last 2 years worth of emails to the district where I have constantly asked for additional staff support, IEP meetings and a behavior plan that could protect my son and any other kid around my son because of "incidents." It shows a pattern of ignoring the problem, being out of compliance with federal and state laws, etc. The statement that "we never saw this coming" is incorrect, it is rather a we just did not listen to the kids and give any of it enough attention until some parent decided to go public -- thank God this was before a more serious event.

Since this latest event the bullying, threats and intimidation continue and in some ways are worse and seem to look like they will only get even worse as the police finally begin investigating this. I will leave it up to the police and prosecutors to decide what things they feel they can prove and move forward with as charges.

Once we get through this phase and things begin to settle down -- I am very interested in solutions / raising the bar for behavior between kids and giving all kids the tools & training to help stop bullying and increase the sense of community. Unfortunately, I don't think that is realistic until they see there are consequences and we go through a "truth & reconciliation" phase.

Met with Officer Belman, proceeding with restraining orders

I met with Officer Belman this afternoon to give him an overview of the case/where we are at. He begins his investigation tomorrow of the previous incidents involving at least three AHS students. Any new/further incidents will be 911 calls as soon as I hear of them.

Apparently unless a weapon is involved the school district will not report violence to the police. However my understanding is that the school district must enforce restraining orders and contact the police when they are violated.

Going to try and get temporary restraining orders tomorrow.

Suggested Police Presence near AMS during AHS open campus lunch and afterschool

I have asked and the suggestion is being forwarded onto Patrol Lt. Geissberger that for the time being it would be VERY helpful if the Albany Police station an officer and squad car near the AMS/bike/BART path area during AHS open campus lunch and again after school daily until the bulk of AHS students pass by to ensure that the children in the community understand this safety issue is being taken seriously.