Mother Breaks Silence When She Learns School Put Her Daughter In Jail
As the dictionary says, school is an institution for education. Another definition says that school is an institution at which instruction is given in a particular discipline. School should be a safe place for all – teachers, parents, and of course students. However, it seems like this particular school that we are going to talk about was not a safe place for a student at all. There might now be several questions floating in your mind: What did the school do? Was the kid hurt? What happened? The answers to all of these questions would be known as you keep on reading.
Disciplinary Actions
In school, especially for the younger ones, there would always be chances that a kid would misbehave. Well, they are young people who are still not that aware of what is wrong and what is right. However, every wrong action must be corrected that is why schools implement various disciplinary actions such as putting them on detention or making them miss break time. Of course, the intensity of these kinds of punishment depends on the age and capacity of the learners who would face it – for example, young children should not face a very serious punishment the same as what 18-year-old students experience.
Disciplinary Actions
Detention
In a young child’s case, detention simply means that a child would undergo the supervision of a teacher. To further explain the process of detention in elementary schools, children must stay in a room under the supervision and guidance of a teacher or their guidance counselor. During their whole stay in the detention room, they are given extra work to be done that serves as the consequence of whatever they have done wrong and out of conduct. In other schools, children are just tasked to finish all their assignments in the detention room; however, the negative effect is that they missed all the lessons they should have learned that day. Detention should just be that simple. However, it seemed like Rock Ridge Elementary School crossed the line.
Detention
Allegra Ramstad
This story revolves around the incident involving the eight-year-old student, Allegra Ramstad, and her school. One day, Allegra’s mother who is living by the name Connie Ramstad, received a formal call coming from Rock Ridge Elementary School’s office. They requested her presence as soon as possible as they informed her that her child was put in detention because she threatened one of her classmates. Being the supermom she had always been, Connie immediately drove her way to her child’s school. She did not know what to feel about what Allegra did until she arrived at the school and saw something she thought she would never see.
Allegra Ramstad
Detention Room
As she went to the “detention room”, she saw her daughter crying and detained in a very small room which was very close to the ambiance of a jail cell. Connie described the room’s height measuring 4 ft and its width being 2 ft. Her heart was broken and shattered into pieces as she faced her daughter crying – she looked very scared.
Detention Room
Self-Defense
She immediately grabbed her phone and documented what the school had done to her eight-year-old daughter. She would not let this happen again. When Allegra already had the chance to tell her mother what actually happened in the classroom, Connie learned that her daughter just defended herself from a classmate who had been bullying her for years already. This information just made Connie more unpleased with Rock Ridge Elementary School’s actions.
Self-Defense
Threatening The Bully
Allegra told her mother the whole story of what actually happened detail by detail. She said that she defended herself by threatening the bully and said that if they would not stop bullying and picking on her, she would tell her mother everything they had done to her. However, it seemed like the school just listened to the bully’s side that was why Allegra was the one who ended up being detained in the “detention room” which really looked like a prison cell. Connie promised her daughter that every bad thing she experienced in that school would never happen to her again. She transferred Allegra into another elementary school.
Threatening The Bully
Traumatized
Seeing how the incident traumatized her daughter, Connie did not let it slide and held the Rock Ridge Elementary School accountable for their actions. With the guidance of their lawyer, Igor Raykin, the Ramstad family filed a lawsuit against the school. With a wide knowledge about various laws and rules, Igor Raykin said that the detention should have happened by calling the guardian of the student first – informing him or her how the child misbehaved and informing her about the action they would do. However, the school did not do it that way. The lawyer formally claimed that Allegra Ramstad’s civil rights were violated by the school.
Traumatized
Prison-like Room
Even with all the documentation of how Allegra was detained in a prison-like room that the Ramstad family presented in the court, Rock Ridge stood firm and denied that they did something that violated the student’s civil rights. They claimed that the room was prepared for all students, who would face detention, as a room they could safely stay in.
Prison-like Room
Official Statement
After days of investigation, the Douglas County School District General Counsel released an official statement. They said that in every case that had been brought up to them, they sought for the student’s safety in the situation. Being a school district general counsel, the students had always been their number one priority. The following information would be facts affiliated with the investigation involving Rock Ridge Elementary School. However, information about the child, Allegra, was not stated in the statement because of a law concerning students’ privacy.
Official Statement
Designated Room
They started narrating what happened by sharing that Rock Ridge Elementary School had a room that was designated for students who would face detention because of their misbehavior. The Douglas County School District General Counsel also shared that they saw several pictures of the detention room that was taken by someone who was not affiliated with the school. Take note that they could not say that the photos were from the mother because no information about the child could be exposed.
Designated Room
Go Out When Necessary
The statement continued saying that Rock Ridge Elementary School had always called the parents and guardians of the students who would face detention and inform them that their child would be detained in a detention room because of their misbehavior. Every time a student stayed inside the detention room, the school officials made sure that the door was open. They also gave the children the freedom of going out of the room when necessary – for example, whenever they needed to use the comfort room.
Go Out When Necessary
Reaching Out
The Douglas County School District General Counsel ended their statement by reminding everyone that in every situation they had faced, the students had always been their priority. They also said that they were reaching out to all the parents and guardians who had their children studying at Rock Ridge Elementary School for their opinions, suggestions, and questions regarding the school’s policies and disciplinary actions.
Reaching Out
Different Views And Opinions
The incident involving the Rock Ridge Elementary School and Allegra Ramstad reached hundreds of people who had different views and opinions. Some questioned the school’s way of handling the situation, while some suggested a better way on how to discipline students. Now, let us ask about your opinion. Were you in favor of the school’s disciplinary actions or do you have other ways in mind? What do you think should have happened with the situation? Whatever your answer is, let us just hope that Allegra has now moved on from the trauma she got from facing the school’s detention and from being bullied for more than a year. Let us also hope that the school has already improved its policies and ways to manage such a situation.
