So, my son (younger son of 2, he's 6 years old and in first grade) had an incident at school the other day.
His teacher called me during the day to tell me that, while on the playground during recess, one of the other children at the school had tied my son to the soccer goal by his wrist with a zip tie. After speaking to the school and my son, this is what I gather happened.
I will preface this by adding that the school is in a transitional location right now. They moved from thier old location over the summer and are in transitional units while they build the new school. This is a small (150 kids K-8) private school.
The first and second grade class were at recess. They have a large grassy area to play in, but no real "playground" as they are still developing the plans for a playground. They do have a soccer field and this is where the kids were playing. There were 7-10 kids playing chase, according to my son. One of the girls in the second grade found a stack of zip ties. Evidently, a few days earlier, the athletic committee was fixing the soccer goals and these were the ties used to adhere the net to the goal. The person from the athletic committee left the extra ties on the ground near the goal. So, as part of the game, this particular girl put one of the zip ties around my son's wrist and then to the soccer goal. Fairly quickly, they realized that he was stuck and someone ran to get the teacher. They ended up having to call the maintenance person, who removed the zip tie with wire cutters. He was tied there for about 15 minutes.
So, when the teacher called me, she assured me he was OK physically, he had been a little upset when he couldn't get loose, but he was OK after etc. She also let me know that the principal was going to talk to the first and second grade classes about playground safety and that a letter was going home with the little girl letting her parents know what had happened. The maintenance person was also doing a sweep of the play area to make sure there were no more zip ties etc.
I felt OK with that response. DS seemed fine that evening, we laughed about it. No big deal.
So, yesterday, I got 5 (FIVE) calls or e-mails from other parents at the school wanting to know what happened. Several of them were seemingly appauled that I was not more concerned and that I was not furious at the little girl.
So, what are your thoughts? Did I underreact?
His teacher called me during the day to tell me that, while on the playground during recess, one of the other children at the school had tied my son to the soccer goal by his wrist with a zip tie. After speaking to the school and my son, this is what I gather happened.
I will preface this by adding that the school is in a transitional location right now. They moved from thier old location over the summer and are in transitional units while they build the new school. This is a small (150 kids K-8) private school.
The first and second grade class were at recess. They have a large grassy area to play in, but no real "playground" as they are still developing the plans for a playground. They do have a soccer field and this is where the kids were playing. There were 7-10 kids playing chase, according to my son. One of the girls in the second grade found a stack of zip ties. Evidently, a few days earlier, the athletic committee was fixing the soccer goals and these were the ties used to adhere the net to the goal. The person from the athletic committee left the extra ties on the ground near the goal. So, as part of the game, this particular girl put one of the zip ties around my son's wrist and then to the soccer goal. Fairly quickly, they realized that he was stuck and someone ran to get the teacher. They ended up having to call the maintenance person, who removed the zip tie with wire cutters. He was tied there for about 15 minutes.
So, when the teacher called me, she assured me he was OK physically, he had been a little upset when he couldn't get loose, but he was OK after etc. She also let me know that the principal was going to talk to the first and second grade classes about playground safety and that a letter was going home with the little girl letting her parents know what had happened. The maintenance person was also doing a sweep of the play area to make sure there were no more zip ties etc.
I felt OK with that response. DS seemed fine that evening, we laughed about it. No big deal.
So, yesterday, I got 5 (FIVE) calls or e-mails from other parents at the school wanting to know what happened. Several of them were seemingly appauled that I was not more concerned and that I was not furious at the little girl.
So, what are your thoughts? Did I underreact?
. Your son wasn't hurt and the kids got help as soon as they realized he was stuck. The school addressed the situation with the kids and is checking the playground for safety. No harm done. I'm sure most of us have been through worse in our childhoods.
, she made an innocent mistake, got help right away, and no one was hurt.
: she probably thought your ds would either be able to get free pretty quickly, or that she'd be able to undo it from the outside.
