This weekend managed to fly by in the blink of an eye. I look back and can't remember much; life has been a blur since Friday. As I was in the bathroom with Lourdes at Chipotles after getting our lunch in a nice brown bag with handles, my phone rang. Conveniently, I had just sat on the toilet and when you've got a 46" protruding belly, you can't exactly jump up and run for the phone sitting on the metal shelf they provide to set your personal belongings on while using their facilities. I thought it must be my mom, who is pretty much the only person who calls me (no joke), and in typical fashion, would expect a call back or understanding when I called her right back. Something told me to get myself up though and grab the phone. Just as it was about to go to voicemail, I picked it up off the shelf and saw it was a school number. Unsure if it was Landen's or Noah's school (both have the same prefix), I opened it quickly, which answers automatically. It was the school nurse from Landen's school. Needless to say, she fumbled around her words and it seemed like an eternity before I had gotten the jest of what she was trying to tell me. My son had been beaten up along with a friend of his by a group of 4 bigger kids. Landen had been hit in the head and "had a change in neuro-status" of being excessively sleepy all of a sudden.
She put Landen on the phone and I ran through some questions with him that came to mind as I quickly got Lourdes strapped in the car seat and hurriedly drove across the street to our office. I hung up with Landen just in time to call Thong and tell him to get outside and go with me to Landen's school. I was crying so hard I'm actually surprised he understood me, but after 7 years, he's learned to decipher what I'm saying through all kinds of emotions.
Thong came out and by this time I had my mom on the phone trying to get her to understand my words-through-tears diatribe. He motioned for me to get in the passenger seat because clearly I wasn't in a condition to drive safely.
We drove quickly (but safely) to the school and my mind was going in 100 different directions as I continued to shake and cry. All that kept flashing through my mind were scenes from youtube videos that people post about after-school fights; planned or unplanned. I've seen plenty to know that they are usually no-holds-barred and end up with someone being hurt very badly. From what I knew at that very moment, my son was the one who was hurt very badly.
We arrived at the school and the check-in desk was taking their time getting us checked in. They asked for our ID and we gave it to her as she scanned it into the computer... then her phone rang. She stopped what she was doing for us to tend to the phone call and after a minute or so, I said (and there were 2 other women up there watching who worked there too) "My son just got beat up by 4 guys, I NEED TO GET BACK TO THE NURSES OFFICE! Can I just go back there?!" They realized then that we were Landen's parents and hit the "print" button for our ID stickers and we rushed back to the nurses office.
Not knowing fully what to expect, I entered the room and saw my sweet Landen sitting on a hard plastic chair holding an ice pack to his head behind his ear. He was relieved to see us but in pain. I looked at the bump and immediately went from scared and concerned to infuriated with the kids who took my child and roughed him up like he was a rag doll.
Thong and I sat down and started in on the questions, as one could imagine any parent would. The police were already on-campus and dealing with the situation; questioning witnesses, etc., so we waited to take our turn to speak with them.
In summary of what happened to the best of my understanding:
Landen and his friend Jordan were playing catch with this little Nerf football the size of a Dixie cup. (No joke it was tiny). These 4 bigger kids came up and told Jordan and Landen they wanted them to play tackle football with them. Knowing that would get them in trouble, Landen and Jordan told these kids no. They walked away and turned to see these four kids lined up and came charging at them like a bull to a matador holding a red flag. Jordan got hit first and was put in a choke hold/headlock and the three others took turns hitting and kneeing him in the ribs, stomach and side. Landen saw this and tried pulling one of the kids off of Jordan so he could breathe. (Jordan at this time was on his knees and unable to breathe they had him in such a tight headlock). With Landen trying to help save his friend, this made the group of 4 mad and they turned on Landen. One of the kids (whose name I have yet to obtain but believe me, I will!), was holding a wood brush and Landen got hit very hard behind his ear. He is 99% sure the kid hit him with the brush itself, but since he was hit from the side-rear, he didn't visually see that it was the brush, versus his fist. Either way, it was a very hard hit and made quite the mark on my child's head in a spot that could easily have fractured his skull. (And had it been 3" up and to the front, he would have hit him in the temple, causing him to die immediately.)
Thong and I filed police charges, but since Landen could not attest with 100% certainty that it was the wood brush he was hit with, the kid didn't get charged with felony assault with a weapon, but instead, slapped on the wrist with the least possible offense which is a misdemeanor of bodily contact assault. Nonetheless, his parents will have to pay a fine (TBD on the amount) and the kid will serve time in In-School-Suspension for who knows how long. My hope is that it's the rest of the year.
We were quickly shooed out of the school before the offender's parents showed up and about a mile down the road I regretted leaving at all. I had so much to ask those parents and tell them, whether they wanted to hear it or not. I intend on going back to Landen's school tomorrow to talk with the principal (rather than the ASSISTANT principal, who we talked to exclusively (as far as school officials go) on Friday.). He is a very nice man and I have no hesitation about communicating my concerns to him first thing in the morning, assuming they will let me on his schedule.
As much as we were against our kids having cell phones before this incident, our minds were changed 100% after Friday's events. We went out Saturday, bought both boys a $20.00 cell phone (the same one I have) and by today, it's been activated. They are only allowed to use them for emergencies; we have only 200 minutes per month on them (for $10.00 on each line) and T-Mobile has a parental control feature which allows us to control who they call, who calls them, texting, times during the day/night that the phone is physically "on" and all kinds of other features. It's VERY convenient. I'm THANKFUL that they offer this service at such a reasonable price. $20.00 for both boys to have a phone for emergencies only is a minuscule price to pay for peace of mind.
I will also be going tonight to Walmart to buy Landen a coach's whistle so in the event these boys (or some of their cohorts) approach Landen again in any kind of threatening manner, he can blow his whistle, which obviously will cause everyone within ear-shot to turn and look and those kids will more than likely scatter like cockroaches when a light is turned on.
Pray for me to have clarity and guidance with what to say tomorrow to the principal and pray that he will accept me into his schedule to have this important conversation with him about the safety of my child on his campus. My hope is that he will be open to hearing what I have to say and take my suggestions to heart and implement some changes that absolutely should have been in place long ago so hopefully this type of situation never happens again.
