Dad Gets Restraining Order Against 4th-Grade Bully

Newser.com:

A Southern California dad has taken out a restraining order against a classmate of his fourth-grade son who he says threatened his boy with a knife.

A judge has granted a temporary order requiring the classmate to stay at least 20 feet away from Robert Casteel's 10-year-old son, Christopher.

"My son was terrified," Casteel said. "I kept him home for five days until I got the restraining order."

Read the whole story: Newser.com

Comments

[dbrett480]

07:51 PM on 02/03/2012

This restraining order might be hard to enforce since the child is required to go to school.

[mmrdaisley]

05:30 PM on 01/29/2012

They found the knife on him after he threatened a kid, and he only got a 5 day suspension?

[Mafdet]

10:13 AM on 01/29/2012

He did the best possible thing. You want to think that you could ask the school to intervene in a constructive way, but more often than not the school springs into a defensive mode, understating the seriousness of bullying. Well, case in point! Bully was suspended for 5 days for brandishing a weapon at another student. He'll come back angrier with a bigger weapon. Then you want to think the father could have called the bully's parents, but when a kid gets to be 10 and is audacious enough to threaten others with weapons, one has to assume that the parents have not, to this point, built a successful enough system of reward and punishment for the child to control him. Now what happens to the bully? Is it time to have a new kind of special ed for kids who exhibit predatory behavior?

[Melissa Imsand]

09:41 AM on 01/29/2012

4th grade bullies grow up to be adult bullies! Get the restraining order now! Show other kids this is not OK. I have twins in the 4th grade now and just last week a child in one of their classes got angry at the teacher and began throwing pencils, a chair and even hit one girl with a violin before they could get the other kids out of the room.... my daughter is still having bad dreams about it. Someone has to teach these bullies this is not acceptable behavior! If one of my kids life was threatened, I would take it seriously enough to get a restraining order too! Way to go parent!

[JuliannaSmith]

09:04 AM on 01/28/2012

We've been discussing about these bullying issues with my co-parents in school. And I believe it will be a great idea to teach our children a safety tip on how to deal with bullying. And as been noticed, bullied case has been increasing rapidly, so we've come of an idea to search for a mobile safety that will ensure our kids to be safe even when we're not around. Then we found this link http://www.tsue-thatswhatshesaid.com/2011/09/keeping-your-child-safe-supporting.html that talks about securing every family in modern way. You can also check that link for your own good.

[Erica McClellan]

08:10 AM on 01/29/2012

Bullying cases are not increasing, awareness and reporting are increasing. It was given a wink and a nod in generations past; "boys will be boys," "girls just do that at that age," "it's just kids being kids," "it builds character"..................

[jturbayne]

09:56 PM on 01/27/2012

Parents and teachers have to use the legal system in order for any action to be taken. Otherwise nothing happens and often the teacher gets reprimanded for not having order in his/her classroom. I was a special ed teacher and have had to call the police . I would file charges because the administration failed to do anything, so the students continued with violence even against myself. When the police get involved the child realizes that they are not above the law.
They finally have a natural consequence for behavior that is often rewarded by their peers. Most school administrations are afraid to do anything to upset the parents.

[hollyk]

12:13 PM on 01/28/2012

A lot of school officials are also afraid of having the negative behaviors on their "grade cards" as the amount of behavior issues--espcially the severe ones affect the grade that the school gets from the state/federal education dept. The do nothing attitude of the administration led me to leave the teaching profession. I am glad that parents of the good kids are finally doing something.

[Neets101]

07:48 PM on 01/27/2012

What seems truly bizarre is the reaction of shock at the thought of the restraining order for the fourth grader, but no apparent shock that some fourth grader is threatening kids at school with a knife...

Knife? O, okay....
Restraining order? OMG!!! Call the news!!!

[Jennifer Bechthold]

09:32 PM on 01/27/2012

I totally agree! I mean what is a parent suppose to do in this case? Shrug their shoulders and chalk it up to kids being kids? My God this day an age you can never be too careful. The student with the knife should be expelled and given a full psychological evaluation.

[Neets101]

03:58 PM on 01/28/2012

Exactly.

[Karmella]

07:35 PM on 01/27/2012

Kudos to the father for flipping the script!

[bassmeant1]

06:09 PM on 01/27/2012

Quit raising your kids to be cowards. Handle the problem yourselves. Go face to face with the parents. Don't drag the police into this. They have real crimes to focus on, not babysitting your children who have such low self esteem they can't stand up for themselves. Fight the fight if that's what's required. America has gone soft and all you parents are doing your kids a disservice by not TEACHING them to stand up for themselves. Peace

[noahmarder]

03:34 AM on 01/28/2012

Threatening someone with a knife is aggravated assault. You don't consider that a real crime? Would you actually tell your child to "stand up" to a knife wielding adversary, assuming he is unarmed and has no training in fighting armed foes? The knife wielding kid should be expelled and charged as a juvenile, and if he had a long history of violence in school, the principal and super-intendant should be fired, and potentially charged with child endangerment.

[hollyk]

12:14 PM on 01/28/2012

If their 10 year old kid is carrying a knife, what do you think the parents will have? Facing these parents might not be the safest thing to do.

[chrismbi]

03:56 PM on 01/27/2012

So when is "National Bitch-Slap A Bully" Day?

[mech126]

03:12 AM on 01/30/2012

I don't know, but on that day a whole lot of republicans will be hurting.....

[chrismbi]

08:14 AM on 01/30/2012

LOL!

[Rich914]

03:15 PM on 01/27/2012

20 feet? If the kid threatened the other kid with a knife he should be kicked out of school and the bully's parents should pay to send him somewhere else.

[CannabisRex]

12:19 PM on 01/27/2012

Many years ago when my kids were young, my eldest son was being bullied by a punk kid from a redneck family, and the school was doing nothing. One day after another incident I paid a visit to the father where he worked at a tire shop and called him out in front of his fellow employees and challenged him on the spot; We fight bare knuckled, right now, and if he wins his kid can keep on with his abuse..if not, it stops now.

He considered my 6'1" 220 pound frame and demeanor and after mealymouthing for a few minutes agreed to put a halt to it, and he did. had he not, my next visit would have been with no choices. Since the system in this small mountain town did not work, a direct approach did. this may not work for most situations but I was sick and tired of the crap, and would glady have gone to jail to make a point...and he knew it. Sometimes waiting for justice simply will not work.

[rickcraft55]

04:14 PM on 01/27/2012

Same method worked for me.

[mother10]

11:22 PM on 01/27/2012

Smile, beautiful story...I hope all is well now

[lezanelson]

11:16 AM on 01/27/2012

Go daddy!

[bluespagan]

10:58 AM on 01/27/2012

Kids can't fight back because then they will be kicked out of school for fighting or arrested for assault. Parents can't do anything without getting sued for verbal assault. Schools can't do anything for fear of being sued from the offending students parents. So what is left to be done to protect your child? It is sad that this man had to go this far but just shows how far down the road society has gone to over protecting kids, regardless of what they do.

[Seliotis]

08:08 AM on 01/27/2012

I once taught in a school where one student had a restraining order against a bully and the administration put them in the same class! Enforcement was a little difficult.