Tough Day for Colton

This week has been a bit crazy, sick kids and then our first experience with Colton and the police. I think every parent would dread a phone call from the school principal, I certainly did. I was relieved to know that he was calling to let me know my son did the right thing! This week Colton had been in class watching a film. A boy next to him got his attention and showed him a knife he brought. Now when I was growing up I'm sure oodles of kids brought pocket knives to school, but now days there is zero tolerance for anything that could be a weapon. Colton has seen other kids bring pocket knives to school but didn't want to lose his friends by being the snitch so he didn't turn them in. However, this time he finally had the courage to turn the boy in. He was at lunch and the same kid sat next to him, the boy being a smart mouth told Colton to give him his food or he'd cut in the bathroom. The boy reached for his food but Colton slide away from him. Thankfully the boy dropped it and Colton finished his lunch, instead of heading to the gym he went to the office and reported what had happened. They took him back to class and at the end of class the coach escorted the boy to the office. When the police arrived they were going to take Colton's statement again, but he had to catch the bus. When Colton got home he told me he had to go to the station and make a statement that night. I wasn't sure who was handling this so I really didn't know where he should go. We live in the county, but the school he goes to is in a small town 12 miles away. Jason had to call to find out were to go but no one knew about it. The town only has 2 officers, one for day and one for night. We hadn't heard back from the county dept. so we just waited to see if the town sheriff would contact us back. (Their office closes at 4:30pm.) Finally at 8:30 the night officer came out and took his statement. It was a very vague statement and the poor officer was trying to get him to give more detail. Finally I told Colton he needed to give detail - play by play, movie detail as to what happened from one moment to the next. After he listened to him retell it with more detail, he then had to write it. After he left we joked about the rumors that would be flying in the neighborhood as to why a cop was at our home for so long. I haven't heard anything yet though. Anyhow, the boy was taken to "Juvie" as my son calls it; and should be having a hearing by Monday. If it goes to trial Colton will have to testify. We are all hoping it will be settled without it going that far. I was very proud of Colton for having the courage to report the knife. I was shocked any student would bring any weapon after the experience that happened last week. (This really isn't a violent area, it's rather quiet compared to the school we had in CA.) Last week a 5th grader pulled a knife on a boy he had a fight with earlier in the week. He actually had it to his throat when another boy pushed him away and the teacher was able to restrain the boy. That boy will be in Juvie for 2 years. So I was very surprised any kid would even risk bring a knife to school. It is just plain stupidity. I told the cop it's probably time for another Assembly to really reiterate what will happen if you bring any weapon to school. So sad it has come to this now days. It blows me away my kids have to have lock-down drills just as they do with fire-drills. They have had 2 lock-downs already this year.