Monday a local mother said she is outraged about the way her 10-year-old son's discipline was handled at Pattengill Middle School, after being caught with marijuana in the boy's room.
She called FOX 47 News and spoke with reporter Alani Letang.
She said her issue is how the school handled the situation without her knowledge and feels she should have been more included in the matter.
"Other parents that are involved didn't even know about the situation, we did not have a sit down with the teacher, with the principal, nothing. It's just very frustrating, very very frustrating" said Kendra Davis the mother of the student.
The incident happened on October 24, 2017. Davis said her son Kentrell and four other boys were instructed by their homeroom teacher to go to a math class. When the boys arrived in the classroom there was no teacher present.
"These are five 10-year-olds, they don't have that brain mentality to go and be mature enough to go class if the teacher isn't there then I'm going to go back to the class," said Davis.
And instead of going to back to their homeroom class, Davis said the boys went to the bathroom for over a half hour where one of the boys pulled out a joint and began smoking it.
Davis said her son did not take part in the smoking but she did get a call from the principal who said that Kentrell was suspended for a day. Davis told us that the principal also told her there was a signed document admitting his involvement. Davis said she demanded to see the paper but the school refused. She said she felt that wasn't right because her son is only 10-years-old and would need a parent present to sign a document. When she went to pick up Kentrell at the end of the day, she said she asked the principal for more information.
"I need more detail. I need to see what's going on, I want to know what happened, you guys have camera's, can I see the camera's none of that was available to me, he basically brushed me off," said Davis.
Davis told us the principal also did not inform her that the incident would be on Kentrell's school record as "possession and/or use of drugs." And at just 10- years-old, Davis said this incident will affect her son's goals he has for himself if it is not removed. She said she is going to do everything she can to get it off his record.
"He wants to be a basketball player, he wants to be a police officer, he wants to be a rapper, you can't do any of those things if you have this on your record at the age of 10. People are going to look at you completely different, they are going to stereotype you," said Davis.
Davis said Kentrell wrote apology letters to his teachers and to her for his role. She said he is truly remorseful for how the whole incident played out.
FOX 47's Alani Letang spoke to a school spokesperson earlier Monday afternoon and they told her they couldn't comment on specific cases. However, Davis contacted Letang right before this story aired and said after our call, the school called her and apologized. The school also told her they will remove the incident from her son's permanent school record.
