Black eye and bloody nose. That was the welcome for a family from India that moved in down the street from us. Their boy adapted to playing touch football, but not Little League. Sometime during 8th grade he made the mistake of sitting at a desk that a Mexican kid had staked out as his territory. How was an Indian kid supposed to know there were property rights in public schools in America... and consequences if you violated them. The Mexican kid shows up for class, walks over to the desk, puts his hand on the back of the Indian kid's head, and slams the kid's face into the desk top. Black eye and bloody nose.
The Indian kid's dad was out of town working on a software project. His mother didn't speak English, didn't drive, and didn't know what to do besides be frightened and appalled. My son demanded that I do something to protect his buddy. Why do kid's always think dad is superman? At the parent council meeting a day or two later, I confronted the principal. The staff's first reaction was to say we couldn't disclose anything about a student, then the principal relented, explained that they were aware of the situation and would deal with it. Eventually, after more transgressions the student was expelled and became someone else's problem.
After 8th grade the Indian family sent their child to a charter high school.
