To the editor:

It was with great dismay and disappointment that I read the parent’s version of the recent incident at Schwegler Elementary (“Third-grader not violent, mother says,” March 3). Perhaps he wasn’t violent before, but there is always a first time (and a second, and a third…). This parent has chosen, like so many do these days, to shift responsibility from the offender to someone else in this case, from her son to the teacher and principal!

Perhaps the teacher and principal did not choose the right method to restrain this child, but for goodness sakes, he’s a third-grade child. Where is his respect for authority? It shouldn’t take more than a stern warning to get this “non-violent” child to stop and listen! As far as I can see, he did three things wrong in one incident he took what was not his, got mad and started throwing objects around his classroom and then physically (and violently) resisted his teacher and principal. Not once in that article does his mom indicate that she thinks any of his behavior was inappropriate.

Perhaps the hold that was chosen was incorrect, but it seems to me that with the ‘Mandt system,’ this boy would have still been free to kick his legs at will perhaps he could have broken a different bone would it then have been his fault?

Where was this parent’s apology to the teacher and principal? Rather than defend her son’s very disturbing behavior, she should have been stating her concern about his behavior and that it would be addressed. She should have been giving her, and her son’s, sincere apology to the teacher and principal for this incident. Accident or not, her son broke another person’s bone, and an apology is in order.

It may have been this boy’s first violent outburst, but is his parent chooses to defend him, rather than accept his culpability, it probably won’t be his last or his most violent.

Grace Vogel,

Lawrence