I am so angry!!!

At about 4:45 yesterday I got a call from Ricky's school principal. Apparently he had grabbed another child's arm and dug his nails in, causing bleeding.

The other child got first aid and was fine, and Ricky had 20 minutes time out and a meeting with the principal, who told Ricky that if this sort of thing happened again he'd be suspended.

Ricky's story was that the other child hurt him first, but the teacher was pretty sure this was not what she'd observed, and in speaking with the principal the true story came out, that no child had hurt Ricky.

I informed the principal that Ricky has been seeing a psychiatrist, has oppositional defiant disorder, and has an IEP (something the principal was inexplicably unaware of). He gave me the name of the school psychologist and suggested our doctor call her. She is only in 2-1/2 days a week, which seems really weird to me.

Okay, fine, Ricky did something naughty and I told the principal I understood the severity and that I would talk to him...

I picked Ricky up at day care and the director informed me that CPS had called her! (That's Child Protective Services for the uninformed.) I couldn't believe my ears. She told them that the day care had had trouble with him too and that they were working with him (really well, I might add -- maybe even better than the school).

I was boggling at the fact that CPS had been called and asked her why she thought this had happened (she did know about the incident at the school). She said she thought maybe the school was thinking someone was hurting Ricky at home, because he was hurting other children. Sounds reasonable, right?

Now, excuse me, but Ricky has not a bruise or mark on him, and every dealing that either of his teachers or the principal have had with me shows that I am a caring and compassionate parent. What right or proof have they to report me to CPS? This is insane.

I know that day cares and schools are required to report suspected abuse, but in my opinion this goes beyond that because there is no reason to suspect abuse. Anyone who looked in his file would see that his behavior disorder diagnosis is the probable explanation for his acting out yesterday.

Am I crazy, or isn't this right?

Update 11/30/01 6:30 p.m. PST: I sent a note to the teacher in Ricky's correspondence envelope this morning, asking why CPS had been called. She called me at work and told me she'd done some investigating and it was apparently not someone at school who had called. So I wonder who it is? The plot thickens!