Winning! File a police report for Endangerment: Penal code section 273(a)
Another high schooler wins, because he spoke up
“Mom, they’re treating me like a caged animal. Kids are staring at me.” I told my son, “You are a LION, not a sheep.”
Last week, I got a request from a mom to send her son an encouraging text. He was the only one standing up for himself at his high school in Southern California. School employees made him sit at a desk outside all day in cold weather. His mother said he was so discouraged: no other boys would join him.
I sent him a text of encouragement. I also advised his mom to call the non-emergency police line and report endangerment. While not providing legal advice, as we had not entered into a signed contract, I suggested she file a police report for Endangerment: Penal code section 273(a). It is a crime to willfully (intentionally) cause another to suffer or inflict thereon unjustifiable physical pain or mental suffering or to cause one’s health to be injured or endangered. I suggested she tell her story, highlighting the facts fitting that definition and to be sure to note it is the policy adopted by the School Board that was endangering her son.
Another one of his teachers told him he could not sit outside, because she needed to be able to keep track of him, and that he had to put a mask on. Her son told her, “no thank you. I am not wearing a mask.” This teacher made him move a desk into the hallway, which didn’t do him much good, because he could not hear anything going on in the classroom.
Yet, son’s individualized healthcare plan (IHP) states he can wear a mask at his own discretion. The nurse in the office told her sophomore son and the Principal that his IHP was old and did not meet the new CDC guidelines. 🤔
I told the mom I’d be happy to speak with her son and encourage him, but at the moment, I didn’t have any more bandwidth (or resources) for additional cases. What I could do, I told her, is provide her with an education on what his rights are under California law. If you want to exercise those rights, I told her, she can do so. (But that didn’t mean I am able to represent her in court.) She accepted that education.
The next afternoon, I received a text from her:
HE WON!!! The Principal came out to him and told him he was allowing him to not wear his mask, and called me and said they would honor his IHP, and that he could go back in the classroom.
By the end of the day, she got a call from the Principal, offering free tutoring. The Principal said they were going to pay his teachers extra to tutor him to get him caught up. 🤔
More good news: His English teacher decided not to let her son give his Persuasive Speech to the class on the topic of mask mandates. He gathered a lot of medical research on the dangers. His teacher told him the topic was too controversial. However, other students gave speeches on police brutality and earlier in the year on Black Lives Matter. But mask mandates were too controversial, she repeated. The teacher told him he could give his speech after class but not to the entire class. Yet, the other students were permitted to give their speeches to the whole class.
She told me they were going to fight this. I heard back:
“He won again, because we spoke up.”
I applaud this young man for his act of peaceful civil disobedience. I also would like to acknowledge the Principal, who changed the school’s abusive actions towards this brave high school student.
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