Out of School Suspension

Yesterday my son was suspended out of school for the remaining of the day. He was involved with two others in throwing rocks that purportedly hit another student in the head the prior day. I am not condoning my son's behavior of throwing rocks...he is a boy age 12. My son is a good boy, and has never been referred to the office for misconduct or misbehavior. However, today he got an out of school suspension for "creating an unsafe environment" which is a Category C write-up and will remain in his student file. Not only do I work at the school that gave my son the suspension, but I had no choice but challenge the Asst. Principal disciplinary action of an out of school suspension. Both my husband and I let him know we did not agree with the punishment fitting the "crime" and that further discretion should have been considered. Instead of a "horseplay" Category A write-up, which was reflected by my son as an appropriate punishment, the Asst. Principal already had in his mind what the punishment would be and was promised to the parent of the student purportedly hit. I challenged every aspect of disciplinary consideration that was forwarded to my son, which they were willing to amend. However, in all equity we felt that would not be fair to the other two students suspended that just took whatever was handed down to them. I advocated not only for my son, but also for the other two students suspended defending them as good students without prior disciplinary referrals and an out of school suspension was unjust. The Asst. Principal was baffled by the lack of respect and consideration that the students did not display toward the injured student. However, none of the three boys were aware that someone got injured as a possible result of them throwing rocks. What I am baffled by is the lack of respect and consideration that was given to these students in receiving the punishment that they did. I believe that both administrators and educators alike forget that just because they are in a position of power, mutual respect between school and student should be present.