Small Town, Small School

  For the first time in our lives, we moved to a very small town in Southeast Missouri. We lived in Central Arkansas for over 25 years. My wife and I made this move to be close to our daughter, son-in-law and our precious grandchildren.
   The small town we live in now, population 1,000 is quiet, people are friendly and we could not have moved to a better community. Yet, a few miles up the road, we ask that you pray for this town with us. 
   My daughter had 3 children that were enrolled in school in this small town up the road from us. Prior to us moving here, we were aware that one of our grandsons was being bullied at this school, being the new kid in school. The family had moved back into the community about a year and a half prior to us moving to our small town. Our grandson, this same grandson being bullied, was injured playing in a school basketball game where we found out that he had torn his ACL. At the time of the injury on the court, he was instructed by the coach to walk it off, not knowing what his injury was. While in a wheel chair at school one day, he was bullied again, when some boys started throwing basketballs at him in the gym. These incidents were reported to the proper staff yet nothing was done, it was who's children they were and our grandson was the new kid on the block. Even though it is clear in the school handbook, the staff did not deal with the issue. 
  My daughter recently unenrolled our grandchildren from this school due to many reasons with the school being behind on their curriculum along with the unprofessional approach the leadership and teachers use. Our grandson, is a very good kid, a teenager who just wanted to fit in, very athletic, a honor student with manners. He acted up one day in class, cutting up, was reprimanded by the teacher and instructed to go out in the hall. He sat outside the classroom on the floor until class was over. He recently had his ACL operated on and found it somewhat painful getting up from a sitting position on the floor. After this class was over, there was an award ceremony in the gym for a student accepted at a college. When he was down in the gym, he was instructed by this same teacher, to sit down against the wall in a hall away from the ceremony. He told the teacher that it hurt him to sit down, she started hollering at him, she was standing next to another teacher at the time, she should have walked over to him to speak with him instead of ignoring what he was trying to express, a real concern, instead it was just a show in front of this teacher and other nearby students that was degrading and very unprofessional, bullying as such by the teacher, her failing to listen to his concerns, all on video, thanks to a concerned student nearby.
  I wrote an email to the administrators of this school, prayed about it and asked my daughter for her thoughts. I still have the email in my drafts today. God has led us to not send out the email nor release the video to the  public. Instead, we write this story and share the facts of the events we have experienced with you today. You see, God has a purpose for everything in our lives, we will go thru peaks and valleys and he is always there. God led my daughter to take her kids out of this school to home school them and 3 weeks later, she and the kids all realize why God led them to this very difficult decision, they are learning more at home, it is much more advanced and they are happy! 
  It is our job as Christians to call out others Christians in leadership roles to correct their methods. We know that many of the teachers and administrators go to church on Sunday, the teacher that was yelling at our grandson is the youth leader at the local church right behind the school.  
 Matthew 7:1 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.  We are not writing this article to judge 
 We are given wisdom, discernment, and the Holy Spirit to judge between the good and the bad, and we have been given the Word of God to judge between truth and error. But we are also warned of the serious consequences and destructive force of the hypocritical, sanctimonious criticism of other believers.
  This article is facts of events yet upon my daughter taking our grandchildren out of this school for better education and protecting them from leadership that fails to enforce their own school policies, they judge along with others in the community in person and on social media without knowing or ignoring the facts.
  You see, as leaders in any school, business, church or community, some decisions are not always going to be popular with others. Following and enforcing policies and or laws are an intricate part of a leaders job regardless of the popularity or who it is. God has given us our procedures (laws) to follow in life and man has made laws and policies to protect others, failure to follow or enforce these has a negative impact. Think about how this story effects the bullies' if there are no consequences for their actions? Inaction has a negative effect on all who are involved including the leaders at some point.  
We ask you to pray with us for this school, the children attending it, the teachers and the administrators that lead this culture. We also ask that you pray for this community, small town set in their ways and who's who: James 3:14-16.