Notice from Uramura Elementary

A Letter from Uramura Elementary School - Received One Week Ago

April 2, 2060

Dear Mr. Saitoh,

We had a bit of a problem with Tsutomu today. During recess, he tackled and tied up three of his classmates to the swing set, with the apparent assistance of several other children. When confronted by a recess monitor, your son refused to untie them, declaring that they were threats to society. Our school custodian had to cut through four jump ropes, which we are kindly requesting that you will replace. He also refused to apologize to the children that he tied up, or to the recess monitor, or to me or to the principal, stating that he preferred death over dishonor. This attitude of course, is cause for serious concern.

Because Tsutomu was unwilling to be nice and apologize to the other children, we had no choice but to place in him a time out corner for the rest of the day. When we asked him to at least write a letter of apology to the children he'd tied up, he wrote that the only regrets he held was that he was being educated by….and let me quote him here, "A group of morons who don't have the mental capacity to educate a pile of poop." This of course, is cause for serious concern, as was his insistence that he had no intentions of stopping his "patrols" of the playground.

I told him that I would be informing you of this unfortunate behavior. His response was to go right ahead and actually suggested that I invite you to come and speak with me in person about how we can help Tsutomu play nicely with others. I suspect your son was being sarcastic, but welcome the chance to set up a parent teacher conference so we can discuss how to better provide for the social and emotional needs of your child.

Being new to the school, and wanting to understand what might be contributing to Tsutomu's social difficulties and his fixation with matters of his classmate's wellbeing and security, I spoke with Tsutomu's previous teachers and was told about the unfortunate incident with his mother. Bless his heart. What a tragedy. Please accept my heartfelt condolences for your loss and let me know what I can to do to help your son and indeed your entire family find closure.

I am sure that with some positive family therapy sessions, you'll all be back to normal in no time.

Please let me know when you would like to chat. My office hours are on the letterhead.

Warmest Regards,

Cynthia Takawara

School Counselor

Uramura Elementary School, District 452-A

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Current Location: at work, eating lunch and reading case files

Current Mood: annoyed

Parental Response (with attachments)

April 9, 2060
11:00:00

Madam:

Please find enclosed a funds transfer that should more than cover the cost of the jump ropes. Also attached is a note of apology from my son for saying "poop". This language has no place in an educational setting, and will not be tolerated. My son has been disciplined and I now consider this matter closed.

I am requesting that you provide my son and his classmates with a note of apology for failing to provide adequate security on the playground. After receiving your letter, and after speaking with my son about the matter, I came and monitored recess activity over the course of three afternoons. (Please see attached surveillance photos)

You will note that on no less than six occasions, the children that my son and his classmates apprehended verbally threatened and physically assaulted five children. Further investigation, and follow up discussions with the parents of said victimized children (Please see attached parental statements) clearly shows that all the victims were suffering from either mental or physical disabilities.

It was also brought to my attention that the parents of these children have repeatedly reported this behavior to you personally and your staff collectively and that to date (please see attached documentation) your administration has failed to provide any material or proper safety protocols for your most vulnerable student population. This is unacceptable and will be corrected immediately.

While my son admits that there is no place for vigilantism in any setting, he does reserve his right to defend his person from harm and to stand up for those who cannot speak or stand for themselves. I support him in this effort and will not ask him to set basic human decency aside for the sake of "playing nice" with idiots.

Finally, the death of Tsutomu's mother is not up for discussion and I highly advise you to consider the long term merits of minding your own damn business.

H. Saitoh