My daughter Calyn, was suspended from Homewood-Flossmoor High   school for 8 days December 2, 2015 with 50 demerits and 180 days social suspension for defending herself from being bullied by a fellow classmate. The student, accused my daughter of flirting with her boyfriend during a field trip to Springfield. After the trip, my daughter was being picked on by a group of kids while returning from the bathroom located in the back the bus.  They were threatening to trip her to make her fall while she was returning back to her seat.  She was sitting in the front of the bus directly behind a teacher named Mrs. Bordenero. She told the teacher that a group of kids sitting in the back of the bus were trying to start with her while she was coming from the bathroom.  The teacher's reply was, "what can you do about it?"  

After exiting the bus, the group of kids confronted her and one of the girls said to her, "I know you know that's my boyfriend!" During the trip, my daughter said she saw them together at one point and she was joking around with the alleged boyfriend saying, "oooh, you got a girlfriend!" They've  been friends since the beginning of school and share a class together. My daughter told the other student that she had figured they were dating when she saw them together and was only joking with him about having a girlfriend. She continued to follow my daughter with the group of friends who were instigating the situation to incite a fight.  My daughter felt she had to stand her ground and was not going to turn her back to a group of kids looking for a fight.  She asked the student several times to get out of her face. The student then punched my daughter in the face. One of the videos we have, shows one of the student's friends got involved in the attack.  The school says she could have just walked away. Why should she? She did the right thing by trying to get a teacher involved. The school failed to protect her, so she felt she needed to protect herself.We teach our children to stand up for themselves and I applaud my daughter for not allowing someone to bully her. They admitted on record under oath that she was sitting quietly in the front of the bus the whole time. How did she become the blame?

My daughter called me after the attack, she was hysterical. My heart dropped to the floor, I had never heard my daughter so upset.  As I was trying to calm her down, a teacher by the name of Ms. Davis grabbed her phone. She got on the phone and said said to me, "I'm trying to find out what happened but it seems by her talking to you, you're making matters worse!"  I said to Ms. Davis, "How am I making matters worse when I'm trying to calm her down, and find out what was going on with my daughter, as any mother would." I told Ms. Davis how dare she accuse me of making matters worse for my daughter and to get off my phone with that nonsense!  She said that if I continued to speak that way, she would just leave it alone and let the Deans' handle it. I told her she didn't have to worry about going to the Deans' because my husband and I will be there first thing in the morning to see the Deans' ourselves. She then hung up the phone.  I couldn't get an answer from the school's line because it was after hours.  I called my husband at work and we both tried countless of times trying to reach our daughter on her phone, but I didn't hear from her again until she returned home.

My daughter said, Ms. Davis took her statements. She told her that the other student punched her in the face because she thought I was flirting with her boyfriend. My daughter told her that, she was only joking with him about having a girlfriend, she didn't know until saw them together during the trip.  Ms. Davis called my daughter a liar and said to her, "you had to know they were dating, "everybody knew!" My husband and I went to the school the next day with the first video we got from a fellow student. We told the Deans' that we were unhappy about the teacher not doing her job by helping my daughter when she was seeking help.  We were told by Dean Rudan and Dean McLaughlin, that my daughter was still going to receive 8 days with 50 demerits because she could have "bear hugged" her attacker or "blocked" the punch, or she could have just ran away. 

This suspension was a week before finals. My daughter ended up failing most of her finals, which caused her grades to drop. She already has a hard enough time as it is being a child who receives Special Education for a learning disability and a heart condition called Pulmonary Stenosis.  My husband had to make three trips to the school to get her makeup work, which was not readily available and given in partial each time.  My daughter did the right thing by alerting her superiors and all this could have been avoided, if they would have simply done their job.  The only solution they could come up with was she had a choice to run away but she chose to engage. So I guess a child who seeks help and gets none at all, is suppose to just keep running away because a teacher failed to take her complaint seriously. Walking away was not an option for her, when it was clearly obvious that she was faced with trouble with this group of kids. 

Dean Rudan and Dean McLaughlin said the other student was being detained by a teacher, but my daughter continued to attack until two teachers intervened.  Well, I have a video of the end of the fight. This video in my familys' possession, clearly shows the other student being the aggressive one, even pushing the teacher holding her to get to my daughter. They took a statement from the teacher restraining the other student and included it in the report,  but failed to include any statements, given by these two mystery teachers who supposedly had to restrain my 90 lbs. daughter from continuing to attack. In fact, they didn't even put the names of these two teachers in the report. My husband asked the Deans, how is it that another kid can jump in but not face any consequences? We were told, the student was trying to help break up the fight. So, initially, we gave that student the benefit of the doubt, although the video looked as if he were trying to help the other student, even though my daughter said he was helping her as well.

We requested for a recorded hearing and the hearing took place January 19, 2016. Come to find out, the investigation the Deans' did were very biased.  They took the statements of students, who were friends with the other student. It was clearly obvious, they all told the same lie! Out of all the students who witnessed my daughter being bullied, you mean to tell me they could only get the other student's friends statements?  In these kids statements, they all accused my daughter of pulling out a knife and shouting racist slurs. Calyn has dated a Caucasian boy, so how could she be racist? The one student whom they said was trying to break up the fight, ended up being one of the students in on the lie!  He says, he jumped in to knock the knife out of my daughter's hand. He then went on to say,  another student jumped in and tried to knock the knife out of her hand.  

When we heard these kids accused my daughter of pulling out a weapon, we were floored!  Those Deans' never even bothered to mention this to us when we initially came to the school the day after the attack.   Now, by this student's own admission in his statement, he says he wanted to help the other student.  So, he did exactly what we felt he did from the beginning and that was jump in to help his friend.  We tried to be fair and believe what the Deans' said only to find out this student was apart of it all!  How could he be breaking up the fight and then conspire with a lie against my daughter at the same time?...and the Deans' knew of this all along!  My husband immediately responded by saying, "this is a serious allegation, which requires and investigation,"  I asked, "did you call the police?" Dean Rudan then says, "oh, we knew there was no knife, Calyn didn't get suspended for having a knife!"  I asked why was it in her report? My husband then said to the Dean, if you knew these kids were lying, then "what was their punishment for lying?" They're response was, "we can't discuss that." Why would Dean Rudan sign off on statements she knew were lies? Not only that, go as far as to submit these false statements in the hearing as if it were evidence against my daughter.  In a court of law, if you knowingly submit a false statement, its a crime.  We all took an "Oath" at that hearing.  I submitted my testimony, in an Affidavit of Statement of Truth and Fact and an Affidavit of claim of Nationality signed by a Jurat. I never got a response to my Affidavits.

We asked the assistant principal, Mr. Cook, if their policy supersedes state law, his reply was, "yes it does!"   I also forgot to mention, the video they had in their possession, seems to have no audio? I find that hard to believe that kids nowadays record a fight without the audio! I teach my family, you never turn your back on someone seeking to harm you!...NEVER!  As far as I'm concerned, I'm glad she chose to defend herself from these bullies rather than lay there and potentially get hurt, they were going to nail her to the cross anyway...as you can clearly tell!  We asked the teacher, Ms. Bordenero, when my daughter told you a group of kids sitting at the back of the bus were starting with her, what kind of statement is, "what can you do about it?"  Dean Rudan then answers, this is my first time hearing of this.  Mrs. Bordenero, then chimes in with her answer to the question by repeating what Dean Rudan said. Why did Rudan answer the question when Mrs. Bordenero was in attendance at the hearing to answer for herself?  However, Mrs. Bordenero seemed to be able to recall everything else such as, my daughter sitting quietly in the row behind her, listening to her ipod during the whole duration of the ride back to the school. 

We then asked Ms. Davis, "what was she implying when she called my daughter a liar and said that she had to know the two students were dating, "everybody knew?".  Her response was, she had figured it out that they were dating, so she was sure my daughter should have figured it out as well. She also claims, she is a good teacher and good teachers get involved with students' social affairs, so they can prevent things such as fights from happening. If that were so and she claims they were flirting and holding hands during the field trip, why didn't she go to my daughter and the alleged boyfriend and say to him, it may not be a good idea for you to be holding her hand if you're dating someone else. Wouldn't that have put an end to the beginning of a potential problem?  We then asked were teachers allowed to get involved in student's social affairs such as "who's dating who?" The hearing office then intervened the question by saying, "I'm not sure what you're trying to ask Ms. Davis, I think she already answered the question."  I asked him, "did he need me to reword it," so that he could understand.  She was the one who said my daughter and the alleged boyfriend were flirting and he was dating someone else, so I felt my question was valid in asking.  Why is she involved in what kid is dating who and telling my daughter she should know who's dating who too?!  My daughter and alleged boyfriend deny they were flirting at all.  

It seems everyone involved, was trying to stay away from the fact that this student was fighting over a boy and then lied about my daughter pulling a knife out on her!  No one wanted to address this fact, but thanks to Ms. Davis talking too much and answering my question, truth to my daughter's side came out! The report says, "my daughter continued to attack until two teachers intervened".  I asked for the names of the two teachers and we were told it was Ms. Davis and Mrs. Bordenero who intervened, they assisted with the paperwork.  If she continued to attack as they allege, until two teachers intervened, that means to come in between, not who did the paperwork!  Dean Rudan's answer did not add up. Well, what they didn't know was, after the Deans' and teachers left the hearing, my husband and I had video proof of their lie. The video we gave the Hearing Officer and Assistant Principal, showed a Caucasian male teacher restraining my daughter who wasn't even in the report.  There were no statements given by him in the suspension report either. The teachers they claimed intervened, Ms. Davis and Mrs. Bordenero, were nowhere in sight! I knew that was a lie anyway, because I spoke with Ms. Davis after the attack and she had no clue about what was going on.  The Board upheld this suspension after receiving all of the alarming evidence of gross misconduct and a poor investigation by their staff.

Then,  the worse happens!  I get a phone call from the school saying one of my daughter's friends, told them my daughter sent a text saying she was contemplating suicide!  My husband and I were horrified to hear this when we were contacted by the school.  At first, I argued with the Assistant Principal because I just knew it couldn't be true. Thank you, to my daughter's friend for getting my daughter help!  I got my daughter help immediately by a Child Psychologist the school recommended. Turns out, she ended up suffering from anxiety because she had to relive the feelings of being ganged up on by those kids and then having to find out they lied about her having a weapon. She was afraid of being looked at as a criminal and feared it would ruin her chances of getting into the military or applying for colleges.  I tried to hold back my tears listening to my daughter but I just couldn't. The psychologist expressed to her that he thought she was a good kid and she did the right thing by going to a teacher and that she has great family support.

We even went to the principal to express that we were not happy about the lies told in that hearing. The principal didn't care to look at all of the evidence and went off a video with no audio saying, oh, the Deans' went easy on her, I would have suspended her for 10 days and she would of been up for expulsion for two years. The prinicpal's arrogance was unbelievable! He told my husband and I that it could get costly trying to pay attorney fees to sue the Board of Education because I said to him, "if my daughter would have gotten expelled for defending herself, we would've been in court!" The only one who seemed to be concerned, was the Assistant Prinicipal, Mr. Craig Fantin, and I do thank him for that.  My daughter has a good report from all of her teachers, has never been suspended in her life and has never had a fight in her life until the day she had to defend herself from being attacked by her fellow students.  Something needs to be done about the practicing policy of discipline in these schools! It affects the children who are victims of bullying and sends a message to the bullies that its okay! She has suffered a great deal and I intend to seek justice for her and all the victims of child bullying!

Governer Rauner, please look into this injustice and reprimand all involved in this gross misconduct. I'm asking for an investigation of "ALL" suspensions of students of color at this school!  You have also agreed that African American students are being suspended way too often than any other race and the suspension records of students in this school should be investigated! I encourage all of you to speak out and let others know how you feel! From reading your comments, I see it is happening extremely too often in this school! This is why we chose to tell our story so that we can make a change for our school. I love Homewood and its school system, that's why I moved here!  However, I will not sit by and allow children to be treated unfairly because of their color! The staff at H-F has got to be reevaluated and it's obvious!