Parents in Castle Rock, Colorado are pulling their 8-year-old daughter from her elementary school because she was put in a ‘jail cell’ for hours.
Connie Ramstad received a phone call from Rock Ridge Elementary School informing her that her 8-year-old daughter, Alegra, was in detention. Concerned about what happened, Ramstad immediately went over to the school to find out what was going on.
Ramstad arrived at the school and asked to see her daughter. When she finally saw Alegra, she said she looked frightened. Alegra’s face was also red from crying. Ramstad quickly decided to take pictures of her daughter because she was so stunned as to where she was kept for hours on end.
“I found our girl basically in a jail cell. What they call a detention room. This little room is [about] 2 feet by 4 feet,” Ramstad told a Denver 7.
Ramstad said that the reason Alegra was put into detention in the first place is because she threatened another student. Ramstad, however, says that her daughter was merely sticking up for herself because she was being bullied.
‘Why are you being mean to me? Stop being mean to me, or I’m going to tell my mom on you,” Ramstad remembers her daughter saying about the incident.
When Ramstad confronted the school staff about Alegra’s condition, their response shocked her.
“They told us she had been crying for hours as if that was the problem. Nobody comforted her.”
The Ramstad’s are pulling Alegra from the school and are now considering a lawsuit against the school district.
“We don’t know how long she’s going to be traumatized from that. She’s been sick for three days,” Ramstad said about her daughter.
The family is taking the possible lawsuit seriously and has hired an attorney named Igor Raykin. What they ultimately want is for the school district to take complaints of bullying seriously, their daughter should never have been disciplined for standing up for herself. Not to mention the fact that the school’s means of discipline were absolutely atrocious.
“I see a possible deprivation of civil rights. This is not the way to treat a child,” said Raykin. “Somebody should’ve been on the phone with mom saying ‘look, this is what happened, and this is what we are getting ready to do.’”
“That’s heartbreaking when you hear that. You send your kid to school, and you want them to be safe, and you assume they’re being taken care of,” Ramstad said.
The Douglas County School District General Counsel released a statement about the incident:
“The safety of our students is of the utmost priority. However, because of the student privacy issues involved in this matter, we cannot discuss the specific facts underlying the allegations.
We can share that there is a private room in the main office at Rock Ridge Elementary School that is used appropriately for student detention and safety purposes. Photographic images of students in that room are not taken by staff. Additionally, the door to the room remains open at all times when a student is present. Students complete school work and are able to leave the room when needed. Further, parents are notified when their child is being placed in the private room, and are free to pick up their children from school on such occasions.
We are always committed to ensuring a safe learning environment for all students. The school welcomes the opportunity to meet with Rock Ridge families who have additional questions about student discipline policies. Most importantly, we will continue to seek the educational success of every child.”
What do you think about the school’s disciplinary actions? The local news footage is below.
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