Texas Dad Protests for Son’s Suspention After Standing Up to Bully

Courtesy Randy Duke(NEW YORK) — A Texas dad who recently returned from a year in Afghanistan spent his time at home picketing his son’s middle school after the teen was sent to another school for standing up to a bully he says had been harassing him for years.

Randy Duke, who trains police officers in Afghanistan, has found himself spending his days back in Victoria, Texas, wedged between two pieces of poster board with the phrase “BULLYING VICTIMS ARE PUNISHED HERE” emblazoned on each side. The 48-year-old dad spent hours each day wearing the signs and picketing outside of Cade Middle School.

“The school administration assessed the situation, and gave what I believe was a harsh punishment,” Duke told ABC News. “They looked at this as a fight — which it was not. Had it been, in-school suspension would be an appropriate punishment.”

Duke’s 13-year-old son Max said he hit his breaking point after another student stomped on one of the expert paper airplanes Max had made and given to a classmate with special needs.

“My son said, ‘why would you do that?’ and the kid shoved my son. Max shoved back, and an altercation continued,” Duke said. “Max has been working hard to stay away from him, since he had been confronted by him and other kids before. They would use racial slurs – saying ‘we don’t like you because you’re white.'”

According to Duke, a teacher said both Max and the other teen were able to get blows in. After the fight was broken up, Max was subjected to the school’s policy on fights within the school — a two-day suspension, after which he was sent to Victoria’s Mitchell Guidance Center – an alternate school where students are sent through metal detectors, given pat-downs before entering and even have their fingernails checked.

After two meetings with the school’s assistant principal, a conversation with the middle school’s principal, and unreturned calls from the superintendent of Victoria’s secondary schools, Duke decided to start a protest.

For two hours per day, Duke, a former law enforcement officer with 20 years of experience, headed down to the middle school and began walking the public sidewalks outside the school, wearing his sign. He says he went in the mornings and afternoons, at times when parents and teachers would definitely see his message about what was going on at his boy’s school.

Duke’s protest began to gain more attention as a hearing on a formal complaint he’d filed approached. After a meeting with the soon-to-be new superintendent, he was under the impression that Max, whose grades had begun to suffer while at the alternative school, would be back at his middle school.

Since resolving the issue, Duke has begun to organize with other parents in his community to create more awareness about bullying problems within the schools, and urge the district to have comprehensive training on how to handle the issue. The principal at Cade Middle School told Duke that representatives from the school will be sent to his meetings.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio