The drama never ends...

Well...drama being what it is, it could not possibly be enough for my neighbors' daughter to get beaten up at the bus stop...there had to be a knife incident the next week. In my world of finely minced metaphors, if bad news travels in threes, we're just waiting for that third shoe to drop.

This second incident, surprisingly enough, did not involve the middle school kids. No, this one involved the elementary school. The family at the end of the block is obviously in some kind of crisis because this incident was caused by the younger brother of the bully of last week.

Let me set the scene:

It's Tuesday morning, and two boys get into a scuffle at the bus stop. Nothing serious, just a little arguing and pushing...not unusual for children in the 8-10-yr old range. The unusual part is that the younger (or at least the one in the lower grade) child is the one to get physical. Well, Wednesday morning, said younger child comes out of his house and tells the other child, "I'm not done with you!" They argue some more, loud voices much pushing and shoving. The kids scuffle...yes a little fisticuffs...but that's not the bad part. The younger boy (bully's little brother) goes back into his house and returns a short time later with a large kitchen knife. He yells, "I'm going to kill you!" as the bus driver tries to hurry the little ones onto the bus and shut the door. Hubby gets out of his car, where he has been monitoring activity at the bus stop all year. He yells at the child to stop him, and the child rushes back into his house. Hubby pounds on the door to inform the child's parents of what has happened, but no one comes to the door. Eventually, a woman shouts from the master bedroom window, "What do you want?"
Hubby replies, "Your son just came out to the bus stop with a knife and threatened to kill another kid."
Her only response, "Oh my God!" Then...nothing...she didn't even come outside.
Hubby called the police. The bus driver notified the school via radio. The sherrif's department took statements from the adults. The school principal took statements from the kids. We'll see what happens next...but said child is still attending school and still riding the bus...
The neighborhood has decided to have a community meeting tonight to discuss what we can do, but I will not be able to be there as the kids have a choir concert at school at the same time. Hubby will go to the meeting while I go to the school...oh how I sometimes wish there were two of me...or that I could at least divide myself in half and get twice as much done...

As for this family...there is obviously more going on there than meets the eye. The kids' father is two states away, at a military base, and the kids lived with him until Thanksgiving. The woman's husband is in Korea on a remote assignment unaccompanied by his family for a year. And there is another man living in the house with the mother...openly...I suspect those kids are being abused...or have been abused in the past...otherwise why would they exhibit such violent behavior so young in life...one is an aberration...both of them is a pattern. According to another neighbor who is the parent of one of my older son's friends, the children were taken away from the mother once, and Thanksgiving was when she finally got them back...the more I learn, the more I actually feel sorry for those kids...yes, they have the choice of how to behave, but what example have they had? And what has happened to them that they were taken from their mother...and why are they now returned...it's tragic really...it almost seems they were cut down before they even had a chance.