Ear piercing

[Samwelly]

My 11 year old DD has come home from school today and said that another girl in her class took a piercing gun into school and pierced another boy's ear twice. Apparently, she made a right mess of it and pierced both holes in the wrong position.

The teacher was unaware this was going on apparently. They did it in the one of the toilets at break time and the teacher only found out afterwards.

I am just so shocked that this has happened. I feel so sorry for the parents of the boy who has had his ear mutilated.

[Millymollymama]

I think this is extraordinary ! I cannot actually imagine this happening! Presumably the "victim" was willing and decided it was cheaper than going to a proper salon. (Unless he was forced against his will, of course). I will be interested to know what the school will do regarding punishment if the pierced child was a willing participant, although it is clearly wrong to bring a piercing gun into school, so presumably that will be punished with an exclusion. I think the school will want to know how the girl got the piercing gun, (from a parent?) but short of searching bags every morning, it is difficult to know how they could have prevented the piercing gun entering the school or being used in the loos. Obviously the teacher would find out later! They would hardly do this in their maths lesson! She might have found the centre of the earlobe more accurately if they had!

Regarding the ear, I know holes can close up so hopefully this will happen. Although if the child wanted to be pierced, I guess correct holes might be attempted in the future, hopefully in a sterile environment. With a bit of luck, the current holes may not get infected. Uuugh! Some children are just revolting.

[Samwelly]

Yes, the victim was willing. The girl who pierced his ear brought in the piercing gun from her own home. It had been purchased by her mother and the girl took it into school, without her mother's knowledge. The gun had not been sterilised or anything, so I do hope the boy does not get an infection from this.

The head in the school is exceptionally weak on poor behaviour. The only sanction for both the girl who carried out the piercing and the willing victim is that they both miss the school trip this Friday.

I would also have expected at least for the girl to be suspended for a day or two tbh. However, knowing how ineffectually the school respond to bad behaviour, their actions do not surprise me.

[Millymollymama]

I agree that it sends out a poor message not to exclude them. It is obviously a health hazzard and unacceptable behaviour. They will bring in tattoo pens and ink next!

[mathanxiety]

I hope the boy got medical attention. Hopefully the girl didn't pierce his cartilage.

A girl in high school with DD3 but not in any of her classes pierced her own nose with a safety pin one day last year and got suspended for several weeks. Your HT needs to up her game before someone loses an eye.

This sort of thing is a huge distraction to the rest of the students. Extreme pranks and acts like this contribute to an atmosphere where students don't feel as safe as they should.

[Notso]

It is awful that she was able to get hold of the gun in the first place. This kind of equipment should not be freely available.

I'm also shocked at the poor girl getting several weeks suspension for piercing her own nose though. Several weeks. It was a foolish thing to do, but surely she harmed nobody but herself.

[Notso]

That makes sense CamelHump.

[Millymollymama]

I think parents might purchase all sorts of things that should not be taken into school! The mind boggles! I am sure the parent of the girl is not happy that her piercing gun was taken by her child. I expect the Mum is a beautician or similar. At this age one would not expect such stupid behaviour.

[Notso]

Perhaps the Mum wasn't expecting her daughter to take the gun but I think thoughtless behaviour from children and teenagers is no great surprise.
Homemade tattoos were 'in' when I was a teenager. I can't imagine many of my peers who got one are pleased they did now but at 14 it probably seemed like a brilliant idea.
Whether the Mum was fully trained or not I still don't think anyone should be able to buy a piercing gun online for a couple of quid and start putting holes in people.

[mathanxiety]

I am in the US.

Suspension for several weeks can be and is done.
In the HS my DCs attend, a student can do an in-school suspension where s/he is confined to a certain area of the school and taught by staff specialising in behavioural issues, with classes on self-management, impulse control, team building, stopping attention seeking and self destructive behaviour, etc. with only core academic courses offered (English, maths and science), and no art, music or foreign languages. You risk falling behind in a very serious way if you do something serious enough to warrant this treatment. Therefore serious students tend not to engage in this sort of behaviour.

The other student I know who ended up in this section was a boy who went to primary school with DD1 and brought a knife to HS to threaten a boy whom he thought was making moves on his girlfriend.

In the case of the girl who pierced her own nose in class, it had nothing to do with removing the piercing. Piercings of any part of the body you want can be worn -- ears, eyebrows, cheeks, noses, nipples, belly buttons, you name it, it can be worn. Same goes for tattoos and hair colour and nail polish and hairstyles. It is a public high school and there is no uniform. You just can't dye your hair in class or anywhere else in the building, or give yourself or anyone else a piercing, or give yourself or anyone else a haircut or a tattoo.