- Oct 3, 2019
- 364
- 43
A situation has come up with my granddaughter's team that her parents and I are very concerned about.
This is how it began. Another girl, a year older, has indicated to other teammates that she wants to date my granddaughter. She has gone so far as to write several (love) letters to my granddaughter, that were conveyed via another teammate. Of course some of the girls have found this amusing. Subsequently, my granddaughter politely indicated to the girl that she is not interested in dating. She's 13. This is not the problem however; it's just where the story begins. This other girl has a complicated home life and also has some emotional issues well known to the team and other parents, which further complicates the situation. She has been disruptive to the team at times. Everyone would like to be supportive of her because of her situation at home. Recently she wrote a letter, threatening to kill herself. Follwing that, she indicated in another letter that stated, if she was going to kill someone, it would be my granddaughter. The coaches and I assume, the league president are aware of this. There is compassion for this troubled girl which is fine however, at what point does everyone get serious about this and go on RED alert? I am only assuming that the girl's family has been spoken to about these events.
My granddaughter in the meantime, is losing her enthusiasm for playing and now that practices have resumed over the past 3 weeks, is making excuses to not play.
I find it unfair that she should have to leave the team over this, but her parents have accepted that this might have to be the case and have notified the coaches. My granddaughter stated that she has told coaches about things said to her in practice by this girl and the coach just shrugs it off as nothing although attempts to keep them apart in practice have been made.
Question, what is the team and the leagues responsibility to deal with this and treat it seriously? They seem reluctant to remove the girl from the team. If another threat were to come up, should the parents go to the police? We don't want to hurt this other girl; softball is literally all that she has. Should my granddaughter quit this team and try to find another? She has physical skills and is really improving now after only playing 1 year so breaking into a new team could put her at a disadvantage. There are no other travel teams in the immediate area.
This is how it began. Another girl, a year older, has indicated to other teammates that she wants to date my granddaughter. She has gone so far as to write several (love) letters to my granddaughter, that were conveyed via another teammate. Of course some of the girls have found this amusing. Subsequently, my granddaughter politely indicated to the girl that she is not interested in dating. She's 13. This is not the problem however; it's just where the story begins. This other girl has a complicated home life and also has some emotional issues well known to the team and other parents, which further complicates the situation. She has been disruptive to the team at times. Everyone would like to be supportive of her because of her situation at home. Recently she wrote a letter, threatening to kill herself. Follwing that, she indicated in another letter that stated, if she was going to kill someone, it would be my granddaughter. The coaches and I assume, the league president are aware of this. There is compassion for this troubled girl which is fine however, at what point does everyone get serious about this and go on RED alert? I am only assuming that the girl's family has been spoken to about these events.
My granddaughter in the meantime, is losing her enthusiasm for playing and now that practices have resumed over the past 3 weeks, is making excuses to not play.
I find it unfair that she should have to leave the team over this, but her parents have accepted that this might have to be the case and have notified the coaches. My granddaughter stated that she has told coaches about things said to her in practice by this girl and the coach just shrugs it off as nothing although attempts to keep them apart in practice have been made.
Question, what is the team and the leagues responsibility to deal with this and treat it seriously? They seem reluctant to remove the girl from the team. If another threat were to come up, should the parents go to the police? We don't want to hurt this other girl; softball is literally all that she has. Should my granddaughter quit this team and try to find another? She has physical skills and is really improving now after only playing 1 year so breaking into a new team could put her at a disadvantage. There are no other travel teams in the immediate area.