From: Jan Krick <jan@oregoncoasters.com>

To: gordonclay <gordonclay@aol.com>

Sent: Mon, May 23, 2016 9:14 pm

Subject: Re: How are things?

yes, several things happened. first, peyton was bullied by older boys -- juniors and seniors (he was a freshman) because he was new, girls liked him because he was new and cute, and he was smart -- he got good grades. he and i went to the principal when it became intolerable for peyton and the principal rather dismissed it all. next, an older boy waited for peyton every morning before school at the school entrance and hassled him, threatened him, scaring peyton, every single morning. peyton was afraid to get out of the car. i reported it to the principal and he laughed about it. then, a friend of that older boy started picking on peyton in the one class they had together. the teacher intervened and had that boy kicked out -- he was a troublemaker for her as well as for peyton. then, peyton was verbally accosted at mcdonald's during the open campus lunch hour -- these same boys threw food at him, called him names, and threatened him everyday. and, peyton stopped going into town for lunch with his friends. i told the principal about it and he said there was nothing he could do for what happened off campus. finally, peyton refused to come back to school at all. his straight A's turned into D's and he failed his final exams because he was afraid to go to school to take the final exams. after the semester break, peyton agreed to return to BHHS only if he could take the computer online learning curriculum. it was a shame, he's so gregarious and loved his friends and his grades were good, but we allowed him to enroll in the computer classes and did well in them at first. finally, that boy who was thrown out of his class for bullying teachers and students including peyton was expelled from school for those behaviors. believe it or not, he was allowed to take the computer curriculum in which peyton was now enrolled. peyton's attendance in the program dropped, he was afraid of that boy and his older friends who intimidated peyton constantly, and his grades dropped. the teacher promised peyton that he was safe there and had nothing to fear. then, one day whe peyton was in class, she left the classroom to go to a meeting with the principal (at K School). she left peyton and a couple of other young students alone. the bullies came into the classroom and tormented peyton -- these were big seniors and juniors. he was terrified and there was no teacher in the classroom, which is against the law. the teacher herself confessed this to me. finally, one of the bullies got his driver's license and took his friends driving around town in an old truck. all the boys rode around together; if they saw peyton, they tried to run him down with the truck. one afternoon, peyton and his friends were at harris beach state park skateboarding together. this group of boys, in the truck, tried to run peyton down with the truck several times. he was so scared. when he eventually ran home, he told us the story and we called the police. an officer came to the house and took a report -- he also took reports from peyton's friends who verified the incident. we never heard from that officer again, even though we tried to contact him several times by phone and in person at the police dept. apparently, there is an oregon law that 16 year olds who have just received their licenses are not allowed to drive other youths around -- can only be in the car with adults. the officer never got back to us on that, nor did the driver every receive a citation.

peyton couldn't wait to get back to colorado and neither could we.

good luck, gordon!!

jan