Re: FCPS: Zero Tolerance Policy for Meddlesome, Annoying parents in Denial
Posted by:
rebuttal
()
Date: April 07, 2011 08:07AM
JBass Wrote:
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> I dont blame the school. I think that there
> should be collaboration between the school and the
> parents, open communication. I never saw any of
> this. I can appreciate that a school as large as
> Robinson can not accomodate the request of every
> parent. I would hope, however, that when the
> loving concerned parents of one of your most
> persistently troubled kid wants to reach out, try
> to make changes, that the school would respond
> positively. I do not expect the schools to
> diagnose illness nor give continual therapy. I
> agree if I had problems with 10 teachers it was
> not them all 10 times. I just think that if I had
> 10 times the problems of an average kid that it
> should draw a flag besides one that includes
> expulsion. I never threatened staff, never
> brought weapons to school, I just flat out could
> not conform.
>
> The schools try to take over many jobs of the
> parent. Required attendance, mandatory summer
> reading, weekend detention, I could go on and on.
> I am saying that with 3000 students, and the MANY
> MANY policies they have in place, that they should
> have some procedure in place to address the most
> troubled kids with something besides suspension,
> expulsion and social isolation.
>
> The schools make children topless to test for
> scoliosis, they teach sexual education, teach
> classes to spot and narc on drug using classmates.
> So why in the world would they not have at the
> bare minimum a mental health awareness class,
> program or procedure in place.
>
> Moreover, as I said Anne Monday fought my parents
> request for a transfer, tooth and nail. Just mind
> boggling. She is a human being, she was unable as
> my authoritative figure to resolve anything on her
> own yet told the superintendent to NOT LET ME
> TRANSFER.
>
> I could go into pages and pages worth of detail
> that could detail names and dates but honestly, I
> only shared to encourage other parents to stand by
> their kid and to realize that school officials are
> human beings. They possess the same ability for
> jealousy, hate, anger, violence and revenge as
> everybody else.
Schools don't "try" to take on the roles of parents- they are required by state and federal laws to do so. Policies governing things such as attendance are not school issues but legal ones. Kids can also bow out of sex ed classes and scoliosis screenings if they or their parents are uncomfortable with them. I feel that the measures you are proposing, while they have some merit, are indicative of a larger issue; some parents want schools to take more responsibility, others want less- it genreally depends on the kid; parents with problem children often want more, parents with kids who stay off the radar generally want less.
You ytourself, in your first post, acknowledge that the situation that you had with a teacher may have landed you in "serious trouble' - indicating that you felt the conflict could escalate to something 'serious". later you say that you never assaulted a staff member, but it seems like you were on the precipice of doing just that.
I have had plenty of experience working in schools, and i can tell you that many of us adults find most of the "extra" programs that we have to 'teach" to be inane. For example, every year we have a "sexual harassment" video that we must show and a ludicrous lesson we have to teach afterwards: the unspoken assumption is that high school kids don't know what harassment is already, and the reaction is what you would expect from cynical high schoolers who feel they are being spoken down to: they go out in the halls , touch their friends, and then mockingly yell "harassment'. We also have an "morals day' during which we enlighten high school kids as to exactly what cheating is (as if they didn't know) lambasting cheaters as the scum of the earth while, in the next breath, explaining that their entire futures rest on the grades they gade in their 14th -18th years of life- what's better than cheat and pass or fail and ruin your life forever? Of course, the policies I mentioned are just "cya" measures so the schools can dodge any legal trouble that might come their way should something happen and they had to admit that they diDN'T explain the obvious. My point is , society has gotten so litigious that the schools are bogged down in nonsense, and, because the schools have ceded so much power to crazy parents already, we have started down a slippery slope: there are now policies in place that say that students who SKIP tests must be allowed to take the test (or a different test on the same material) later because '...teachers shouldn't punish behavior. The skipping doesn't give the student the chance to exhibit their knowledge". This completely assinine policy is particularly mind boggling because:
A. It further burdens the teachers , who now have to make a separate test, because of a student's irresponsible behavior.
B. It actually encourages kids to skip- who would show up to take a test they weren't prepared for knowing they would fail when they could just skip and take it later?
Teachers are also no longer allowed to fail kids on attendance.
My point is- at some point we have to let kids like you were go or else we will never, ever stop accomodating people. i will say that I find the principal's behavior inexcusable if she tried to block your transfer, and i do agree that school employees don't check their humanity at the door when they cross the threshold of the school. I have seen:
1. A colleague repeatedly badger a kid's counselor because she thought he was a danger based on his hairdo.
2. Women who are opnely resentful of the more attractive female students- my hypothesis is that they are jealous.
3. Men who openly utilize tobacco and then go teach a health class.
4. Lazy people who enjoy and milk the system, showing movie after movie while not teaching at all.
i guess the bottom line is that education is kind of a mess right now, but I don't think introducing MORE classes, such as your proposed 'mental health awareness" classes will help. I am glad you got it together though- so many don't, and it really isn;t that fair that idiotic decisions at exactly the point you are most likely to make them, the teen years, should ruin a future.