Jim,
Thats a great summary of the events. You stated you points clearly and without being threatening. It would be nice if you got a reply even if it was to (wrongly in my opinion) tell you that she has faith in her principal and staff at the school. The response that you should get is that she is investigating and would attempt to understand what went wrong.

If nothing else comes of it, you have at least created a record of your concerns. It might be the final straw if there is a pattern here.

Growing up, I had ongoing battles with my elementary school principal. I was bullied a lot, yet she seemed to always side with the other kids. She was a nasty lady to me and certain groups. To others she could be very sweet. She impressed enough people that she became the superindendent they even built a statue of her at one school. To me she was a nasty, mean, Bi**ch that I had no use for. I had a six grade teacher who was close to retierment and had no use for her. During that year, he kept me out of her way. He later told me that he had seen her do this to others and thought it was unfair. She died young with a rather nasty form of cancer. I didn't waste any tears on her. I suspect that your kids principal and staff are not much different. I am glad that you have the means to pull your son out so he doesn't have to deal with it.

I sought to teach my son a lesson from all of this and it went a little like this.

In your life you will mett lots of different kinds of people. No one is perfect and sometimes you make a mistake. Its what you do after you make the mistake that will define who you are in this world. It takes a good person to admit they are wrong and a great person to say they are sorry. Always be a good person that does great things and you'll leave a legacy in this world.

Jim, I'd say your son has learned a lot from the public school system. He's learned he's got one helluva dad (but I'm sure he probably knew that before this incident)!

I am probably going to delete this thread by tomarrow. I need to move on and to be honest this is eating me alive with anger.

Delete thread, let it go, and move on....you've done good!

great dad, great job, jim. +1
ryan

Delete away, but Bravo to you until you do.




The offer to fly down there and have a 1-1 with the teacher still stands.

:D

You did the right thing and you are a great dad...

and you misspelled mett and tomarrow...

J/K!

:D :D :D
SmileWavy

Jim,

I encourage you to go back and edit out the names and keep the thread. This is a wonderful example for other parents and teachers.

I have never had an issue with a parent or student (other than getting the work done on time) with my volunteer teaching. However as a non-paid staff person I regularly get an earful from tenured teachers about every imaginable issue. I am a neutral party – not administration and not a professional teacher.

I think you did exactly right with your decisions. I would add slight mention of a lawyer and legal action. You may find some staff reassignment, an official apology and your son welcomed back. You could seriously consider that.

Best,
Grady

My vote for Dad of the year.

Michael has missed school before. He has been out sick and it was not an issue.

Today the GC called and left an message on our machine that he missed school today and will need a note to return. This has never happened before.

You do you think? Are they gunning for him now?

He will have a few days off as we are going through the registration process with his new school.

I knew I made a good choice pulling him out I knew they would go after him.

I am heading down there to talk to the GC about him being out in person. I will not be a very nice person to her.

Jim,

I wouldn’t necessarily categorize this as “gunning.” I think this may just be more CYA. They should have done this at every absence (our schools do). This is simply crossing a “T” so they don’t get even more criticism.

This is worthwhile bringing up to the District.

I still recommend you record and take notes of every conversation. This can be up-front and also surreptitiously.

You are doing a great job of keeping your cool in a difficult situation. Keep it up. You get my vote for “Dad of the year.”

Best,
Grady

Ditto. Save the thread for others in the same situation.

Nice job Jim. It's VERY important to record the events. However, now that you have pulled your son, I'm pretty sure you don't need to spend too much time explaining yourself. A simple call to the principle and a back-up e-mail, which, btw, should include the facts as you presented them above, to the principle should suffice.

Time to move on. Good for you for being a caring Dad!

There have been a few times while I am going through this that I asked myself, WTF are you doing? You know better than to rock the boat. I think maybe because we know we want him in private school that this was the last straw and we put our foot down.

This teacher was taking shots at him all year, I backed the teacher all year telling my son that sometimes people just do not get along it happens all the time in the workplace and you have to find a way to just get along as best as you can and get through it all.

She crossed the line with public humiliation. But, as this war broke out I wondered if it was a bad idea to push it. No offence to the females of this forum but, I am dealing with all woman and I have found them to be very vindictive in the workplace, the "A woman scorned" type of thing hold so true. These clowns have shown me just how unprofessional a group of woman can be when threatened.


BTW - I tried to use a tape recorder in my meeting with the principle and she flat out told me NO WAY, she does not do tape recorders. I knew right there and then I was going no where.

My plan was to leave and come back with a lawyer and my only mistake in this whole thing was that I did not. Once she said no recorder I should have stood up and walked out never uttering another word.

Its really hard tojust let this go I am so pissed off that they will probably get away with this and I feel like they need to be stopped. I feel bad for other kids that get tangled up in this mess. I guess as long as they fall in line they will do alright.


Now I have to get my son a laptop, they do all their work on computers in the private school, just like the real world. He is also going to be learning how to play guitar and piano in music class, I think the gym class is doing Kayaking this month. His class project or world history is Costa Rica they do a trip there after they are done learning. Also one of the parents in a Microbiologist and teaches an extra science class each week.

Their art project was to design the school webpage and then build it and upload it.

I wish I did this a long time ago.

BTW - Thank you all for the words of encouragement. I never looked at this as a try out for father of the year I just felt I needed to stand behind my son no matter how ugly it got and man is it ugly.

Reading your kind words has kept me pushing instead of giving up. I am a really non-confrontational person so this has beed VERY hard for me to do. I also do not fight in meetings well and they seem to have the upper hand on me here. I am too honest and its hard for me to concieve that someone will out and out lie to me. I cannot do that.

Jim,

“BTW - I tried to use a tape recorder in my meeting with the principle and she flat out told me NO WAY, she does not do tape recorders. I knew right there and then I was going no where.”

This is where I went to the micro-cassette recorder in my pocket. I then typed out a verbatim ac litteratim transcript.


I agree that today’s kids have remarkable opportunities. It should be all parents’ mission to see that they succeed at as many as possible. I always keep in mind that my grandparents’ lives span the discovery of disease and the invention of the light bulb to landing on the moon (pre automobiles to a 930 Turbo). :D

Best,
Grady

Jim - give us an update. How is he doing? Has he made some new friends? Ask him if the chicks are hot! Private school girls were always sought after by the public school guys for a few reasons...