I really need some advice about what to do re: my son's school. It has been a constant battle with them and the bottom line is they are in punish mode rather than teach mode and it is hurting my son.
They nit pick and bully him - and whenever i speak up - it gets worse for him at school.
The latest incident is this (email from teacher when I asked about him "getting in trouble"):
difficult child was not doing what he was supposed to do. The students were instructed to work alone at assigned computers and not talk in the pod. difficult child had finished his rough draft and showed it to me. I told him to do the next step, which was to revise it by adding 3 literary devices and change at least 5 words to have a better word choice. Then I went to help another student with a question. When I was assisting another student, Mrs. Sped, Mrs. Helper and a student teacher stumbled upon difficult child out of his seat across the lab with another student doing a watermark with Flappy Birds. Mr. Teacher had already told his students that they are not allowed to put watermarks on papers anymore, because it wastes time for kids to be working on what they should be doing, which is revising their poems. Mr. Teacher and I have already talked to Mrs. Principal, and she will meet with the boys about this issue tomorrow.
So my reply back to everyone was this:
Let’s look at this from difficult child’s perspective and see if this is a disciplinary issue or something else.
A asked difficult child how to do something and difficult child helped him – although difficult child (and apparently A) did not know watermarks are no longer allowed.
I think it is extremely petty to consider this a disciplinary issue. Rather than approaching it that way – why not 1) remind both students watermarks are no longer allowed, 2) teach difficult child how to politely decline to help his peer when he is asked a question, 3) teach A to only ask questions of his teacher, and 4) relax and realize these are kids and no one has committed a crime!
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I just found out this morning that difficult child is suspended from using the computers all week because of this. I never got a reply from the principal or anyone else about my email - but I just got confirmation (after asking) that yes he is indeed suspended from the computers. This crap goes on every single day. I need to do something. I have involved the principal and the directors of sped. Nothing has changed. My son hates school and I can't blame him. Any suggestions?
