gcvmom
Here we go again!
difficult child 2 is not a mean kid. He has a big heart and he wants to be helpful, but admittedly he is sometimes annoying because of his underdeveloped social skills. We know that. The school is supposed to know that based on their evaluation of him, his IEP, and his history.
He has had bumps this year on the water polo team. difficult child 2 has been the target of bullying and harassment by his peers on the team, and even his JV coach has been borderline with how he treats him. Well last Wednesday the coach crossed the line. Long story short, the coach has no patience for difficult child 2 and does not bother to find out the details of situations that involve him. He automatically blames difficult child 2. And on Wednesday he yelled at him publicly and repeatedly called him a d*ck in front of the rest of the team.
Understandably, difficult child 2 was in tears that night and wanted to quit the team. And I was ready to let him walk away. husband was not and (thanks to his new medications) got involved and took the problem head-on with the head varsity coach about the JV coach's behavior. Then he took difficult child 2 down to talk with the head coach, who meanwhile was able to confirm and verify our assertions. He told difficult child 2 he didn't want him to leave the team and he assured us that the other coach would be "punished." difficult child 2 has chosen to stay with the team. He really likes the sport and he really wants to be part of this group (not sure why after how they've treated him, but it's important to him). Thankfully they have this week off due to finals, so I'm hoping everyone has a chance to cool their jets and the two coaches can spend some time getting their heads around the seriousness of this issue.
In the mean time, I sent an email today to the Athletic Director who knows me from my work with difficult child 1's sports team (I'm a founding board member) and copied husband's email to the coach so that he could understand things from our perspective. I asserted that this coach is immature, he has poor emotional control and is inadequately trained to manage teenage boys, especially in areas of conflict. I told the AD that if this happens again, I'll be escalating the issue higher and demanding the coach's replacement. Enough. Is. Enough.
He has had bumps this year on the water polo team. difficult child 2 has been the target of bullying and harassment by his peers on the team, and even his JV coach has been borderline with how he treats him. Well last Wednesday the coach crossed the line. Long story short, the coach has no patience for difficult child 2 and does not bother to find out the details of situations that involve him. He automatically blames difficult child 2. And on Wednesday he yelled at him publicly and repeatedly called him a d*ck in front of the rest of the team.
Understandably, difficult child 2 was in tears that night and wanted to quit the team. And I was ready to let him walk away. husband was not and (thanks to his new medications) got involved and took the problem head-on with the head varsity coach about the JV coach's behavior. Then he took difficult child 2 down to talk with the head coach, who meanwhile was able to confirm and verify our assertions. He told difficult child 2 he didn't want him to leave the team and he assured us that the other coach would be "punished." difficult child 2 has chosen to stay with the team. He really likes the sport and he really wants to be part of this group (not sure why after how they've treated him, but it's important to him). Thankfully they have this week off due to finals, so I'm hoping everyone has a chance to cool their jets and the two coaches can spend some time getting their heads around the seriousness of this issue.
In the mean time, I sent an email today to the Athletic Director who knows me from my work with difficult child 1's sports team (I'm a founding board member) and copied husband's email to the coach so that he could understand things from our perspective. I asserted that this coach is immature, he has poor emotional control and is inadequately trained to manage teenage boys, especially in areas of conflict. I told the AD that if this happens again, I'll be escalating the issue higher and demanding the coach's replacement. Enough. Is. Enough.