Thursday, October 06, 2011

Is it school or prison?

Please GO HERE and ask Mrs. Hand for permission to use the restroom. Click the permission link to send her an email request.

It gets harder every day to distinguish between public school and prison. Today has been one of those days.

My daughter has been having alot of medical problems recently. After visit to the doctor yesterday and a medication change I sent a note to the school this morning instructing all her teachers to allow her as many restroom breaks as she needs and to not ask any questions about it. When she got to school this morning she gave my note to the school nurse who converted it into an email and sent out to all teachers. I didn't expect any problems. I mean my instructions were damn clear. If my child expresses a need to go to the restroom then she is to be allowed to do so. End of story.

However, there is this one old bat who can't follow simple instructions. I got an email from my daughter about ten a.m. Asking me to come and pick her up because she had a nasty confrontation with a teacher when she asked to go to the restroom. The bat jumped all over my daughter and humiliated her in front of the entire class about restroom breaks. She said "why didn't you go before the bell rang?" My daughter answered that she didn't have to go then. The bat said "well you know the rules...you have to go before the bell rings." To which my daughter responded that she's sorry but her biological functions aren't on a bell schedule. My god she's not a Pavlov's dog.

My daughter informed her that there was an email in her inbox just waiting to be clicked on that I had sent to school today about restroom breaks. The bat responded that she doesn't have time to check her email, that she has so many other things to do...blah blah blah...even though the asst. Principal said a few minutes ago when I went up there that teachers are instructed to check their email multiple times a day and that they have even been over it multiple times in staff meetings. And if she was sitting in front of her computer (which she was) then why not just check the damn email and avoid humiliating my daughter and getting me up her ass? I guarantee checking the email would have been the wiser course of action. But too late for that now.

Further, the old bat started telling my daughter that she needs to learn to do what she's told and to just sit down and shut up. Now, I don't know about other people but I did not raise my kids to sit down and shut up when other people tell them to. I did not raise them to bow authority just for the sake of bowing. I raised them to speak up for what is right and to always stand up for themselves. Sit down, shut up and do what you're told is NOT in our vocabulary. Never will be. I'm not the kind of parent who addresses school problems by siding with the oppressors and telling them to "whoop their ass and send them back to class". In fact, I am adamantly opposed to corporal punishment. That isn't an issue in this case but I'm trying to make the point that I am not the average parent and my kids aren't the average kids. And I'm proud of that.

So I called the school and asked to speak to this old bat. She was unavailable. So I talked to the assistant principal about this incident. He told me he could meet with me and the bat in the morning. I told him that I was on my way to the school right then. When I got there my daughter was in his office explaining what happened. The first thing I said to her and the assistant principal was "The next time any teacher denies your request to go to the bathroom you have my permission to drop trou and take a massive shit on their desk." Then I told the assistant principal that not even in prison are people required to ask for permission to take care of biological functions.

He was very nice and accommodating. He told my daughter that next time permission for a restroom break is denied that she can just walk out and go anyway and then they can deal with the fallout afterward. I like the idea of her shitting on the teachers desk much more as an act of civil disobedience...but I guess it is impractical. Would get the fucking point across though.

Tomorrow at 11 I am going back to the school to meet with the assistant principal and this hateful bat. The assistant principal warned me that she is stubborn. I say she has no idea what stubborn is as she hasn't tangled with me yet. I told him that I want her to be forced to apologize in front of the entire class since she saw fit to humiliate my daughter in front of the entire class. He said I may not get that. I then told him I'd be happy to remind her that teachers no longer have tenure and that her job is not guaranteed. If I don't get what I want then I will take it all the way to the state board of education.

Be ready for fireworks!

4 comments:

R2 said...

Go Loretta, and if the Board won't do something, take it to the press!

Some teachers are so entrenched in their jobs just waiting to get their pensions that they forget their job is to educate and not humiliate.

I'm so sorry you even had to go through this, and that your daughter had to go through this.

"Sit down and shut up" is NOT in our family's vocabulary either and I stand by you 100%!

-Catharine Leach.

Christie O'Brien said...

Go get em Loretta!!

Anonymous said...

oh loretta, ii wish there were many more of you

Anonymous said...

My god you are a brilliant mom. And you even have the same name as my mom. Good on you.