Thursday, January 31, 2008

Too much Principal contact

Well, so begins the ride with the boy. He got his first in school "ticket" for pushing a boy in the bathroom. We are talking about 8 year old boys in the bathroom. It seems that he "pushed" this boy over and he fell in water/urine. Nobody saw it and it is my son's word against this other boy. What do you do as a teacher? You can't really do nothing. So, my son has grounded himself from the Wii for the next two days. You read correctly. He grounded himself. We did not institute any penalty. Not because we don't care, but because we are not sure that he did anything wrong.

Eli is about 6 inches shorter than the other kids in his grade and we held him until he was almost six before he started kindergarten. It seems that the boys in the bathroom were looking at something on the floor and Eli was trying to see over them, around them, and in the process bumped a kid. He lost his balance and fell over into whatever they were looking at - it seems that it was pee on the floor. What do you do? Boys are curious. I really don't think that Eli went up to this boy and shoved him on purpose. It just isn't in his nature. He is definitely a follower, but would not intentional push or shove anyone. It just seems like a waste of time for the teacher to fill out this form. I just wonder if she thinks that Eli really did this on purpose? Am I missing something? I truly don't think that he is an angel, but he is not aggressive. I would even say he is submissive and needs to assert himself more. Something to work on and pray about.

The girl was also in the principal's office yesterday. They had the drug dogs in to her school yesterday to sniff out drugs and other paraphenalia. Apparently, they called her down because she had ibuprofen in her backpack in her locker. This is considered contraband and is not allowed at school. Since when is an over the counter pain reliever a "drug". She can go to Target or Wal-mart and purchase a 500 pill container of this without showing an ID or anything. I know, all medicine should be taken appropriately. She is 14 years old - I think that she knows the appropriate dose and use. She has it because of muscle aches from swimming 3 hours a day for practice. Apparently, the principal just looked at her and sent her back to class. It seems that he knows her. I am truly hoping in a good way!

I am a teacher in this school district and I often wonder what is going on. How much time is wasted on this kind of thing? Thanks for listening to me vent and let me know what I am missing.

Blessings

3 comments:

Cheri said...

I haven't abandoned you - just busy.

I am so with you girl. It bothers me when it seems so much time is taken up with non issues, then you have the kids that obviously need a WHOLE lot of attention and well... it isnt' happening.

Yeah. The Boy is now homeschooled. For us, I feel better about it. Much better

Susanne said...

My son's third grade was difficult in this way. I was being called by the principal for stuff he supposedly with a friend were doing to other kids. One boy changed schools. I was stunned first that my son would do this stuff. It was not his nature to be cruel especially to boys that had been his friends since school started and second that the school did not let me know what was going on until things had escalated until one boy had left the school. Turned out after much heartache and tears and questioning my son, that the school determined he was "guilty by association" and had himself done nothing wrong. All that heartache for him and me could have been avoided if they had just let me know from the beginning. I can't imagine what it's like to be a parent and a teacher at the same time when "stuff" happens.

Unknown said...

tough situations ... I know how this can be difficult (I've got a 10 year son and a 9 yr old daughter)...