School Problems..**spin off from another post**
I, like another poster, am having problems with my son's High School.......
the first problem being how a teacher handled a situation involving my son's cell phone.....On a FRIDAY (problems always seem to happen on a FRIDAY)....my son was waiting for the end of the day dismissal bell to ring, the PA system was playing the end of the day announcements, 2 minutes to go before dismissal, he takes his cell phone out to text me to find out if I needed him to come right home or could he stay after? The teacher walks up to him, does not say a WORD to him and SNATCHES it out of his hand...(a big no no IMO) now, in order for him to get it back he has to go to the office with her, and as long as he has no prior incidents with a cell phone, can get it back right away.....well, the teacher had to wait until the bell rang and all her students were dismissed before she could bring him & the phone to the office....all the while my son telling her he is going to miss his bus, has to get home,(mom has no car, or friends with a car) and she still refuses to listen to him...now I know the cell phone policy, and agree with it, but she ignored his telling her about missing the bus, and that he is gonna have to walk home (over 2 1/2 miles...ALONE, and mom needs him home right after school to babysit)....when they got to the office the principals secretary looked in his file, saw he had no priors, and gave the phone to him and dismissed him......end result is him walking home, alone, all because of this teacher's lack of understanding....when he called me & told me this I told him to go back into the school and tell them that they are responsible for you from door step to door step, so they need to find a way for you to get home...at which time he said they would not let him back in since he had already left campus.....I called and they told me I would have to speak to the principal since she is in charge of the teachers...of course she had already left for the day so I left VM and had to wait until Monday to talk to her...when I did, she was telling me that it was because of my son's actions that he missed the bus, that he could have waited to use his phone, and that because he went to the office to get his phone back, it was his fault he missed the bus..he could have chose to get it back the next day & still made his bus..but it was a FRIDAY, and I bought the phone for him for a reason, it is a necessity he has it being as though he is always walking to go places and he watches his sister for me, and we do not have a house phone..I told the principal that the teacher should have handled it the next day so that all of this was not an issue (the bus)...she is not holding her teacher responsible, bottom line, blaming my son for the whole incident...
now another situation has to do with their discipline policy......my son got detention for being a bit of a class clown with about 5-6 other students, ...they give the students a window of 3 days in which to serve the time, he was told by me that everyday he has to check in to see if it was ok to stay after (he is my babysitter) well during that 3 day window he had to come home every day, so they gave him 1 day ISS, for not serving the detention, and another day for not realizing he had ISS, and had just gone to his classes as per norm, AND he still has to serve the detention PLUS another day in ISS for not realizing he needed to be there....now my question is this...ISNT THIS LIKE DOUBLE JEOPARDY? he did his time in ISS...so it should be over with since the ISS is the direct result of not serving the detention in the time allotted...no one told him he needed to serve his ISS until they sent for him from the office (after morning roll call), and NOW they are saying that they gave him the choice of when to serve the detention, before school, or during lunch, or after school...my son AND myself were only told about the after school option...
and of course all of this on a FRIDAY....so I am going to call the school tomorrow and really give them a piece of my mind, first off he already served his time, resulting in very much needed valuable class time, NOW they want him to miss another whole day of valuable much needed class time, FOR WHAT???!!! this 2 days of him missing his classes is gonna really hurt him as in some of his classes he is struggling already (he has LD & an IEP) so how is this going to benefit him educationally????
mom 2 a Princess Diva..<3
As for iss i think the school is wrong. That I would fight them on.
The ISS I don't agree with.
I can see the whole school phone thing. We have that here also. However it has it's flaws like what happened with your son. Yes he should have waited but then there should be something in place for certain situations. I think the double ISS is wrong though and would definitely speak to the principle about this. I would also bring up the fact you or your son was not told that detention could be served at other times.
I agree that 2 1/2 miles is NOT that far, but when the school or school district is responsible for him from door step to door step, then I believe it is their responsibility to get him from school to home safely, especially when he was just about begging the teacher to let him go so that he can make the bus and to handle it the next school day...which BTW, resulted in me missing an appointment cuz it took him 1 hour to get home as apposed to 15-20 minutes...and the neighborhood he has to go through to get home is not one of the safest and he was ALONE....yes, he could have waited to use the phone, but the TEACHER also could have waited until the next day too...what if something happened to him on the way home, as did another student last year..he got hit my a cement truck crossing the same road my son has to, AT THE CROSS WALK......school would be responsible for that...
Quoting tyfry7496:
I agree with the cell phone thing. He knew the policy and could have waited 2 minutes. Walking home was the consequence of not following the policy. And 2.5 miles is not that far, I walked that everyday from school and so do a lot of kids.
The ISS I don't agree with.
mom 2 a Princess Diva..<3
Sorry your son broke the rules with the phone. He knew the rules he choose to break them.He got what he deserved.
No it is not like double jeopardy. He clowned around and got detention.he didn't serve it within the time frame allowed.So they added to his punishment. Which he again didn't follow.
You are worried about him missing classes,then maybe he should follow the rulkes and stop clowning around. Because that certainly isnt helping him.
My problem with this is that they didnt tell him of his options & didnt tell him he had ISS....so all he knew was to follow his normal routine, which is GO TO CLASS (which BTW, I have informed the school staff @ the beginning of the school year that he can not stay after unless he clears it with me first, & they still did not tell him/me of his options)...and then when the principal sent for him and told him he has ISS, he served it.....so them "ADDING TO HIS PUNISHMENT" was him serving the day in ISS...again..he did his time for his crime....but after this they want to add more time because he was not told his choices, how is this right? again, he served his time for not going to after school detention...
and with the cell phone thing, how is it getting what he deserved if anything happened to him on the walk home, ALONE, on the schools time? they are responsible from door step to door step....and if he never stayed to get his phone back HE WOULD BE WALKING HOME ALONE WITHOUT A PHONE TO CALL FOR HELP IF HE WERE TO GET JUMPED OR HIT CROSSING THE STREET LIKE SO MANY PPL HAVE ALREADY...yes he should have waited to use the phone, but the teacher should have used better judgement and thought her actions through and dealt with it the next school day...
Quoting lucky2Beeme:
Sorry your son broke the rules with the phone. He knew the rules he choose to break them.He got what he deserved.
No it is not like double jeopardy. He clowned around and got detention.he didn't serve it within the time frame allowed.So they added to his punishment. Which he again didn't follow.
You are worried about him missing classes,then maybe he should follow the rulkes and stop clowning around. Because that certainly isnt helping him.
mom 2 a Princess Diva..<3
Quoting flprincessmom:My problem with this is that they didnt tell him of his options & didnt tell him he had ISS....so all he knew was to follow his normal routine, which is GO TO CLASS (which BTW, I have informed the school staff @ the beginning of the school year that he can not stay after unless he clears it with me first, & they still did not tell him/me of his options)...and then when the principal sent for him and told him he has ISS, he served it.....so them "ADDING TO HIS PUNISHMENT" was him serving the day in ISS...again..he did his time for his crime....but after this they want to add more time because he was not told his choices, how is this right? again, he served his time for not going to after school detention...
and with the cell phone thing, how is it getting what he deserved if anything happened to him on the walk home, ALONE, on the schools time? they are responsible from door step to door step....and if he never stayed to get his phone back HE WOULD BE WALKING HOME ALONE WITHOUT A PHONE TO CALL FOR HELP IF HE WERE TO GET JUMPED OR HIT CROSSING THE STREET LIKE SO MANY PPL HAVE ALREADY...yes he should have waited to use the phone, but the teacher should have used better judgement and thought her actions through and dealt with it the next school day...
Quoting lucky2Beeme:
Sorry your son broke the rules with the phone. He knew the rules he choose to break them.He got what he deserved.
No it is not like double jeopardy. He clowned around and got detention.he didn't serve it within the time frame allowed.So they added to his punishment. Which he again didn't follow.
You are worried about him missing classes,then maybe he should follow the rulkes and stop clowning around. Because that certainly isnt helping him.
I walked home 3 miles from HS. It's not really a BIG DEAL. People can survive without cell phones momma. If he got hit by a car the police would come and get his info from him and call you. They used to do this before cell phones and actually still do.Not everyone carried a cell phone. Stop blaming the teacher .She was following protocol according to what you told us.
When he needed to be hoe every day and couldn't serve detention, you should have called the school. explain he is your afterschool sitter. Also I bet all the rules and regulations regarding detention , inhouse suspension are in the handbook. Its given to everyone to be read so they know whats going on in school.
Surround yourself with people that add to your life not subtract from it.
that is the thing, I did tell them of him having to clear it with me first to see if he could stay after, and he did serve his time for it, and he did tell them that he can't stay after, and they never told him of his options,.but them wanting to add to it is what I have a problem with....
and for him walking home alone, I understand kids do it all the time, but most likely they are taught to always walk in pairs, safety in numbers ya know?, and if he were to get jumped, it could be HOURS before he is found and the cops are called, cause in these hoods, NO ONE SNITCHES...so who would call it in if he don't have his phone? AND BACK IN THE DAY WHEN EVERYONE DIDNT HAVE CELL PHONES, THERE WERE PAY PHONES EVERY WHERE, now there are no pay phones ANYWHERE!!! And again, the school is responsible for him from door step to door step....so how is this being responsible for the students safety?
I'm ready to pull the earbuds out of his ears and put them somewhere less comfortable.
- flprincessmom
on Feb. 5, 2012 at 10:53 AM