Warning…I’m extremely ticked off!!!
Ok, so…I work at a charter school (where my kids attend), that has open boundries (meaning, as long as we have space in the desired grade level, we take students), we pull from many surrounding school districts, some as much as 20-25 miles away from where the school is located. We have a very ethnically diverse student population, and a good many (about 40%) are qualified free/reduced/economicaly disadvantaged. My job is an office/administrative position, so I have a lot of interaction with parents, pretty much know every student and am privvy to alot of behind the scenes shenanigans. In my year and half at this job, I’ve seen and heard a lot, but what happened today takes the cake! We have a boy in kindergarten who has been a total monster from the beginning of the year. This kid is a holy terror. He started the year off by the usual temper tantrums. He would just walk out of class and wander the halls. That progressed to him kicking, hitting, biting…the principal! There have been a few instances of him throwing chairs. He’s 5 years old and has been suspended 4 times! His parents are total nitwits. They give in to his every whim. There was this one time that he was screaming at the top of his lungs “I WANT $5 AND I WANT IT NOW”, so what does dad do, pulls out a wad of cash and hands it to him! It’s quite ridiculous. He and his 2 older siblings have been kicked off the bus for discipline issues. We hoped that would compel the parents to withdraw him, but no such luck. We called in a behaviour specialist to work with him and things started to calm down. He started taking directions better, and the violence subsided as well. Las week, at dismissal, he refused to get out of his seat and line up. It was fairly obvious that he had an “accident” in his pants. The whole classroom had to be evacuated because it smelled so bad. When Dad finally showed up to get him, I felt so sad watching him go down the hall in smelly, poopy pants. So anyway, yesterday, it happened again!! This time, it was seeping out of his pants, onto the floor. Totally disgusting! Again, Dad came and got him, and he was told by the school nurse, AND assistant principal, that he could not return to school until he was diarreah free for at least 24 hrs. It’s a school policy, and everyone knows it. So what happens…they bring him to school this morning! I called the mom at 8:15 am, and said that they had to immediately turn around and pick him up…her answer “Dad dropped him off, and I’m not driving on highways to come get him”. I reminded her that per the family handbook, which they signed, they have 1 hour to come and get him. Two hours later, still no sign of parents. This poor bacha looked miserable. He kept leaving class and walking towards the bathroom and turning back around. I called Mom again, told her that he does not look well..her answer was “how do you know, are you a doctor?” My response “no ma’am, not a doctor, just a mother of 3 who can tell when a child is not well. You need to get him now.” The answer I got was “I don’t have time for this. I will not come all that way..just take care of him until dismissal and deal with it”. WTF!!! I could not stop the tears from rolling down my face. It was sickening. My principal had to call her back and tell her that if she did not come pick him up in 30 minutes, we would call Child Protective Services. This is just one of the MANY disheartening cases I’ve had to witness.
It’s amazing how you need a license for so many things…drive a car, cut hair, hell, even to go fishing! But any douchebag idiot can become a parent. 