Crazy Week (what's new?)

Another crazy week. This week there was no school on Easter Monday, the day after Easter Sunday.

Yesterday, when I was bidding my class farewell between classes, I saw a former student wearing his hat in the building where my classroom is. I told him to take off his hat while in the building. Knowing he was supposed to comply he just looked at me defiantly. I told him by name to take off his hat in the building and that he would get a detention if he did not remove it. He argued.

That's when another student who I didn't know decided to deal himself in, basically telling me with scorn that the other student did not have to remove his hat, and what was I worried about. I told him that I was not talking to him and to mind his own business. The first student tried to take advantage of the exchange and get away. But as he did so I told him he had a one hour detention for refusing to follow the school rule. He then removed his hat but I told him it was too late. These poor kids do this day in and day out with their own parents and get away with it, so their parents are to blame in large part for their children's infractions.

Well, another teacher was in the same area but the second kid did not know it. He made the comment, "I hope that teacher comes out so I can stab him. I'm gonna kill that f---er."
The teacher came in to tell me what happened. We went to the room that the student and I called him out. He was defiant and rude but I gave him no choice but to come with me. The teacher who heard him, the student and I all went to the office and the teacher wrote out a referral detailing what the student said. We gave the referral to the principal.

The student apologized for getting involved, thinking that that was all I knew. I told him that he could not say whatever he pleased without there being consequences. He apologized again and it seemed that this time he suspected that I knew what he had said (the threat). I thanked him for the apology but told him that there a consequences to our actions. I can be sorry for smashing into someone's car, truly sorry, but that if it's my fault, I still have to pay for the damage. I left and he went in to see the principal.

The principal emailed me later and told me that the student had in school suspension the next day and that a "letter" would go in his file.

That's it. I emailed the principal back and asked her what was going to happen to the student. She didn't reply.

OK. What is the liability of the school district and the Principal's personal liability if the student acts on his threat?

In a separate, less eventful incident, I emailed a parent about the rudeness his son shows to me. I detailed how the student sighs when I speak to him, ignores what I say, refuses to look at me, etc. The parent emailed back and told me that his son "paints a very different picture." He then went on to say that he would like for himself and his son to meet with me. He was also concerned about the "blatant disrespect you referenced."

There you have your Judge Judy parent, the parent who will watch as the two sides (hopefully) battle it out so that the he can decide who is right. I didn't answer the email and instead apoke to the counselor about transferring the student to another class. By the time I had the student today, the arrangements were made for his transfer.

Will the parent object? Probably. But more important to him will probably be to get his son and me to battle it out while he sits in judgment. He may even insist that his son stay in the class, just to spite me. Believe me, the student is a manipulator and his dad is his puppet.

Dad will be disappointed. I have talked to the teacher into whose class the student has been transferred and she is more than pleased to have him.