My Illustrious Volunteer Career
Also, the Stabber? Spent the entire morning on Friday stabbing himself in the forehead with a pencil. (A sub was there. She refused to “play the heavy,” as my hippie parents used to say, with the kids.)
Posted by WackyMommy in School |
Comments (5)
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Jeezus, what is going on here? Would this behavior be allowed if he was doing it to someone else? He shouldn’t be doing this to himself! The poor kid must have terribly low self-esteem. God only knows what has caused him to feel this way about himself at such a young age, but he needs to know he shouldn’t be treating himself this way. He is worth more.
February 13th, 2006 | #
He had to go to the principal’s office, but that’s sure not getting at the root of the problem, is it? He only does well with praise and more praise. I had to tell him settle down (he was being disruptive, running around the room, shredding his journal) and that set him off into stabbing mode.
February 14th, 2006 | #
Is it possible that he has some kind of special needs (autism, attention deficit) that PPS is ignoring? Not that PPS, that CARING institution that values ALL children would ever do that.
My friends and I have noticed that they are under-diagnosing kids so they will not have to give them services. They pretend it is in the interest of the kids, that they are being nice and don’t want to over label. We call it the sudden economic cure.
I have friends with children who were diagnosed with severe disabilities who were suddenly, magically cured when Miss Vicki decided to cut the special education budget. “Your child who last year we told you could not be in a regular classroom, suddenly can and he doesn’t even need an aide or anything. Isn’t that wonderful?”
I don’t know if you know the “stabbers” parents, but if you are at all friendly with them you might want to let them know what is going on.
I love your posts about school. There sure is plenty of material to write about out there lately, isn’t there?
Anne
February 15th, 2006 | #
Yes, there is a little too much for us to discuss. The district’s lice policy, for instance. (We can talk special ed next post. Of course you’re right. And in schools with no special ed classrooms they don’t want to diagnose and possibly lose the kid to a school that has a special ed class, because the money follows the kid.)
Parents were not told yesterday about the three kids in Wacky Girl’s class who have lice. I found out by accident when I ran into the girls right before dismissal and they yelled, “We have lice!” at me. (One more reason to volunteer — the kids and teachers get to know you and trust you, and you get the scoop on what’s happening, from them and other parents.)
V. morose girls. So far so good here — WG just bitched at me, “You checked my head yesterday!” and I told her, “Yes, I’ll be checking it every day for the next month.” Damn lice. But it’s not a stigma, for God’s sake — we all have been lousy at one time or another.
I called all the parents in our class — they were not happy, but were glad to be notified. I told one, “Yeah, everyone’s thrilled to hear from me.” She said, “You’re wonderful.” How sweet is that? We have awesome parents at our school — we really do all get along pretty well, considering how stressed we are.
One of the mommies yelled, “Honey, come over here!” to her kid, followed by, “Jesus, goddammit, sorry my language. Yeah, we’ve got bugs.” And she still said thanks. Oh, please. I was like, “Thinking of you!” and hung up.
So that brings us to four in one class. Yet no letter will be going home, and the school will not be making calls. Supposedly they are considering checking heads. (We have a school nurse one day a week is all.)
Which brings me to the district. Again. I’ve heard from mommies at two schools that when there’s a lice situation, outbreak, issue, whatever you want to call it, the teachers won’t call the parents and notify, and the school won’t send a letter. Both schools said, “Invasion of privacy.” I’m thinking Jesus goddammit, too, because you know how we swap colds around. Same with lice. Only itchier and more expensive. One of my girlfriend’s kids had it for months. They were a blended family, and the stepmom wasn’t treating her house. She’d treat one kid’s head, not the other’s, and they were doing the swaperoo. Now, times that by a few hundred kids.
What is the policy at other schools out there? I’m going to call Portland Public Schools today and ask what the district policy is.
February 15th, 2006 | #
Also, a school in our neighborhood (not ours) didn’t notify when strep and hand-foot-mouth disease were going around, EVEN THOUGH THE PARENTS OF THE INFECTED KIDS CALLED THE SCHOOL AND SAID “PLEASE LET THE OTHER PARENTS KNOW.” Bastards. Honestly. Bastards. Privacy my ass.
February 15th, 2006 | #