Mother's fury as son returns home from school with bad report stapled to his shirt

Discussion in 'Off-Topic Discussions' started by Randell1234, Mar 8, 2011.

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  1. Randell1234

    Randell1234 Moderator

    This is a great story. The parent is mad because the student was talking in class so the teacher stapled a “disciplinary note” to his shirt to be sure the mother gets it. Now the mother is mad because her son (the student) was embarrassed. Maybe I am just a cold, rotten person but I think this is great. Maybe this will stop him from disrupting the class in the future. I think that as a society we have taken away a valuable lesson from children: actions have consequences.

    Question to all you grade school and high school teachers – is this over the line?

    Mother's fury as school staples bad report to son's shirt | Mail Online
     
  2. airtorn

    airtorn Moderator

    As a parent of elementary school children, I would not be happy if one of my boys came home with a note stapled to his shirt. However, if I was asking for progress reports and wasn't getting them, as a parent, I would have checked with the school to find out why before it got to this point.

    Our kids bring home folders which need to be signed every night. There are no surprises and it is a simple way for the teachers and parents to correspond with each other.
     
  3. ITJD

    ITJD Active Member

    No it's not over the line.

    1. The kid is not traumatized any more than any other kid is by one incident of being laughed at.

    2. The parents not being amused has more to do with their embarrassment than anything else. If my kid had one of these on him I'd be all over him, not the teacher. I'd also expect that the kids would be talking and the parents in my community would wonder how I'm parenting "the bad kid".

    3. Taking it to the press doesn't traumatize the kid? People know what went down and the people in his immediate community won't be fooled by the face blur as the mom seems more than happy to get the attention.

    Come on. Take it like adults and don't groom your kid to be a bigger problem than he already is by setting a bad example.

    What's going to happen when he gets into a real scrape? Gonna call the Coast Guard?
     
  4. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    Dang, I didn't know this would happen. Now I'm sorry I stapled the note to his shirt...I should have stapled it to his head.
     
  5. Bruce

    Bruce Moderator

    If my child came home from school with a report card that said not only were his grades bad, but that he was a disruption in class, having something stapled to their shirt would be the LAST thing they would need to worry about.

    I call this the "My Little Angel Syndrome"....I'm so damn sick of parents who want to blame everyone for their child's bad behavior except the person whose fault it really is....themself.
     
  6. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    Huh? This used to happen to me all of the time. Seriously, at least twice a week a note stapled to my shirt. I don't see why this is such a big deal? I'd be most upset, if at all, at the potential damage done to the shirt.
     
  7. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    By the way, yes, that means that I was a problem child.
     
  8. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    If there's anything that annoys me about our dear American culture it's that everyone has a soapbox (Yes, everyone, including myself.).
     
  9. Randell1234

    Randell1234 Moderator

    The only thing that would make this even better if it happen in English Lit class during the reading of The Scarlet Letter :laugh2::laugh2::laugh2::smashfreakB:
     
  10. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef


    LOL Old and cold right there with ya. Besides, if the lad can't figure out how to remove a stapled note from his shirt.....well.....
     
  11. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    My kindergartner came home with a note stuck to him as a sticker. All the young kids that day did. I thought it was a great way of ensuring I actually saw it. But if he did something wrong behaviorally, I'd expect them to tell me in person when I came to pick him up, or send a note home requiring my signature.

    -=Steve=-
     
  12. nanoose

    nanoose New Member

    It's official!!....cat is now really out of the bag. :cool2:
     
  13. nanoose

    nanoose New Member

    This works great with high school kids writing something they know better than to write. I tell them to take it home and get their parents to sign it and return it to me tomorrow. Problem solved.
     
  14. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    I LOVE that.
     
  15. mattbrent

    mattbrent Well-Known Member

    Perhaps I'm just too sensitive, but I think it was a bit out of line. You pick up the phone. That's why we have them. Notes home aren't guaranteed to get home. Furthermore, telling the school that the student's work quality is poor is a bit of an ethical violation. Each kid has their issues. Perhaps the student isn't a good reader. Embarassing him isn't going to help him gain confidence.

    Teachers need to be more open to communication. While I agree with the mom that she should've been called, it's a bit absurd to blow this out of proportion. If the kid IS a discipline problem (and he probably is, because what kid these days isn't...) she should've been involved in the school already.

    Here's the thing I dislike. Teachers shouldn't have to go to parents. As a parent, YOU should WANT to know how your child is doing in school. YOU should be calling the teachers. YOU should be coming to conference nights. YOU should be talking to your child about school. YOU should be taking some responsibility.

    -Matt
     
  16. james_lankford

    james_lankford New Member

    yes, definitely over the line

    didn't read the article, but did the teacher called the parents in the past and got no answer ?
    did the teacher send notes home before and never got a response ?

    you don't touch my kid, and you don't mark, cut up or punch holes in their clothes, not even tiny unnoticeable holes
    if a teacher did that to my kid, I'd staple a letter of complaint to their clothes and see how they like it
    I'm sure the teacher would call the cops if I did something like that to them
     
  17. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    Yes, I may have joked about it earlier, but I'm with you; it was very bad form for the teacher to staple a note to a child's shirt. It's a rather cowardly thing to do too. That's a difficult phone call to make, but this situation would require the teacher to contact the parent by phone. If the problem is that severe, a face to face conference should be set up. I've never had that much of a problem with a student, my classroom discipline system works well enough that I've never had things get that bad.
     
  18. Bruce

    Bruce Moderator

    Perhaps you should have, before you passed judgment?

    Notes were being sent home, but were "disappearing" (the brat was throwing them away).

    Seriously? So your kid can't wear a nametag at school, either?

    The teacher wasn't the one being a disruption in class.

    After 23 years of seeing and dealing with the results of permissive/poor parenting (they're one in the same), I'm here to tell you it doesn't work. When your child attracts the negative attention of an authority figure, be it a teacher, a police officer, or even just another adult, don't automatically take your child's side, and especially don't try to excuse their bad behavior in the face of overwhelming evidence that your little darling is the problem.

    Ignoring and especially rewarding bad behavior just leads to worse behavior.
     
  19. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    The most important question has not yet been asked . . .

    Was the stapler red?
     
  20. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    Aw, come on! Who in the world is actually taking this seriously?
    If her child were to be arrested, would she cry foul at the cops for putting him in cuffs? HOW DARE THEY?! HE WILL BE TRAUMATIZED!!!
    ...and if so, what did it say?
     

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