[fox-runr]

My son had soup splash all over himself at lunch. He said it covered his sweatshirt and was embarrassed and it was an old sweatshirt, so he took it off and threw it in the garbage.<br><br>
The prinicpal saw him and said that he shouldn't throw clothes away when there are poor children in Africa needing them. Meanwhile, other kids have dumped their lunches in the garbage. Principal tells him to go to the garbage and take the sweatshirt out and take it home for "mom" to wash. He walks over and says "gross. I'm not taking that out".<br><br>
I scolded him for not listening to an adult. However, the more I though about it, the more I thought it was none of her business, it is "my" business what my son does with his property. when he came to the car after school, I said right away "hey, it's cold, where's your sweatshirt". However, I have to admit, I glad it did not come home, I've been trying to throw it away for months. I don't think goodwill would have done anything but make rags with it.<br><br>
so, do you think I'll get a letter on this infraction??

 

[jcumming]

I'm just giggling.<br><br>
In my world of principaldom I would love one of those major "soup on the sweatshirt" scenarios instead of a couple of 911's we had.<br><br>
What is kind of funny is that I could more likely see a parent calling the school and pitching a hissy fit because the principal "allowed" a student to throw out a perfectly good sweatshirt and doesn't she know how much clothes cost and even if they don't want it there are millions of kids in Africa needing clothes.<br><br>
A letter??? If so that's one principal with far too much time on her hands.

 

[fox-runr]

yeah, maybe she was covering her own butt. Should I call and be one of those parents???? <img alt="biggrin.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/biggrin.gif"> Maybe I should send off the first letter "thanking her for helping me get that rag off my son's back" <img alt="biggrin.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/biggrin.gif">

 

[OldBaldHippie]

<img alt="smile.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/smile.gif">

 

[Horrible Peanut]

I say reward your son for his ability to think for himself by getting him... a new sweatshirt <img alt="smile.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/smile.gif">

 

[tigger]

With a logo on it saying "I <HEART> my principal!!

 

[Shadow38]

<img alt="biggrin.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/biggrin.gif"><br><br>
Classic!

 

[maccabeth]

As a teacher, I see kids throw stuff away sometimes that I think could be reused or donated (it's an affluent area and most of them know their mom will just get them another one anyway, no questions asked). I do insist that they recycle their paper in my class (we have a semi-new recycling program at the school...) and may chide them for throwing paper in the trash, but it's up to them what they want to do with their stuff. If a parent called me to yell at me about "allowing" their kid to throw something away, I would probably laugh.

 

[clb]

are there a lot of poor children in Africa who need a sweatshirt? A soup-covered sweatshirt at that?

 

[witchypoo]

well, there ARE a lot of starving children in africa.<br><br>
they could suck the soup out of the sweatshirt.<br><br>
sorta like my uncle sucks the food out of his beard.

 

[clb]

i thought you hated children.

 

[witchypoo]

if i hated children, i'd send them clean sweatshirts, and convince them they were filled with nourishing, delicious soup.

 

[clb]

My word you're brilliant!

 

[RaisingArizonainNH]

Each family and kid is different... some would be upset if the kid did that, others wouldn't , like you. I usually ask the kid what they are doing and why and if the kid is fairly reliable and explained it was old and nasty anyway, I would let him go ( I certainly wouldn't make ANYONE pick stuff out of the lunch trash!- EW!) I might mention it to the parent when I saw them though. If you ever saw the nice things that end up in lost and found and go to the shelters, you would be appalled though! Every 2 months they send 2 -3 contractor bags of clothes out of our small school's lost and found!

 

[tigger]

When my kids were in grade school the school as a punishment for bad behavior used to make the rotten little kids clean scrap up from the school yard. I told them that they were not to force my kids to do that. I was concerned by what they might pick up. I told my kids they didn't have to do it even if the principal insisted.

 

[RaisingArizonainNH]

At one point the idea of having the kids help clean up the school yard in the spring for Earth Day was brought up and the response was that it was not allowed because it was unsafe to have the kids picking up the trash everywhere... It's too bad actually because it is mostly just papers that get away from the trash truck that takes the paper recycling away!

 

[jcumming]

<br>
Yes essentially there is nothing you can have kids do because it might be unsafe or else it might be bad for their self-esteem to have to do some menial task that we can pay staff to do. You cannot keep them in after school, work over lunch break or essentially have them do anything beyond the minimum classroom requirement<br><br>
Therefore, in many cases we are left with no option but to suspend them from school which sometimes appears totally ludicrous and useless...especially when the parents take them to Disney World for those days on a last minute deal.<br><br>
I tried to suspend a child from our lunchroom once because he was active like an idiot and throwing food etc etc. I simply wanted the parent to take responsibilty for this kid for a week and hopefully get through to them that the kid needed to change. The parent checked into the matter and informed me that, under the Education Act, I had no right to suspend a child for the lunch hour. He was quite correct.<br><br>
After the parent refused to reach any sort of a compromise with me over how this could be resolved and what we could do to make things better I tired of the nonsense and suspended the kid from school for the week (which of course included the lunch hour). The next day the parent asked if I could rescind the suspension if they brought him home for lunch.<br><br>
I was sorely tempted to say no, but the big person in me prevailed that day.<br><br>
...and you wonder why people are no longer lining up for Principal and Vice-principal jobs.