another principal run-in

799 Views 16 Replies 10 Participants Last post by jcumming, Mar 9, 2008

fox-runr

Discussion Starter · Mar 8, 2008

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. 
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". 
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. 
so, do you think I'll get a letter on this infraction??

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jcumming

· #2 · Mar 8, 2008

I'm just giggling. 
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. 
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. 
A letter??? If so that's one principal with far too much time on her hands.

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jcumming

· #17 · Mar 9, 2008

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 
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. 
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. 
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. 
I was sorely tempted to say no, but the big person in me prevailed that day. 
...and you wonder why people are no longer lining up for Principal and Vice-principal jobs.

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