Sunday, August 24, 2008

Wicked and Mean

This is what happened my second day of school...


I was in my room getting things ready before school and I was paged for a telephone call. I went and answered the phone. It was the mother of one of my students', let's call him Jimmy. She told me that because I had picked Jimmy to be our first "King of the Day" (and therefore sent him home with a beach bag that he was supposed to fill with things about him and return the next day) he was bullied on the bus. This is the beach bag I sent home.



Apparently he was picked on on the bus ride home because he had a purple bag and purple meant gay and how dare I send it home with a little boy. I told her I had used that bag all last year and never had a problem with that. I told her I was very sorry and asked her who was picking on her son so that I could get the principal involved and we could talk with the other student and try and get this taken care of. She said she didn't know who the bully was but it was ridiculous and she was furious. She told me she would wait until after school started and the halls were clear of all bullies to bring him to school that morning.

Jimmy never came to school that day.

I told my principal about the phone call. He asked who the student was and then informed me that the mom is just like that. Weekly, the school got calls from that parent last year about something happening to one of her kids. He told me not to worry about it.


Later that day this mom called the school again and talked to the principal. He asked her to come to the school and identify the bully so he could take care of it. She said she didn't want to have to do that. My principal asked what she'd like to have done and she said she wanted to pull her son out of the school and send him to a different one. My principals response....

"I'll have the papers ready for you to sign in 10 minutes."

She came to the school that afternoon to sign the papers. She threw the bag on the secretaries desk (which she had tied a purple balloon to) and announced,

"I'm taking Jimmy out of this school because he has a wicked and mean teacher."

So, I guess I'm wicked and mean. But now I only have 19 students. And according to all the administrative staff in my school, I did everyone a huge favor.

12 comments:

Adam said...

Ali that's a really funny story.

Parents need to relax about the whole bullying thing. When I was a kid my mom used to deliberately send me to school in girls' clothes so I'd get bullied. She wanted to make me tougher. And look how I turned out!

Ashlyn Ellsworth said...

Only a teacher can appreciate your blog!! Aren't the parents the main problems in your class? I see if everyday!!! Oh I sure hope I am never half as bad as some of the parents I deal withe everyday!

DC Diva said...

That's ridiculous! High maintenance, lame parent, great principal and hey man... cute bag. To think I thought this entry was going to be about getting tickets to
"Wicked." I'm sure you have some great school stories. I hope you blog about them all the time!

Harley King said...

Lame parents need bullying.

Can you identify her for me?

Jill said...

Man Ali, it sounds like you did yourself a huge favor too. I imagine you would have heard from that awful mother on a pretty regular basis throughout the year. I feel sorry for her kids. Funny story though.

Aaron and Stacey Stevenson said...

Awesome!!!

Anonymous said...

I don't think you are wicked or mean.

Brianne said...

That was the most enthralling story. You should seriously write a novel. That is scary that so many people get offended so easily. Hey, Jeff and I were just talking about how we wanted to have you over.

Lindsi said...

I absolutely love that story because parents really are that lame. However, you made this a joke but I realize that it for sure made you feel bad because we as teachers can't help but care what those lame parents think. I hate 'em. That's why our job makes us so tired. Keep sending the purple bag home, kids need to learn to be comfortable with their homosexuality. Love and miss you! Good luck this year.

Jeff said...

I'm happy you can take that with a smile Ali. How about you pass along the address of this parent and I'll go have a chat with them?

Julie Broadbent said...

Yikes!

Brett said...

Oh my gosh Ali, that is the funniest story ever. Phew, poor kid to have a mom like that!