what NOT to do as a parent....

sharksfan

As many of you know, I'm a school principal. Well,I had the most bizarre parent conference yesterday that really threw me for a loop. A middle school boy was caught plagiarizing a report, so we sent a notice to the parents. When the report was brought back with the parent "signature", I knew it didn't look right. So,I called the boy into my office and asked him whose signature it was. He broke down crying and admitted to forging his mother's signature. A couple hours later, the math teacher found a page in his math notebook where he had been practicing the signature. So, the teacher and I met with the parents that afternoon, and the mother said that it WAS her signature, how dare I accuse her son of forging it, blah blah blah. Seriously? It looked nothing like her usual signature, and he admitted to doing it! I swear, I think that dealing with some of the parents I've dealt with over the last five years in this job has taught me what NOT to do as parent more than anything else.

No real reason for this post except to vent a bit!

HappyAardvark

Wow. It seems like the kid has more integrity than his parent, even after being caught plagarizing.

Nita2603

Wow, that is crazy. Way to teach your child to lie. Horrible.

LatteLady5

That's disgusting. What a terrible lesson to teach her son. Did you tell her that her son confessed to it?

UFCasey

What did you say?! I'm astounded that she would lie about his forgery for the note about his plagiarizing! Three levels of lies - that's impressive.

sharksfan

LatteLady5:

That's disgusting. What a terrible lesson to teach her son. Did you tell her that her son confessed to it?

Yeah, I told her. She said that I clearly pressured him into admitting to something he didn't do. I was amazed. So, we basically just spent the rest of the conference focusing in the plagiarism. Fortunately, her son wasn't there to hear his Mom cover for his forging, and I already gave him a serious talking to about that earlier.

stardust317

That is ridiculous.

Ms.Jade

That is unbelievable! The thing that sticks out the most for me is what she's taught her son through this incident. How will this shape his idea of not only right and wrong, but who his mother is and her character!

missyishere

HappyAardvark:

Wow. It seems like the kid has more integrity than his parent, even after being caught plagarizing.

This. I also wonder if he tried to receive help from his parents, but instead of helping him figure it out, he resorted to cheating.

colliebabe

I see so many incidents like this too sharks!  Being a teacher has taught me so much about what not to do as a parent.

[Deleted User]

Gee, I wonder where he learned to cheat. =/

LCass

Ugh, what a b!tch of a parent.  That's really disgusting.  I'm glad the kid didn't witness it, and that you'd already talked to him about his behaviour.

A similar thing happened to a friend of mine, but she teaches high school.  A student wouldn't return a book that belonged to the school.  Eventually the student told my friend that she was essentially stealing the book and wouldn't give it back.  I forget how parents/admin got involved, but my friend was eventually called into a meeting with the parents where they berated her for accusing their daughter of stealing because they are related to the prince of somewhere or other and it's insulting.  The administrator made my friend apologize to the parents, who then, knowing what neighbourhood she'd grown up in, asked if she was Jewish (she isn't) and basically insinuated that she was behaving this way because they thought she was Jewish and they're Arab.  She refused to answer about being Jewish, saying it had no bearing on anything.  The admin wouldn't even back her up on that.

blu-eyedwife

Sounds like when my mom's (college) students had their parents come in to defend the fact they were cheating on quizzes. 

mrs.lizzieb

That's sad. Poor kid resorts to lying and most likely picked it up from his parents.

Scramblersmom

Yowzer...and people wonder why so many kids are all screwed up! This makes me angry and sad.

Stewartandmaura

I taught at our district's alternative school for four years. There were numerous times when parent involvement in a student's misbehavior resulted in the parent saying the teacher was lying or the teacher did something to cause their child to act that way. Parents are total enablers these days. The students actually get excited when you tell them you are going to call their parents because they know their parents will defend them.  

It really makes me worry about the state of our country in a few more years. These kids are going to be our future? Yikes.

 

joolz17

Sharks, that is crazy! Judgment: BAD MOTHER.

LCass

Stewartandmaura:

I taught at our district's alternative school for four years. There were numerous times when parent involvement in a student's misbehavior resulted in the parent saying the teacher was lying or the teacher did something to cause their child to act that way. Parents are total enablers these days. The students actually get excited when you tell them you are going to call their parents because they know their parents will defend them.  

It really makes me worry about the state of our country in a few more years. These kids are going to be our future? Yikes.

So true.  I was sworn at by two students while helping out at an after-school event (nice, huh?  I'm volunteering my time so they can have a talent show and they swear at me for not letting them wander the school).  Swearing at a teacher is an automatic one day in-school suspension with that school board.  The one girl admitted it and served her detention and apologized for getting caught up in mob mentality.  The other denied it, her mother backed her up which essentially means she called me a liar.  She admitted to arguing with me, but managed to avoid the suspension.