BellaOnline Forums Education Homeschooling This has me steamed...

Take a look at the headline for my local paper...

8-year-old gets four-day suspension
http://sentinelandenterprise.com/

If I were that teacher (I used to be a high school teacher) I would have had the girl give me the item & would have called the parents in for a conference and would have discussed what is & is not acceptable to bring to school & would have ended it there. The little girl in question - according to the article has no previous discipline problems at the school.

This is the school where my daughter went through 2nd grade. I pulled her out & started homeschooling her. She cried every night before school - she didn't want to go, she was afraid of being sent to that principal's office if her homework wasn't done. Her teacher wouldn't let her go to the bathroom - consequently she came home with wet pants. I called the prinicpal and told him that my daughter had been potty trained since age 2 1/2 and not letting my child go to the bathroom for over 6 hours was abuse. I let him know I was giving him the courtesy of a phone call to give him a chance to fix the situation before I called the Department of Social Services and filed abuse charges. Lord knows the school never would have called me first if they suspected I wasn't allowing my daughter go to the bathroom for that amount of time - they would have simply filed charges.

Anyway, I could go on & on. I'm going to also post this in the homeschooling forum & school reform. I'm also considering contacting the paper...

I send out a weekly (ok, sometimes bimonthly and sometimes monthly) email containing education "stories" from around North America.

It is amazing the stories of silly discipline!!

If anyone wants on my list, drop me a line at megisboss@att.net and I will add you to my mailing list.

Meg

Sadly this sort of thing is waaay too common. I didn't catch the original report - I've only just "found" this forum - but your comments about toilet visiting rights etc are just so "normal" in UK schools. My SIL is a teacher and much as I love her dearly I wouldn't let her look after dd if she were going to treat her as she treats her students! For example, all children are supposed to be given free access to drinking water at all times during the day. SIL won't allow children to fill up their water bottles as then they will need to go to the toilet during her class and to quote her "If I can't go whenever I want to why should they?" She teaches 11 year olds.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/EDUCATION/11/11/no.cartwheels.reut/index.html

This one's on a child suspended for doing cartwheels because they are "dangerous." (But they allow other sports to go on at school.) My kids did gymnastics for years, and they didn't get any more injuries than they did playing basketball. In fact, when I was in school, they taught those things in gym class and we were supposed to practice at recess. Illegal cartwheels? I'll bet if cartwheels were on the standardized tests, they'd allow them and forget all about the danger theory!

I actually broke my arm when I was around 8 years old in gym class. I was doing one-handed cartwheels down a hill in the morning, slipped on the dewy grass, and then heard a loud SNAP: instant compound fracture in my left arm. The dumb gym teacher didn't see it, thought I was "faking" and made me do an obstacle course with a compound fracture that hurt like you wouldn't believe...

My oldest broke her elbow and arm last year playing on our home swing set. Granted she was using it more like mokey bars, but she was only about 2 ft from the ground.

Did ya'll hear about the story a few months ago where a boy swallowed the nub of a pencil (I still don't know quite how he managed it) and he told two teachers and neither believed him? His mom rushed him to the ER where they had to surgically remove it.

Meg