Help with dealing with teacher and principal in elementary school, or am I just being a overbearing parent?
Bleh. The teacher sounds petty and horrible. Worst of all, I wouldn’t be surprised if the second incident was in part a retaliation for the complaint about the first. On the other hand, how upset is your child about this? I mean, after the fact, once the initial embarrassment has worn off. Is she dreading going back to school, or does she forget about it? If it’s the former then you should probably keep pursuing it (I don’t know where you live, but you should be able to if necessary get her transferred to another school in the same board if you go to the board and say that you have irreconcilable differences with the staff), but if the latter then you should probably just grit your teeth and accept that this won’t the last unreasonable little dictator in a position of authority that your child encounters in her life. It might be too soon for the “not all adults deserve the same amount of respect” talk, but it’s a lesson she will eventually have to learn. So, my take on it (as a father
No, you are in the right. The behavior you have described on the behalf of this teacher is sick. Humiliation tactics like that are abusive. The next time you speak to the principal, remind them of the nationwide issue of bullying and let them know that just because the teacher is an adult does not mean they are exempt from being a bully themselves. Insist that your daughter be moved. Your poor kid.
Humiliating the child publicly like that is over the top. I wouldn’t stand for it either, though like you, I would agree with the discipline approach of the first assignment receiving a 0 and the test also being a 0. Those are appropriate consequences to the action. But making the child a source of public ridicule among his or her peers suggests to me the teacher is getting off on a power trip. (And my high-school teacher husband gets annoyed when a student will forget his or her name on an assignment but doesn’t discount the work the student put into the assignment — he just figures out whose it is by process of elimination and grades accordingly.
I had a Biology teacher who picked on me regularly when I was at school. The best thing my folks ever did for me was to tell me that, whilst my late homeworks or badly-chosen retorts were my own responsibilty, the way she treated me was wrong and that they would support me wherever they could. So, for instance, when she wrote to them about my uniform not being quite right (many kids’ weren’t, only a few got pulled up on it) they wrote back saying they thought it was fine and the school could shove their petty complaint. Seriously, they rocked. This teacher was a mean old bat, but coping with her was way easier with my parents’ support, and definitely less likely to ostracise me from my peers than them making a massive deal of it and asking to move my class. I’m not saying that your actions so far were wrong, just that it might not be the best option for your child. Good luck, this is an opportunity to teach your child a SUPER important life lesson – that authority figures aren’t always
Also, pulling your child out of another class?? And then humiliating her in front of students in another class??? Sorry. That shouldn’t happen.Her science class is just as important as her math class and I imagine now her science grade could possibly have suffered because she was removed from the class and likely horrendously upset when she returned. The math teacher should have waited until lunch, recess, or another period of time during the day that did not involve removing your child from another class.
