0 common sense....

There are times when I wish i was able to homeschool my kids just so I did not have to put up with stupid school bullshit.  This is one of those times.

AJ must go to "Friday School" next week.  Basically detention, but on a Friday.  When it goes till 6pm and there is no way for the kid to get home unless the parents rearrange their schedules to go pick them up.  Seems like more of a punishment for the parents!  But I digress.  Why is she serving Friday school?  Because she answered her cell phone.  Now YES...she should not have answered it.  It was not quite end of the school day, maybe 5 minutes before.  It was my older daughter, who was going to visit old teachers at the school and as such, was going to drive AJ home and she was calling to find out where she was.  Ok, Jenna should know better too!  But anyway...according to AJ, she went to hang up right away and she was told that she was going to be referred to admin and suffer whatever consequences admin thought was appropriate.  According to her teacher, AJ did not hang up right away and give her a "1 sec" sign with her hand before hanging up and then she gave AJ a choice...let the teacher keep the phone overnight and that would be the end of it or go to admin and deal with it.  AJ was not about to leave her phone for the evening so she went to admin., figuring the way she understood it the punishment was the same for both choices.  Now, sure, I understand there is "policy" but in an area such as this where "policy" is tinkered with by individual teachers to suit their needs.  This teacher said to me she condones texting during class.  Ok...so...how are you going to condone one use of a phone but not another, and the cite "policy" as to her punishment?  Either phones are OK or they are not, there should be no middle ground.  If you choose to relax the rules, then come sommon sense should be used.  AJ is not a troublemaker, this was a first offense.  What happened to warnings, whether verbal or written?  a phone call home? a meeting with the admin?  why fly right to a punishment?  Especially when this "policy" is altered by individual teachers, and another student in the same situation, or a "worse" one, may not face the same punishment depending on how a teacher handles it.

I have my own theories, and it all goes back to an incident we had with Jenna when she went to that school.  Someone told admin Jenna had pot on her, so the "policy" of course is to search her bags, locker, etc.  No put of course, but she did happen to have some Tylenol on her. DING DING DING DING here is a druggie!!!!!  She got suspended for 10 days and then had to do 30 days at the "alternative school."  40 days out of school.  For TYLENOL.  all because of a no common-sense zero tolerance policy.  Zero tolerance=zero common sense.  ESPECIALLY when Jenna had a friend who showed up to school DRUNK and her only punishment was a referral to the 3-day drug and alcohol program.  No suspension, no "alternative school."  And being drunk at 15 is ILLEGAL.  Tylenol is a LEGAL substance.  Where is the sense there?  My theory being AJ has been "tagged" as the sibling of a "troublemaker."  MIND YOU, Jenna got in trouble this ONE time.  Such a pest huh?  Why this theory?  Because when AJ started middle school, she was immediately recommended for the drug and alcohol guidance program at that school.  Gee, why would she be pegged for that? @@  As a result of Jenna's experience, she became down on school and graduated 1 credit shy of an advanced diploma because depoite the reassurances that Jenna's work would be sent to the alternative school, despite the pledges that her education was important, she could not complete any work for her American Sign Language 3 class because its all signing that has to be done IN CLASS.  Miss 40 days, you're gonna fail.  They made her drop the class.  Sure she would have taken it the following year, but the experience soured her so much she said "why bother" and just basically chose the minimal amount of work to get her a diploma.  Not to mention that not all the work she did got from the alternative school back to her home school.  Those idiots did not give a crap.  She got good grades, had good attendance and was never a problem for any teacher she had.  She made one mistake by not cleaning out her bag after a weekend trip to see my mom, and her education got screwed up.  Once she graduated and got into her pastry school program, she was finally happy again.  Graduated with a 4.0 form that program.  She never blamed the teachers (who were none to happy she was being treated that way), she blamed the administration for not using common sense and realizing they have the power to be reasonable.  Everyone hides behind the "its policy" mantra, and nobody uses their brains.  AJ's school counselor thinks Friday school for this first offense is ridiculous too, but he has no day in anything.  Its a teacher's word against AJ's, and the teacher feels disrespected so lets make an example of someone.  No matter how it really may have went down.  Kids lie all the time right??

Meanwhile, AJ has been the subject of a few school bullies.  One did get suspended for a few days, but basically, the school has done nothing to make these kids leave AJ alone.  I sure haven't been brought into any meetings, nor have the other parents.  Just phone calls.   And the kids keep doing it.  It's all verbal, nothing physical.  SO AJ can put her mp3 player on and ignore most of it. (most of it happens on the bus).  But if AJ were to turn around and kick one of these boys in the nuts, SHE would be punished, not them!  Where the hell is the justice in that??  Meanwhile, these kids get to keep riding the bus, the main area for their abuse, and suffer no consequences.  (The suspension?  One of the kids took a drawing AJ did and littered it wiht inappropriate drawings and words.  The suspension was for that inappropriateness, not for any bullying or anything like that.)  It is so nice the school is looking out for my kid!  ALl they freaking care about is test scores and hell with everything else. 

While I do not want to rush my kids growing up, I really can't wait till Noah graduates and we are done with this school crap.  9 more years to go....