Thursday, March 6, 2008

Drama with Gracie's teacher... AGAIN

Last night at dinner, Gracie told me that a boy in her class named Mark tried to punch her in the face. I said, "WHAT?"

G: I held my hands up in front of my face, so he just hit my hands, but he tried to punch my face.
Me: Did you tell your teacher?
G: Yes. But before I told on him, he punched Jalen in the mouth and broke his front tooth, and Mom, it was a permanent tooth!
Me: Did he get in trouble?
G: Yes. He lost his recess for the rest of the week.
Me: Why isn't there a note in your bag telling Mommy what happened?
G: I don't know, but it happened, I promise!
Me: Did you do something to provoke him?
G: What does provoke mean?
Me: It means you did something to make him hit you, like teasing him, or hitting him first.
G: No, I didn't do any of that stuff, Mom. I was just sitting there and eating my lunch and talking to Xzavier (YES that's how his name is spelled), and Mark tried to hit me! When it didn't work right, he hit Jalen, cause Jalen was on his other side. Jalen's mom had to come and get him and take him to the dentist cause he was hurting pretty bad!
Me: I'll bet. I hope his mom sues Mark's parents for the money for the bill.

So I called the school today, and y'all already know I have issues with her teacher:

Me: Miss X, Gracie came home last night and told me that Mark tried to punch her, and there was nothing in her bag about it, so I'm calling you to confirm this.
X: Yes, she's telling the truth. It happened.
Me: Did she do something to provoke him?
X: As best I can tell from what the kids at the lunch table said, Gracie was sitting there, minding her own business and eating lunch, and he just hauled off and tried to hit her, so no, she didn't say anything to him.
Me: But he broke another kid's tooth?
X: I really can't talk about this because of the other kids involved, and I know I should have let you know yesterday, but I was so overwrought because of the whole thing that I didn't tell anyone about it. Today we went to talk to the Principal because she wasn't here yesterday, but he's been put on half-day suspension, so it's taken care of.
Me: So she didn't do anything but he tried to hit her anyway?
X: When I talked to him, he said he really, really wanted to hit Gracie, but when he couldn't, he just hit Jalen.

This is not a good excuse for not telling a parent that her child was almost in a fight! I am BEYOND angry. Seriously. Jason said he's going to march into that school and tell them that if another child puts their hands on Gracie, he's going to press charges against the parents of that child AND the school. I told him not to overreact, and he said 'It's not like when we were in school! They have a strict no-violence policy now, and I want to know why we weren't informed, and why this kid only got a half-day suspension!' I said "THEY'RE IN FIRST GRADE!" He said it didn't matter. What do you guys think?? Am I overreacting?? You know that this is not the first time I've taken issue with this teacher, or this school. GRRRR!

0 comments: