Dealing with students on an everyday basis is no piece of cake. While trying to impart lessons, you also want to impart values to them.
But, the students are not the only problem, because when their parents get involved, it will stir a load of drama especially if they are close-minded individuals who don’t respect teachers.
These Redditors share the awful encounters they had with student’s parents. These stories will prove to us that patience is really a virtue. Come check these out!
1. The Jacket Dilemma
A first-grader student of mine came to school every day without a jacket, and when asked about it, he told me his jacket was too small and his family couldn't afford a bigger one.
When winter came around, I raided the closet in the front office for a donated jacket for him. He lucked out, and there was a brand new jacket with a matching hat and mittens in there.
I put them in a box I had lying around and tucked them in his backpack. They were a little big, so I hoped he'd grow into them.
I told him there was a present for him in his backpack but to wait until he got home to open it, so as not to leave him vulnerable to questions and taunting from his classmates.
The next day was warmer, so I wasn't shocked to see him without the coat. However, what was shocking was that his mother showed up at pickup in the family's SUV wearing the jacket.
I had to have a talk with the poor guy and arrange for a "recess jacket" for him that he left in his cubby so his mom wouldn't take another one.
Starmon3y
2. Classroom Chaos Taken Lightly
My mom is a kindergarten teacher, and she had this one terrible student who not only kicked her in the face while she was helping him with his work, but he actually stole her digital camera from her desk drawer.
She keeps it at work to take pictures of kids' projects and events and stuff, to share with parents. His parents suggested that my mom shouldn't bend down to help students lest she be within kicking range and to leave her valuables at home.
Peepetrator
3. Family Dynamics In Student Behaviour
I was one of 4 teachers in a conference with the kid’s mother and a school counselor. I was the last of the teachers to talk, but I said much the same as the other teachers.
The kid skips class all the time, yells out constantly, never does his work, and regularly calls you over to ask questions before farting. The kid was awful, who behaves like that in 10th grade?
Anyway, after all four of the teachers said essentially the same thing, the kid's mom looked at the counselor and asked "I don't understand why all these teachers are lying to my son."
It turns out that the kid’s older two brothers were actually in jail. I assume the kid followed in their footsteps because of terrible parenting.
Uglypants_Stupidface
4. Disorganized And Inconsistent Mother
I had this one parent of a kid in my Girl Guide unit who was just awful. When we first met her kid, she would always ask questions about everything, didn't listen to instructions, and was generally clueless.
We met her mother and it all made sense. The first time we met her she tried to sell us life insurance (that was her job), and in the first 5 minutes of talking to her she started about 4 topics yet never finished any of them.
She drove around in an uninsured car and would often offer to pick up/drop off other people's kids as well. She was also always late for everything; last to drop off, last to pick up.
Here's where the story gets even worse: I guess she used to homeschool her kids In grade 1 she put her kid in public school.
Every time she had a problem with the school her kid attended, she pulled her kid from the school and moved her to another school.
It got to the point where the kid had gone to 4 different schools in less than a year. Her learning was severely behind, and it was hard to make and keep friends. I feel so sorry for whatever poor teachers had to deal with this mom.
[deleted]
5. Inappropriate Remarks
I was a humanities teacher briefly. I had a meeting with the mother of a boy due to his ongoing behavior problems in class. He was a bright kid, very creative, and just couldn't stop distracting some of his classmates. No biggie.
Then all of a sudden, his mom brought our meeting to a premature end by announcing "Reading is for fags" and storming out of the room, yanking her kid along behind her.
captevil
6. A Parent’s Explosive Reaction
A Caucasian student yelled the “N-word” in the middle of class so following protocol, I contacted the parents. This was maybe 10 minutes before my contracted day was over. I was asking the admin for help, getting numbers, etc.
When I informed the parent, the dad blew his lid and yelled that he was coming to the school right then and there because the school was messed up and was picking on his kid, etc.
I locked my doors, closed all the blinds, and camped out in the counselor's office until the office secretary gave me a clear sign to leave.
jennylikessushi
7. Racial Accusations Get Slammed
One of my best friends is a French teacher who came from France and became an American citizen. He is white and after living here for about 5 years got a job in a majority-black school.
After he had taught there for a few months, a mom decided to play the race card, came storming into his classroom, and said her daughter said he was the biggest racist she had ever seen. She threatened to get him fired.
He let her rant and rave in front of the class and when she finally paused for a breath, he turned around his wedding picture.
He is married to a black Creole woman. He said her mouth dropped open but no sound came out and she kinda slunk out of the classroom. His kids were crying they were laughing so hard.
Bayou_Blue
8. Sad Truth Revelation
My mom is a Special Education teacher. She had a parent-teacher meeting with the parent of a severely disturbed young man with multiple problems.
During the conference, the mother casually asked "I'm not really sure, but do you think that maybe the reason my son has so many problems is because I smoked meth every day while pregnant with him?"
The whole room was in stunned silence for about thirty seconds, before my mom piped up with her response, "Hmm, yes."
benkenobi5
9. Creative Interpretations Went Too Far
The most laughable experience I've had was with a plagiarism case. The kid had ripped his entire essay off the net, I'd had searched on the internet and a few sentences from his assignment and found the page he got the stuff from.
I printed it out so the kid could see that the two copies were word for word. He vehemently denied it, so I got his mum in for an interview.
I showed her the submitted assignment and the web page printout, and she answered that her 15-year-old son had written the internet entry on the Treaty of Versailles, so it wasn't plagiarism. Nothing like supportive parents.
nostalgiaplatzy
10. Historical Denial
My stepfather was having parent/teacher conferences and he was talking to this kid's parents. The parents had a question about when my stepfather was going to go over the Civil War. My stepfather said it would happen in a week or so.
The parents said, "Great because we will pull our kid from the unit. We believe the Civil War never happened, and we are under the Confederate government."
My stepfather was flabbergasted and didn't know how to respond. Then the parents got up and said to him, "We will also pull our kid for the WWII unit because the Holocaust was made up and never happened."
iambeaker
11. The Elusive 100%
I could list all of the terrible phone calls, conferences, and emails where parents blame everything except their child's actions for the reason they are in trouble. They are so numerous, that I can't even begin to count them.
The one that is different than all of those, and the only one like it that I have encountered was with one of my AP English students. A typical parent-teacher conference.
AP parents were flying in and out since almost all the kids were doing well. This one super sweet girl and her mother come in and sit down. I tell them she has a 99% in the class. 99% total, as in an A+.
Without missing a beat, the mom looks at her daughter with a big-time attitude and says "What can we do to get that up to a 100?" My mouth dropped.
I said, "Well, we still have half a semester so there is time for extra credit" and then I made the mistake of adding "But you know, a 99 is great!"
That was a mistake. The mom jumps out of her chair and starts yelling at me that I should mind my own business.
She added that she has high expectations for her daughter, to become something more than "just a high school teacher.” I hate parents, which is why I don't plan on ever becoming one.
blackcherry333
12. Reflections On Teaching
No worst story, but after 25+ years in the classroom, I can tell you that awful kids generally have truly messed up parents. It's pretty shocking. Frequently horrible.
We have had teachers physically attacked during parent conferences in our nice, little town in the heart of America. And the parents get a slap on the wrist.
I like teaching and have had a rewarding career, but I would not do it again. And I do not want my kid to become a teacher, either.
Softwindscandlecomp
13. Exam Duplicity: A Mother’s Accusation
This is a story from my friend who's a high school teacher. A student turned in an exam with suspiciously similar solutions to a person near them.
From past performances and the seating arrangement, it was clear which one of them was copying.
My friend had some other teachers look through the exams to see if they would notice the same thing, which they all did.
The student's mother came in and said that the teacher "just didn't like her daughter,” and was just "accusing her of cheating" for that reason.
When the principal said that several other teachers agreed with the assessment that her daughter had cheated, the mother said "Well then the teacher put her next to a good student to force her to cheat so she would get in trouble.”
hbdgas
14. A Teacher's Struggle For Special Education
My mother is a teacher. This is only the worst one, there are more. She was teaching a class in elementary school that had a severely mentally handicapped girl in it.
I'm talking constantly drooling, unable to form words, just grunts and moans and yells. She belonged in Special Ed, but her parents refused. They insisted she be put in a normal class because she does not need Special Ed.
The classes were completely useless for her, and her noise and mess seriously disrupted the education of 30 other students. The school even had to pay an aid to be with her all day, because she could not take care of herself.
When the school finally decided to go ahead and put her in Special Ed, the parents sued the district. Because their 12-year-old with the mentality of a 3 to 4-year-old did not belong in Special Ed in their minds.
Teachers had to spend their days in court instead of their classes, and my mom had to deal with lawyers and parents telling her she had no idea what was best for their kids.
DoctorRobert420
15. Field Trip Fallout
I am a middle school teacher. The students had attended a trampoline park as a field trip to earn good attendance.
While there, one student had stolen a rubber bracelet. Not a big deal but still stole it, nonetheless so the principal contacted the father.
The father called us back regarding the incident and left a voicemail accusing the principal and the rest of the staff of thievery.
He said, “How many pens do you walk out of that school with? How many pens purchased by the school do you walk out with every day? My tax money!”
Anyone who is a teacher sees how funny this is because, of course, we’re providing our pens!
6roumyeskl
16. Trial By Parental Fire
My first and only year teaching 8th grade was a doozy. I was 21, and all my energy/excitement about teaching was quickly zapped by parents dead-set on proving me incapable of doing my job.
I had parents send graded papers back to me with my comments "corrected" and challenged.
One day, I was called into the headmaster's office to discuss my use of foul language in the classroom after a parent learned I had told a kid to stop "working around."
The worst, by far, was a mother who somehow got my cell number and just constantly harassed me at the end of the year because she wanted her child to get a (wholly undeserved) A.
This mother had a reputation, but I was in no way prepared for her full-out abuse. When her daughter, whom I had repeatedly suggested receive some kind of outside academic assistance, ended up with a B- in the class, she lost it.
I was visiting my sick grandmother when she started texting me, demanding to see the final exams. Being as they were final exams, I was not intending to return them to students.
However, this woman had the headmaster so wrapped up in her crazy that he called and requested that I have my landlord open my house door so someone could grab the exams while I was out of town.
This is on top of the mom's texting messages like, "You will never work again!" and "Those tests are MINE, I paid for them, I want what I deserve!"
Meghann912
17. Echoes Of The Past
I had a student who dressed in goth fashion, black pants, and a metal band T-shirt, with long hair, and polished nails. He was bullied relentlessly by boys, girls, and even other teachers.
Every day I'd try to fend off the scolding knowing my classroom was the only 45-minute reprieve he would get. Soon he joined the science club just so he'd have a pass to eat in my room at lunch instead of the cafeteria.
He was a really smart kid. He easily aced the tests and helped the other students with labs. I saw him building friendships in class. Then he started skipping school. He started missing my class and falling behind.
When he came back after close to two weeks he was even more withdrawn. He came to class and turned in all the work he'd missed (he checked my website) but skipped out on science club.
After a few days of this pattern and him refusing to talk to me, I called home. I intended to tell his parents how worried I was for him, my worry was he might be going to hurt himself.
I called in, "Hello, I'm calling about your son. I'm his biology teacher." Before I could go further his mom says "I don't need to hear it, I'm pulling him out of school tomorrow. He's his problem now."
She hung up on me. I cried. I talked to my principal and school counselor and they promised to look into it but he was withdrawn from school that week.
He's still in my mind 5 years later, I'll always wonder what happened because I was a little goth kid once too.
HisBlueberryGirl
18. Detention Drama: Confronting Helicopter Parenting
I was a senior government teacher. I asked a kid to sit at his desk and not on the heater. No big deal, I don't care but those are the rules.
He pulls his desk back to the heater and perches on the seat back with his butt hovering over the heater. Classic "I'm not touching you" stuff. I gave him detention. He informs me that he isn't going to serve it on principle.
He said it like he had just discovered I was responsible for the rise of Hitler. I shrug. It would roll into a suspension eventually. Fast forward, his mother barged into my class at the end of school.
She was threatening a lawsuit for picking on her boy and demanding I remove the detention or she go to my boss.
Two things, one I wanted to watch her give her helicopter mom act to my boss as this kid is a constant discipline issue and two, she said lawyer.
Our policy states that if someone brings up the "L" word we are not to speak on the subject period. I go silent and she goes apocalyptic.
She was screaming at me for disrespecting her, and all I would say was "You will have to take this up with the administration.” She was ready for it, wanted a fight, and didn't know how to handle it. Good stuff.
A meeting is called where she rails about respect and how we are all mistreating her boy. That our school’s actions were giving this good Christian boy (direct quote) a bad name.
The administration listened solemnly, nodded, and said to serve the detention or get suspended. The mother stated she would not allow her poor son to serve such an unjust 45-minute span of hell and they would be taking the suspension.
The family, after failing to get their letter to the editor printed, took out a 1/2 page ad against the school. I still have the ad saved if anyone would like to read it.
It came out later that while this was going on he had managed to knock up a girl from another school. He cheated on his good Christian girlfriend to do it. They had a nice little shotgun wedding and everything. It didn't work out.
bluesmokeproductions
19. The Orchestra Of Chaos
My ex-boyfriend was a high school orchestra teacher. For those who were never in band/orchestra, let me assure you, it takes far more effort to fail one of those classes than it does to pass them.
Showing up every day with your instrument and music is pretty much a guaranteed "easy-A." Well, one of the violin players was determined to fail my ex's class.
She often skipped class, and when she did show up, she was missing her instrument or her music. She often talked and disrupted class and was an all-around pain in the head.
On her first report card was a big, fat, F. And that's when the phone calls started.
I'm not sure who at the school gave this girl's mother my phone number.
The phone was under my name, not my boyfriend's, and I purposefully had it unlisted/unpublished, but I swore if I ever found out, there would be hell to pay.
This mom called my house every night and screamed at my boyfriend, screamed at me, and screamed at my answering machine when I finally decided to stop answering the phone.
She called administrators, she called the school board if she called her local representative, I wouldn't be surprised.
She was a loud, foul-mouthed bully, who wouldn't/couldn't understand that her daughter had earned her a bad grade.
After a quarter of her phone calls, the administration finally caved and ordered my ex to raise her to a passing grade. He gave her a D.
bored-now
20. The Endless Chain Of Commands
Some parents are so ridiculous when they try to defend their kid for acting like a moron. I've had parents go nuts on me, they were saying ridiculous things.
One parent asked, “Who's your boss? Who else can I talk to?” Then I answered, “Well that would be the Vice Principal.”
She goes on again, “Who's their boss?” So I replied, “The Principal.” She asked one more time, “Who's their boss?” I responded, “That would be the Superintendent.” It never ends there, she asked, “Who's in charge of them?” God.
shellstains
21. Premature Picture Money
This happened last week. The kid came to my classroom with picture money on a Monday that was due on the upcoming Friday. I told him to put it in his book sack and bring it back on Friday since we were told not to collect it until then.
He picks it up and tries to turn it in on Tuesday, this time trying to impress the people with the $15 you can see when you hold it up to the light.
I tell him to make sure that he puts it in his book sack so it does not get stolen and to make sure he does not turn it in until FRIDAY.
Wednesday rolls around, and you guessed it, the little genius takes it out again to turn it in. This time bragging that it contains $15 so the whole class can hear. I tell him to pick it up and hide it.
Thursday morning I am pulled into the office by his irate mom asking why I let his money get stolen. I looked at my principal and told her my side of the story.
She looked at the mom and told her there was nothing we could do. The mom left furious and I am sure she will try to take this to the Central Office.
Nothing great, I know, but just a recent example of what we deal with every week. In case you are wondering, this is a class of third graders.
Bayou_Blue
22. Parental Chaotic Chronicles
I have one child in third grade who gets school lunch but is so picky. Some days, he won't eat anything. When informing the mom about it, she said "Yeah, I know he's so picky at home too."
We suggested she start trying to introduce some new foods, mainly vegetables, at home, and she said she couldn't.
She said she makes him a special dinner of his favorite foods separate from what the rest of the family eats every night. Also, he eats cup noodles for breakfast every day.
I met a dad one day in passing and introduced myself as his child's homeroom teacher. Dad replied, "Oh I'm sorry my son is dumb, he can't do anything can he?" His son was in first grade.
Perhaps the worst, and authorities were called, one mother of three girls, her father passed away a few years ago, family wrought with tragedy, her daughter was in my first-grade homeroom class.
The daughter hadn't been doing her homework, so I asked her in private after class one day. "Why didn't you finish your homework last night? Did you forget?" to which she replied, "No, mommy was dancing so I couldn't do it."
Confused, I asked her to elaborate. Turns out twice a week, the mom had been going to dance classes in the evening during which she would lock her 6, 4, and 3-year-old daughters in the car wearing diapers.
Needless to say, we contacted the mom and the proper authorities to help the family. I wish I could say she has improved, but I know at least the kids aren't being locked in a car anymore.
OsakaB
23. Battle Of Truth
I'm not a teacher, but my wife is. During her first year of teaching, she had a parent-teacher conference about one of her students who was failing Algebra.
The kid's mom claimed that the only reason her son was failing was because my wife didn't announce tests ahead of time and he couldn't prepare properly.
My wife explained that she writes test dates on her board at least a week ahead of time and also posts the dates on her website, and even showed her where on the website the test dates were posted.
Instead of recanting her story in the face of overwhelming evidence, she goes ballistic and yells at my wife that she's a liar and other awful things.
This was my wife's third parent-teacher conference ever, and so she had no idea how to handle this situation and ended up crying her eyes out in front of the parent. If I ever meet this woman, I will destroy her.
Koratis
24. The Fabricated Disabilities
I honestly did not believe this story at first, as it was told to me by another teacher. then I met the children involved.
A mother of two children had both of her kids in all-day special education classes, as they could not walk, and could not talk in anything resembling a recognizable language.
The reason they could not walk was that their mother refused to let them walk, and would insist on strapping them into a double stroller whenever they were not sleeping.
The reason they could not talk is that she would not talk to them in anything but some crazy language involving a lot of grunting, that she invented herself.
She was collecting large amounts of social security and disability payments for both of her "disabled" children. They lived in a private gated community, and she drove a nicer car than any of the staff at the school.
The kids responded well to the special education program, as they were very smart, but they will probably always have issues as a result of their development being stunted on purpose.
Pecoto
25. Generation Clash
My mom has been teaching for nearly 30 years. She is now supervising a school-funded daycare at one of the high schools in my county so girls can go to school and get their diplomas without worrying about paying for daycare.
My mother told one of the girls to be careful about letting everyone hold her newborn for obvious reasons. The girl flips out on my mom and my mom has to do a parent-teacher conference with the girl and her mother.
The girl's mother proceeds to go off on my mom and tells my mom not to tell her daughter how to raise the granddaughter and about how my mom doesn't know anything about raising kids.
My mom is a single mother and has one kid getting an A.A. in a few days and another graduating from high school in a few months. Meanwhile, this poor excuse of a parent is defending her daughter who has a 1.6 GPA and a baby at 16.
swampskater
26. Broken Rules, Broken Headphones
A student intentionally broke a set of headphones at her computer station that I had paid $30 of my own money to buy.
Aside from ruining it for the rest of the kids in the next classes, she broke numerous rules about how to treat classroom equipment. So, since I couldn't get her to pay for the headphones, I gave her two days of detention.
Her mother storms in that afternoon screaming incomprehensibly and telling me that I had no right to keep her daughter after school how I was lying and that her daughter was an angel etc.
I calmly stated that her daughter broke my class rules and that she owed me two days of detention but I would take $30 for a new set of headphones (I had the receipts).
Obviously, she wasn't going to pay but she flat-out said that I wasn't to give her daughter detention and that she was going to the principal to get her out of my class.
For the next few months, her daughter was insufferable as she knew her mother despised me and wouldn't punish her for anything.
Three months later the mother was pulled over by a cop while crossing state lines and the police found two pounds of illegal substance worth $80,000 in her car. Sucks for her but I never got that $30 for my headphones.
Irishfury86
27. Cultural Influences On Education
I had a 4th-grade student who was being allowed to grow up as one of the most ignorant, unchallenged, and therefore dumb kids I've ever met. When she got lice, she disappeared for a whole quarter.
She was barely literate at all. I could ask her almost anything and convince her of an answer by my tone of voice and facial expressions.
I know that her English wasn't strong, and that was part of it, but I can't think of anything academically she could do, other than add and subtract (and probably not borrow in subtracting).
Her mother brought the older sister along to translate and talk to me. She said that the 4th grader didn't want to do homework or read, just play in the park.
I was 23 and didn't have the guts to tell them that little kids don't get to make that kind of decision and to step up and do some parenting.
I've also had kids whose parents have done horrible jobs. In high school class, they honestly think that cussing is an acceptable response. They know almost nothing, and they're emulating the wannabe gangsters they see.
Every culture has its advantages and disadvantages. This is the version of Latino culture that values family loyalty way above academic or financial success, and there's little pressure for these kids to bother with either one.
The examples they have are of 3-4 ($20 K) paychecks per household, and everyone seems to be "making it" (nuclear families living in one room of the larger house), so they figure they'll make it too.
FlavorD
28. Conflicting Views On Discipline
One morning we had meetings with two parents from the seventh grade. One set of parents, whose child was very bright, heard that the teacher was using corporal punishment.
They were FURIOUS, threatening to pull the kid from school, sue, etc. The next meeting was the father of a troublemaker who was failing.
He heard that we had not been using corporal punishment, and told us that if his son was failing we needed to smack his bottom into shape, and he didn't know what he was paying us for if we couldn't do something as simple as hit his child.
Fudada
29. Playground Politics
This happened to my wife. During her second year teaching fifth grade, my wife spotted a student passing out party invitations on the playground. This is prohibited by the school, so she confiscated the invitations.
The next morning when she arrived a police officer was waiting for her to answer to charges of assault. The kid had claimed my wife had slapped her around.
My wife explained what happened and the cop was nice and said the local magistrate would throw out the complaint, but still she came home crying that day
In all this was the worst, but indicative of how much parents supported without questioning the crap from their kids.
Spazzrico
30. The Pretend Princess Incident
This was the beginning of the end for me as a teacher. While teaching a pre-kindergarten class, a rather large woman (I'm 5 feet tall) was standing over me and pointing in my face.
She started yelling at me asking "Why in the world would you tell my daughter she is not a real princess? She is a real princess! Why would you say that? What gives you the right to tell her she is not a real princess?"
This was in front of the kids and other parents at drop-off time. After I got her into the hallway I tried to explain that she wasn't a real princess and I told her she could pretend to be anything she wanted.
I also told her she was upsetting the other girls who also wanted to be princesses and she told them they couldn't because she was the real princess.
When the school director asked me to appease this woman by apologizing (which I refused to do) I decided I was done with teaching after 14 years of teaching.
I taught kindergarten and pre-kindergarten. Just think it wasn't a straw that broke the camel's back, it was a princess.
Kellianne
31. Abandoned By Faith
My wife works in a very poor district, and in one of her first years in education, she had a kid who had a severe and untreated cleft palate.
She wrote to the local university hospital and got them to treat the kid for free. Specialists, return visits, and surgeries are all covered. The kid was ecstatic after his first surgery as it was a huge improvement.
A few months later another surgery, more improvement. The kid is much better but still needs a ton more work.
The father decided to move to Utah and abandon treatment, as he recently became involved with Mormonism. He told my wife "God sent us you, if He wants my son to finish his treatment, He'll send us someone else."
In another story, she notices that a kid is getting dirtier and is wearing the same clothes as the week progresses. It is unusual for him so she asks him why his father hasn't been cleaning him.
Then he told her, "Daddy hasn't been home all week" Turns out the kid's mom had left them and gone back to Uruguay, while the father was holed up on a bender at his new girlfriend's house.
He told them that he "didn't want to deal with the kids anymore." This 1st grader had been getting him and his younger brother up, dressed, and to school for a week...
machagogo
32. Grade Grumblings
I had the parent of a kid who came up to me and said, "I don't understand why my son got an 85% and that other kid got 90%.”
She continued, “My son and all his friends tell me the other kid sucks at sports and yet he gets a higher grade than my son! I'm very disappointed in you.”
Another story, a mother of a kid who got 97% in my class came up to me, as serious as possible, and said: "What's wrong with my kid?"
I looked at her and said, "Nothing. Your child has the best mark in my class.” She goes, "Yes but where can he do better to get that extra 3%.” To hell with those parents.
HIV__ALADEEN
33. A Child’s Lost Warmth
My wife is a teacher in a very small, very poor, rural southern town. Every week, she's dealing with drunks, substance abusers, neglect, and abuse.
She has lots of stories, but the saddest one that stands out to me was a little boy who didn't have a coat. The school takes donations from the community and supplies winter coats and shoes to any kids who don't have them.
So anyway, it was getting cold and the little boy didn't have a coat. My wife went to the school nurse and got one of the donated coats and gave it to the boy.
A few days later, she got word that the same boy again didn't have a coat. She asked him if he had forgotten it and he burst into tears.
After several minutes of consoling him and assuring him that he wasn't in trouble, he told her the truth. His mom had sold it. From what I know of the mom, it was almost certainly to have money for illegal substances.
wintremute
34. Confronting Parental Intimidation
My girlfriend is a teacher and she tells me of the horrible meetings she has with parents and the ones that stick out are the aggressive parents who think she is lying about their children missing/not doing work.
My girlfriend is incredibly well organized, there may be an accident here and there, but if your little girl is missing 10 assignments it's not the teacher losing things.
If you need to physically intimidate someone you're pretty messed up, especially when it's a 5'4 woman. She has 3 sets of parents who need to have the administration in the room to supervise them because they will try to bully her.
Ganthamus_prime
35. Challenges Of Parental Refusals
In my first year of teaching, I had a student with severe ADD and some moderate processing issues. She was also the sweetest, hardest-working student in the grade.
The problem was, that without her meds, she could not focus and retained nothing. Her mother refused to give her meds, even when the student begged her.
She refused to let her stay to tutor with me after school saying, "I didn't even finish school, became a model, and am doing fine. My daughter can do the same. Besides, her father is paying you to tutor her, not me, and to hell with him."
Another story, in my second year, I had a student with very severe processing issues and very severe executive function problems.
His mother was not only another special education teacher at my school but was also best friends with my boss and was not a certified teacher. According to this woman, I was incompetent and a bully. Why? I made her son do his work.
I sat down with him every day and retaught him everything and helped him get through his homework. He just didn't want to do it with me because he knew she would for it for him if he brought it home.
So he'd cry to his mom and she would confront me in the hallways about bullying her baby. Sadly, she also shared her feelings with my boss/her bestie, which caused a great deal of drama. I still worry about both of these kids. Yay, parents.
Lucy426
36. The Unfair Dismissal
A friend of my family was just recently "let go" from her teaching position as a special ed teacher. She had had complaints from parents that she was working their kids too hard.
She would make them do their assigned work and would sit down and help them through it instead of just letting them not do their work.
Her school just hired a new principal and he couldn't deal with multiple parent complaints, so our friend had to go through a school board trial and everything.
She was let go with no pension. I didn't even know what to say after I sat through that hell of a crap of a trial.
lightboothfun
37. Parental Overstep
I teach at a preschool, and one day a parent was called because their child had thrown up. The mother showed up an hour later, just as he was beginning to throw up again into the tiny toilet in our classroom.
I was tending to him, encouraging him to aim for the toilet, rubbing his back, etc. The mother comes marching into the room and tells me "Back off, I need to take his temperature NOW."
I told her very politely not to move him just now, as he was actively vomiting into the toilet. She proceeded to use her shoulder to move me out of the way to grab her child and ram a thermometer into his ear.
The second she gets it in there, he vomits all over the floor. She turns to me and says, "Wow, that's a big mess, you really should've kept him at the toilet."
GuinessForDinner
38. Dealing With Racism And Prejudice
I had a mad parent when he found out his daughter was dating an African American student. He told me to "nip it in the bud." He used the n-word multiple times and told me that God had brought him to me specifically to take care of the situation.
I made it clear I was not with him in his crusade. He swore this was the worst thing that could happen to him and started crying. Probably was worse when his daughter started a lesbian interracial relationship.
BooBooCramps
39. Sacrificing Academic Opportunities For Convenience
I taught 8th grade and made it a point to work on the high school applications with my students to get them into better schools than just the local neighborhood high school. It was in an urban setting, and this one example stands out pretty well.
The students in question were twins, a brother and a sister, and the brother was pretty far along academically and tried pretty hard in school, even having decent grades and test scores for his application process.
His sister though, was the exact opposite and did not care one bit for school or her future. When talking to the mom about the situation and what schools were possibilities for each of them.
The first is the brother having a shot at a decent middle-of-the-road school or even better, and the sister likely having to just go to the neighborhood school with a dropout rate of close to 50%.
She did not want to hear about any chances of where each of them could go. The mom declared to me that they would have to go to the same school.
The reason is she did not want to inconvenience herself by having to attend 2 graduations 4 years down the road. I didn't even know how to respond to that when she said it.
Basically, despite all his hard work and grades and acceptance into a decent school, the brother has to attend whatever school his barely passing sister could go to, jeopardizing his future and success.
His mom doesn't want to have to exert effort. I'm not sure that that is the worst parent I've had to deal with, but that example stands out to me.
[deleted]
40. Derailed Efforts To Lesson In Empathy
I am an Elementary teacher. We had a student who wouldn't stop stealing things out of other kids' backpacks.
We had caught him on camera and would call the parents and they would just say "No, that's his insert stolen item, we just bought it for him."
Then, we get him on a positive behavior plan and create intentional lessons about empathy for others, setting goals to get what you want, the difference between wants/needs, etc.
Eventually, he gets enough positive days in a row that he gets released from the behavior plan and receives a free bike as his incentive for good behavior (they were donated to the school by a local bike shop).
The next day he tells me his uncle stole it and pawned it. He went right back to his old behaviors and it was heartbreaking.
loveleigh1788
41. Adventures In Absent-Mindedness
I had a student last year who was new to the school. Nice, friendly, shy, and hilariously absent-minded. He would come to school at least 2 days a week with either his shirt on backward, inside out, or both.
So I wanted to talk to his parents about how his absent-mindedness was affecting his learning. The mom shows up at 5. The dad shows up an hour late.
We have a good chat and they get up to go. As I was walking them out I said I will show you the shortest way to the parking lot.
The dad replied, “I didn't park in the parking lot.” So I said, "You can go the same. way to the street." He said, "I couldn't find the parking entrance so I just drove around and parked on the asphalt play area."
Sure enough, I walk by and his car is next to the playground. So it all came together after that.
differentiatedpans
42. Dealing with a Student's Racist Claim
I once had a student who thought I should drop whatever I was doing and help him immediately any time he asked a question.
One time, I was working with another student and this kid yelled across the room that he needed help. I told him I would help him when I was done and to please raise his hand next time.
Apparently, this set the kid off because he went on a loud tirade about how I was racist for not helping him. Never mind the fact that the student I was helping, who he wanted me to abandon, was the same color as him.
I ended up kicking him out of class after he went on and on about it for a while, which he said only confirmed my racism.
Everyone else in the room just kind of stared at him as he left. He got suspended from my class for a couple of days, which meant I needed to inform his family.
I never actually spoke to his mother, because his aunt was listed as a contact about any incidents. Turns out he and his mother were living with the aunt at the time.
However, the aunt explained to me that he had learned this behavior from his mother, who demonstrated this behavior any time she felt she was wrong.
The aunt said she was trying to fix her nephew's attitude and promised me that it didn’t matter if her sister thought it was fine to teach her son to act that way because it wasn’t going to happen again while they lived in her house
And you know? She was successful. The kid never pulled that crap again, at least not in my classroom.
ThreadWitch
43. Deceptive Excuses
I had a student who repeatedly lied about assignments, saying he’d turned them in and his teachers had lost them.
As a team with admin present, we conferenced with mom and dad, who deflected and provided excuses that he just “doesn’t like school,” and, “If my son says he did something, he did it. We value integrity in our family.”
Three months later some friends of mine invited me to a bar a few towns away to see a band perform. Near the end of the night, I ran into the mom who was out on a date with a man who wasn’t her husband.
From that point on, she wouldn’t return any of my emails or calls about the son’s behavior. She is now an administrator in another county.
clemson07tigers
44. Echoes Of Behavior
I teach elementary music but I also assist in before-school care. There was one boy (3rd grade) who was sitting at a table with several other students.
One girl was attempting to engage with the boy and he abruptly stood up, pointed at the girl, and screamed, “You are the devil.”
Obviously, at this age, there needs to be intervention because you can’t talk to others in that fashion or with that language. We always try and talk through emotions rather than explode.
I call the mom and explain the situation. The mom's first and only response is “Well, if he called her the devil, she probably is the devil.” Pretty clearly can tell where that behavior comes from.
waterholic19
45. Pressure Points
I had a high school student with very high anxiety. She was high performing, academically and in music and sport.
She came late to class, so I gave her a late slip. These are meaningless and the student writes their reason for being late. As a teacher, I would apply all rules uniformly. So, I gave her the late slip. She burst into tears and left my class.
Her mum turns up. She starts yelling at me about how unfair it is that I don’t cut her a break because she is doing a full course load, music, dance, sport, and so forth.
She’s stressed because she’s over-extended. She’s a wonderful kid, and she’s just being asked to write down why she’s late.
This poor kid, her mother put so much pressure on her to have top grades, that she ended up just losing it over a late slip.
Being yelled at is quite confronting. The parent stood over me and just screamed. My heart was racing, it was a bit terrifying really.
I liked this kid, she was top in my classes too. Just to make it clear, I wasn’t hard on her for being late, just asked her to do the same as I would any other kid.
m37an13