The response by the egomaniac vice principal: "If you don't like our rules, take your child out of my school and teach him yourself. Insubordination is insubordination and there is no excuse, if he had a migraine and the teacher told him to do the work then that's the way we do it here. If you don't like it- pull him out and take him some place else. "
The response from the principal: If this is what Mr. X has decided, then I'm not going to change the punishment.
The response from admin: I trust my administrators. They said that he was insubordinate and there is no excuse.
I called the state: They sympathized but 504 is a federal program. Call the federal office of discrimination in dallas.
I called the federal department in charge of 504. They told me that I could file a complaint but that it would take a "while" to do the investigation and that he would have to go thru the punishment until then. They told me that I did have a valid complaint and that the school would definitely be in violation if their investigation found that he was on a valid 504 and the insubordination was from telling the teacher he didn't feel well but that didn't fix the immediate problem.
I called back to the school who got even ruder with me and told me that "apparently I had a problem with authority" and I was welcome to pull my child out if I didn't care for their rules.
This was all between Monday and Tuesday. Tuesday morning, I sent Little Man to school to start his first day of in-school suspension. He went to the ISS room, they gave him his "busy work" which had absolutely nothing to do with the classes he's in. Oh, and the vice principal told me that they don't do out of school suspension, because then the state doesn't count the child there. (In other words - they don't get to collect the money from the state so they don't send them home) So they basically shove them in a room and tell them to read the dictionary for 8 hours. Plus give them an 11 page packet to fill out every day with questions on it like: why are you in ISS. What could you have done to change your behavior. Little Man's answers? I'm here for getting a headache I could have thrown up on the teacher. By 11 AM Tuesday morning, I had to pick B up to go see the orthopedic on his broken wrist. I picked up Little Man too. At this point, I was seriously considering taking him and using the state approved home school program and sending him to the local college for a class or two. He only had a few classes left for graduation this year anyhow. So, I took both boys out of school and headed for the orthopedic. Little Man tells me - well, you took me out of school so the time I did today doesn't count, I have a whole another day to do now. So, I asked him. What work did they have for you to do. His response was the info about the packet and the dictionary. I wanted to know about if kids who had been in there longer had class work. No. Same old garbage. Then he tells me that the ISS teacher yelled at him for having the dictionary too close to his face trying to read it and told him she would write him up for being too close to the book. Ok. I'm done.
When we got home, I had him check the home school program that I used for both of his brothers. I wanted to see if they provided books and curriculum for the advanced classes that he is in. (Neither of his brothers took anything more than basic classes). They did. I also wanted to see if they were accredited - they are. Weds morning, I got the paperwork for him to take his ACT's that the college requires. Then I called the counselor and requested his official transcripts. Today I will pull him out officially although they already know that this is my intention as I stated such to the counselor. The counselor is the only one that has shown any common sense in this whole issue. She got me his ACT packet yesterday and his official transcripts. She also wanted to know what I was going to do about B. At this point, B is still enrolled in the school. But, I don't know how long that will last. It's only going to take one little incident and that will be the end of that too. I really expect that they will try to retaliate for what happened with Little Man against B.
So, there's the end of my daily peace and quiet time. I actually went to college for education. Got all the way to my student teaching class and dropped out. Yeah, I know. I had "better" things to do back then. I started driving truck and traveling the country. Not real smart from this side of the coin but what's done is done. At least I know that I'm not totally unqualified to do what I'm taking on. And that thankfully, Cal has a masters in computer science so if I get into too much trouble with the pre-cal class, he's only a video conference away. Plus the school supplying the books and tests that we'll use has a 24 hour tutoring center accessible by email, phone, or webcam. So, we'll be good. His english and history classes I'm not worried about. He's already completed his foreign language credits. It's only the math that really concerns me. The government and economics, I've already taught to the older boys and tutored several of my "strays" thru so we're all good there. Wish me luck folks!
In other news, NK (the new kid) moved in with his girlfriend yesterday. This is probably not the smartest thing he's ever done. First of all, they've only been dating a few months. Not to mention the vehicle he drives has a radiator leak, a starter that freezes up and desperately needs replaced, and a transmission that is in such bad shape, he can't go over 50. And the girlfriend lives about 13 miles further from the school than I do. Oh and he's driving on an expired license and no inspection. Should we mention that his job is in this town and not the town she lives in either? Or that he only make $55/week working and his truck will eat that in about 3 days? However, those are my opinions. I'm sure he wasn't thinking with his brain and I wished him well as he packed his stuff. I did tell him that once he left, that was it. This was not a hotel to come and go as he pleased. He was very sweet and appreciative of all that I had done for him but he really wants to go live with girlfriend. I think this might be the end of their relationship but hey- what do I know? Have a good day all!
