DD's teacher has a "cry board" in her classroom

[Anonymous]

Genuinely confused, WTF is a cry board/closet tears? Is she really tracking/shaming kids for crying??? This just blows my mind.

[Anonymous]

Seriously, I would consider including the central office head of special ed on the email chain and send the video. This is unacceptable for any student (especially a student with a disability).

I would also consider hiring an advocate to come to the meetings. This school does not seem like they are working in good faith.

[Anonymous]

What county is this? I’d be livid.

[Anonymous]

Which school system, OP? Private or public?

[Anonymous]

I think in the long run, it will be better to help your daughter deal with the failing grade than try to battle the teacher. She couldn’t do the work because she was sick, so she failed. That’s the bad thing that happened. The recovery is retaking the class, or summer school, or whatever. This is a college essay waiting to be written. The D is not an insurmountable problem.

The teacher is wrong and crappy, sure. But your daughter needs to learn which fights to fight. It doesn’t help her to try to get the teacher in trouble and it doesn’t mean she actually completed the assigned work. She’s not the teacher police, she’s a student. She couldn’t do the work because she was sick and so she failed the course. That’s OKAY. Help her work through THAT.

[Anonymous]

In my kids' school system, grading issues would be handled by the guidance counselor, and any grading complaints sent to the administration would be forwarded to guidance. The "cry board" is horrific. For that, I'd go straight to the administrators. The teacher should be fired.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think in the long run, it will be better to help your daughter deal with the failing grade than try to battle the teacher. She couldn’t do the work because she was sick, so she failed. That’s the bad thing that happened. The recovery is retaking the class, or summer school, or whatever. This is a college essay waiting to be written. The D is not an insurmountable problem.

The teacher is wrong and crappy, sure. But your daughter needs to learn which fights to fight. It doesn’t help her to try to get the teacher in trouble and it doesn’t mean she actually completed the assigned work. She’s not the teacher police, she’s a student. She couldn’t do the work because she was sick and so she failed the course. That’s OKAY. Help her work through THAT.

PS, sure, complain about the cry board thing. It’s gross. But it’s not really relevant to the failing grade except that you want to maybe leverage it to weaken the teacher and get a grade that doesn’t reflect completed coursework.

[Anonymous]

This is OP. We are in public in Western Prince William County. DD just found out what the board was yesterday. I have no idea how this has not been brought up by other students until now.

And yes, this is flipping PHOTOGRAPHY! It's not algebra or an important core class. DD loves art and wanted to take a lot more art classes but doesn't want to any more because this teacher teaches art as well.

If anyone has recs for an advocate or attorney, I would love to have them.

And thank you, everyone, for your support. I was questioning whether my rage was valid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think in the long run, it will be better to help your daughter deal with the failing grade than try to battle the teacher. She couldn’t do the work because she was sick, so she failed. That’s the bad thing that happened. The recovery is retaking the class, or summer school, or whatever. This is a college essay waiting to be written. The D is not an insurmountable problem.

The teacher is wrong and crappy, sure. But your daughter needs to learn which fights to fight. It doesn’t help her to try to get the teacher in trouble and it doesn’t mean she actually completed the assigned work. She’s not the teacher police, she’s a student. She couldn’t do the work because she was sick and so she failed the course. That’s OKAY. Help her work through THAT.

PS, sure, complain about the cry board thing. It’s gross. But it’s not really relevant to the failing grade except that you want to maybe leverage it to weaken the teacher and get a grade that doesn’t reflect completed coursework.

PPS I would even go so far as to say that if she is outraged about the cry board thing and wants to take a stand on that for the sake of herself and future students, wonderful. Advocacy is important. To be a good advocate on that she needs to drop the grade appeal unless she’s finished the required coursework, because having a request to change the grade clouds the water on the cry board thing. Is it about one, or the other? She’d be a stronger advocate on the cry board thing without the grade issue. Take the fail, recover it the right way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think in the long run, it will be better to help your daughter deal with the failing grade than try to battle the teacher. She couldn’t do the work because she was sick, so she failed. That’s the bad thing that happened. The recovery is retaking the class, or summer school, or whatever. This is a college essay waiting to be written. The D is not an insurmountable problem.

The teacher is wrong and crappy, sure. But your daughter needs to learn which fights to fight. It doesn’t help her to try to get the teacher in trouble and it doesn’t mean she actually completed the assigned work. She’s not the teacher police, she’s a student. She couldn’t do the work because she was sick and so she failed the course. That’s OKAY. Help her work through THAT.

OP here. This was my gut reaction and why I didn't mention the cry board yesterday in the emails to the school administration. DD wanted to put her video on the schools snap chat page yesterday and I would not allow that. I think this teacher is well liked by the staff and do not want any retalition.

[Anonymous]

She could also ask for an “incomplete” or something.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think in the long run, it will be better to help your daughter deal with the failing grade than try to battle the teacher. She couldn’t do the work because she was sick, so she failed. That’s the bad thing that happened. The recovery is retaking the class, or summer school, or whatever. This is a college essay waiting to be written. The D is not an insurmountable problem.

The teacher is wrong and crappy, sure. But your daughter needs to learn which fights to fight. It doesn’t help her to try to get the teacher in trouble and it doesn’t mean she actually completed the assigned work. She’s not the teacher police, she’s a student. She couldn’t do the work because she was sick and so she failed the course. That’s OKAY. Help her work through THAT.

PS, sure, complain about the cry board thing. It’s gross. But it’s not really relevant to the failing grade except that you want to maybe leverage it to weaken the teacher and get a grade that doesn’t reflect completed coursework.

PPS I would even go so far as to say that if she is outraged about the cry board thing and wants to take a stand on that for the sake of herself and future students, wonderful. Advocacy is important. To be a good advocate on that she needs to drop the grade appeal unless she’s finished the required coursework, because having a request to change the grade clouds the water on the cry board thing. Is it about one, or the other? She’d be a stronger advocate on the cry board thing without the grade issue. Take the fail, recover it the right way.

This is horrible advice. Any teacher who fails a sick kid for not trying hard enough and celebrates making kids cry is not grading fairly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think in the long run, it will be better to help your daughter deal with the failing grade than try to battle the teacher. She couldn’t do the work because she was sick, so she failed. That’s the bad thing that happened. The recovery is retaking the class, or summer school, or whatever. This is a college essay waiting to be written. The D is not an insurmountable problem.

The teacher is wrong and crappy, sure. But your daughter needs to learn which fights to fight. It doesn’t help her to try to get the teacher in trouble and it doesn’t mean she actually completed the assigned work. She’s not the teacher police, she’s a student. She couldn’t do the work because she was sick and so she failed the course. That’s OKAY. Help her work through THAT.

OP here. This was my gut reaction and why I didn't mention the cry board yesterday in the emails to the school administration. DD wanted to put her video on the schools snap chat page yesterday and I would not allow that. I think this teacher is well liked by the staff and do not want any retalition.

Well I guess I’m the only one but i agree with your gut reaction. She didn’t complete the coursework. That’s what grades show. The cry thing is a separate issue. Being in a position of appealing her grade makes her a poor choice to take on the cry thing. If other students are upset about it, she could just support them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think in the long run, it will be better to help your daughter deal with the failing grade than try to battle the teacher. She couldn’t do the work because she was sick, so she failed. That’s the bad thing that happened. The recovery is retaking the class, or summer school, or whatever. This is a college essay waiting to be written. The D is not an insurmountable problem.

The teacher is wrong and crappy, sure. But your daughter needs to learn which fights to fight. It doesn’t help her to try to get the teacher in trouble and it doesn’t mean she actually completed the assigned work. She’s not the teacher police, she’s a student. She couldn’t do the work because she was sick and so she failed the course. That’s OKAY. Help her work through THAT.

PS, sure, complain about the cry board thing. It’s gross. But it’s not really relevant to the failing grade except that you want to maybe leverage it to weaken the teacher and get a grade that doesn’t reflect completed coursework.

PPS I would even go so far as to say that if she is outraged about the cry board thing and wants to take a stand on that for the sake of herself and future students, wonderful. Advocacy is important. To be a good advocate on that she needs to drop the grade appeal unless she’s finished the required coursework, because having a request to change the grade clouds the water on the cry board thing. Is it about one, or the other? She’d be a stronger advocate on the cry board thing without the grade issue. Take the fail, recover it the right way.

This is horrible advice. Any teacher who fails a sick kid for not trying hard enough and celebrates making kids cry is not grading fairly.

I think OP was clear that her DD didn’t complete the coursework because she was sick. A passing grade would be inappropriate. There may be a way to drop the class, or get an incomplete. But if there’s not, she just fails it! That’s okay!! It will be easy to explain and recover from.

[Anonymous]

The cry board is awful.

I don’t know about your county, but in MCPS I’ve never seen assignments dropped without reduced workload being in the IEP. But there is a way to get an incomplete and then finish the work. It’s harder if the grade has been entered. But I’ve been able to do it where the IEP was not followed.