Is this personal for a principal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I emailed them re a issue I had with a teacher, and she CC THE TEACHER, THE Teacher replay to the email.... IS she allowed to do this?

The principal is demonstrating that they don't want to hear complaints about teachers, and if the parent complains they will reveal their identity immediately to the teacher.

How the principal could have handled it better:

1) The principal should have first privately replied to the parent inquiring if the teacher can been made aware of the concern and if so how many times.

2) Principal should have then approached the teacher privately, verified the facts, and only then loop the parent in as needed—possibly with the parent's consent.

3) When the parent brings up a concern with the principal, the expectation is that the administration will handle it discreetly, not immediately copy the teacher and reveal the parent’s identity. This can lead to awkwardness or retaliation concerns, and may discourage parents from speaking up in the future.

Ha ha! No, not in large public schools, where the Principal has way too many things to do at any given time. I've had to deal with 7 Principals in my children's schooling (elementary to high school), and liked most of them. The rare times I've needed to contact them, I've received extremely short, terse responses - not because they're upset, but because they literally don't have the time. They solve the issue, tell me, and move on, in as few words as possible. And sometimes I haven't had responses at all, but someone else in the administration reached out to solve my issue, because the Principal delegated. Efficiency and time management are paramount. And that's fine with me, because all *I* want is for my issue to be solved!

No Principal is going to spend time tiptoeing around your little feelings. You need to go to a small private if you want that.

Good things worked out for you. What if the principal did not address the concern, and simply forwarded it to the teacher by CCing them in the reply (assuming you already approached the teacher multiple times without response)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I emailed them re a issue I had with a teacher, and she CC THE TEACHER, THE Teacher replay to the email.... IS she allowed to do this?

The principal is demonstrating that they don't want to hear complaints about teachers, and if the parent complains they will reveal their identity immediately to the teacher.

How the principal could have handled it better:

1) The principal should have first privately replied to the parent inquiring if the teacher can been made aware of the concern and if so how many times.

2) Principal should have then approached the teacher privately, verified the facts, and only then loop the parent in as needed—possibly with the parent's consent.

3) When the parent brings up a concern with the principal, the expectation is that the administration will handle it discreetly, not immediately copy the teacher and reveal the parent’s identity. This can lead to awkwardness or retaliation concerns, and may discourage parents from speaking up in the future.

+1. The principal needs to be reprimanded by the Asst. Superintendent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I emailed them re a issue I had with a teacher, and she CC THE TEACHER, THE Teacher replay to the email.... IS she allowed to do this?

The principal is demonstrating that they don't want to hear complaints about teachers, and if the parent complains they will reveal their identity immediately to the teacher.

How the principal could have handled it better:

1) The principal should have first privately replied to the parent inquiring if the teacher can been made aware of the concern and if so how many times.

2) Principal should have then approached the teacher privately, verified the facts, and only then loop the parent in as needed—possibly with the parent's consent.

3) When the parent brings up a concern with the principal, the expectation is that the administration will handle it discreetly, not immediately copy the teacher and reveal the parent’s identity. This can lead to awkwardness or retaliation concerns, and may discourage parents from speaking up in the future.

Ha ha! No, not in large public schools, where the Principal has way too many things to do at any given time. I've had to deal with 7 Principals in my children's schooling (elementary to high school), and liked most of them. The rare times I've needed to contact them, I've received extremely short, terse responses - not because they're upset, but because they literally don't have the time. They solve the issue, tell me, and move on, in as few words as possible. And sometimes I haven't had responses at all, but someone else in the administration reached out to solve my issue, because the Principal delegated. Efficiency and time management are paramount. And that's fine with me, because all *I* want is for my issue to be solved!

No Principal is going to spend time tiptoeing around your little feelings. You need to go to a small private if you want that.

Good things worked out for you. What if the principal did not address the concern, and simply forwarded it to the teacher by CCing them in the reply (assuming you already approached the teacher multiple times without response)?

Then I would wait 24hrs for the teacher to respond, because in all my years of dealing with school staff, I've seen that teachers are under pressure to perform once they know the Principal is aware. This could be his/her way of applying pressure on the teacher. If you're talking about being embarrassed that now the teacher knows you've contacted the Principal, no, that kind of pressure is the point, especially if they have not responded before. It's what the teacher gets for having ignored you before. They deserve it.

Maybe you can tell me what the issue is?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I emailed them re a issue I had with a teacher, and she CC THE TEACHER, THE Teacher replay to the email.... IS she allowed to do this?

So the teacher gave you an answer? Isn't that what you wanted? Or did you just want the teacher to be punished because that isn't going to happen... especially at the end of the year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I emailed them re a issue I had with a teacher, and she CC THE TEACHER, THE Teacher replay to the email.... IS she allowed to do this?

The principal is demonstrating that they don't want to hear complaints about teachers, and if the parent complains they will reveal their identity immediately to the teacher.

How the principal could have handled it better:

1) The principal should have first privately replied to the parent inquiring if the teacher can been made aware of the concern and if so how many times.

2) Principal should have then approached the teacher privately, verified the facts, and only then loop the parent in as needed—possibly with the parent's consent.

3) When the parent brings up a concern with the principal, the expectation is that the administration will handle it discreetly, not immediately copy the teacher and reveal the parent’s identity. This can lead to awkwardness or retaliation concerns, and may discourage parents from speaking up in the future.

+1. The principal needs to be reprimanded by the Asst. Superintendent.

Zero percent chance that the assistant superintendent cares about a minor situation like this.

[Anonymous]

Let it go. Whatever it is. It is the end of the year. Shame on you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I emailed them re a issue I had with a teacher, and she CC THE TEACHER, THE Teacher replay to the email.... IS she allowed to do this?

OMG - the *exact* same thing happened to me!! This was a few years ago, but it was mortifying. Why do they do this??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I emailed them re a issue I had with a teacher, and she CC THE TEACHER, THE Teacher replay to the email.... IS she allowed to do this?

OMG - the *exact* same thing happened to me!! This was a few years ago, but it was mortifying. Why do they do this??

If your email being sent to the teacher is mortifying, you might want to think about what kind of emails you are writing. There are polite, professional ways to bring up issues that wouldn’t be embarrassing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I emailed them re a issue I had with a teacher, and she CC THE TEACHER, THE Teacher replay to the email.... IS she allowed to do this?

OMG - the *exact* same thing happened to me!! This was a few years ago, but it was mortifying. Why do they do this??

If your email being sent to the teacher is mortifying, you might want to think about what kind of emails you are writing. There are polite, professional ways to bring up issues that wouldn’t be embarrassing.

Let go of the presumptuous idea that a parent is automatically at fault for contacting the principal to seek help with an unresponsive teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I emailed them re a issue I had with a teacher, and she CC THE TEACHER, THE Teacher replay to the email.... IS she allowed to do this?

OMG - the *exact* same thing happened to me!! This was a few years ago, but it was mortifying. Why do they do this??

If your email being sent to the teacher is mortifying, you might want to think about what kind of emails you are writing. There are polite, professional ways to bring up issues that wouldn’t be embarrassing.

Let go of the presumptuous idea that a parent is automatically at fault for contacting the principal to seek help with an unresponsive teacher.

In this case, the issue is not an unresponsive teacher. OP already said they did not contact the teacher and were vague about whether their DC contacted the teacher.

I'm not sure what the OP's objective is here. Are they trying to resolve an issue or were they hoping for some sort of action against the teacher by admin and unhappy b/c the admin bumped it back down to the appropriate level for action.

[Anonymous]

Isn’t the goal of your email to get the gradebook updated? Of course the principal would forward the email. If I were the principal I would forward the email with an FYI and copy you. What else do you want the principal to do? The principal can’t update the grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Isn’t the goal of your email to get the gradebook updated? Of course the principal would forward the email. If I were the principal I would forward the email with an FYI and copy you. What else do you want the principal to do? The principal can’t update the grades.

OP likely wanted the principal to tell the teacher that a parent had complained and to update the grade book. Bonus for OP if the teacher got reprimanded.

[Anonymous]

Veteran mom: don't email complaints, ask for a phone call or in person meeting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Veteran mom: don't email complaints, ask for a phone call or in person meeting.

Good advice.

My dad told me this once: Never put anything in writing that you wouldn't want someone else to see.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I emailed them re a issue I had with a teacher, and she CC THE TEACHER, THE Teacher replay to the email.... IS she allowed to do this?

The principal is demonstrating that they don't want to hear complaints about teachers, and if the parent complains they will reveal their identity immediately to the teacher.

How the principal could have handled it better:

1) The principal should have first privately replied to the parent inquiring if the teacher can been made aware of the concern and if so how many times.

2) Principal should have then approached the teacher privately, verified the facts, and only then loop the parent in as needed—possibly with the parent's consent.

3) When the parent brings up a concern with the principal, the expectation is that the administration will handle it discreetly, not immediately copy the teacher and reveal the parent’s identity. This can lead to awkwardness or retaliation concerns, and may discourage parents from speaking up in the future.

+1. The principal needs to be reprimanded by the Asst. Superintendent.

I can assure you that will not happen

Principal may get written up but it’s if this was a one off incident (we don’t know) then they won’t get a reprimand.

I’m going to assume you actually know the difference between a stern disciplinary warning and an actual letter of reprimand because they are extremely different

I should know I had three reprimands in my HR file. Not exactly a badge of honor (nor am I saying it with pride) but I can definitely tell you how far down the line you have to be to get one is more my point.