TEACHERS: Share your most outrageous parent stories

[Anonymous]

I'll go first--

A parent recently offered me $100 to "give" her daughter a bump on her report card. Sorry lady, your kid has to EARN grades.

[Anonymous]

Oooo! ooooo! Me next! I once had a parent show up to a parent/teacher conference stoned out of her mind. She arrived in pajama pants and her daughter was wearing slippers. She couldn't even focus enough to look me in the eye and I couldn't understand a word she said. Spoke to the guidance counselor afterwards and reported her. sheesh.

[Anonymous]

Wow, OP that women's daughter is going to have a hard lesson to learn in life if she doesn't learn how to earn things on her own.

I had a parent start screaming at me telling me something wasn't right with her son. That he wasn't as smart as his siblings and he was too active and he needed to be evaluated (this was put in not so nice terms).

Poor kid was sitting in the hall and heard everything.

[Anonymous]

had a meeting with prinicpal, support staff, mom, and psychiatrist to discuss student who had the following diagnosis: ADHD, bipolar, ODD, and OCD. After going over test results, counseling notes, classroom progress, the psychiatrist looked at us (mom included), and said, "well, you can try putting him in partial hospitalization but I don't think it will help. The issues this child has are because of his parents, not any diagnosis." And then he got up and. walked. out.

I can tell you, it was sure fun putting that fire out with the mother after he left.

[Anonymous]

Another teacher at an MCPS school I worked burst into the teachers' lounge to report this phone call:

A mom of one of her first graders called to say that her son had swallowed a quarter the day before. She reported that their doctor recommended that they "watch" to make sure that it...um...exited the kid's body. So, instead of keeping the kid home for 24 hours, the mom sent the kids to school and asked the teacher to be sure to monitor the kid's trips to the bathroom and if he "produced" something, to check it for the quarter!

This was a veteran teacher who told the mom in no uncertain terms what to do with that request. We all had a great laugh in that teachers' lounge that day.

Totally true story but I don't know if that quarter is still in circulation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:had a meeting with prinicpal, support staff, mom, and psychiatrist to discuss student who had the following diagnosis: ADHD, bipolar, ODD, and OCD. After going over test results, counseling notes, classroom progress, the psychiatrist looked at us (mom included), and said, "well, you can try putting him in partial hospitalization but I don't think it will help. The issues this child has are because of his parents, not any diagnosis." And then he got up and. walked. out.

I can tell you, it was sure fun putting that fire out with the mother after he left.

brave of him to say it, not so brave to take off !

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:had a meeting with prinicpal, support staff, mom, and psychiatrist to discuss student who had the following diagnosis: ADHD, bipolar, ODD, and OCD. After going over test results, counseling notes, classroom progress, the psychiatrist looked at us (mom included), and said, "well, you can try putting him in partial hospitalization but I don't think it will help. The issues this child has are because of his parents, not any diagnosis." And then he got up and. walked. out.

I can tell you, it was sure fun putting that fire out with the mother after he left.

For some reason, this rubs me the wrong way. It's ok to be honest but to say it the way he did and then just leave the parents hanging, is quite rude and unprofessional.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:had a meeting with prinicpal, support staff, mom, and psychiatrist to discuss student who had the following diagnosis: ADHD, bipolar, ODD, and OCD. After going over test results, counseling notes, classroom progress, the psychiatrist looked at us (mom included), and said, "well, you can try putting him in partial hospitalization but I don't think it will help. The issues this child has are because of his parents, not any diagnosis." And then he got up and. walked. out.

I can tell you, it was sure fun putting that fire out with the mother after he left.

For some reason, this rubs me the wrong way. It's ok to be honest but to say it the way he did and then just leave the parents hanging, is quite rude and unprofessional.

ITA. The conditions that this child was diagnosed with are extremely serious and not caused by the method by which someone parents. Thing is, after the quality of some of the psychologists I've seen in our school system, I wasn't surprised by this totally outrageous and inappropriate outburst, which is really sad.

[Anonymous]

I totally agree - seems like minimizing serious conditions in a child. I guess some in these professions just hate parents and can't miss an opportunity to pile on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:had a meeting with prinicpal, support staff, mom, and psychiatrist to discuss student who had the following diagnosis: ADHD, bipolar, ODD, and OCD. After going over test results, counseling notes, classroom progress, the psychiatrist looked at us (mom included), and said, "well, you can try putting him in partial hospitalization but I don't think it will help. The issues this child has are because of his parents, not any diagnosis." And then he got up and. walked. out.

I can tell you, it was sure fun putting that fire out with the mother after he left.

For some reason, this rubs me the wrong way. It's ok to be honest but to say it the way he did and then just leave the parents hanging, is quite rude and unprofessional.

I agree. At the end of the day, it is about the child, regardless of the cause of the issues the child had - and he basically abandoned that child by doing what he did.

[Anonymous]

Agree with other PPs about that psychologist. I'm pretty sure that would fall under "what NOT to do" in Psych 101.
If I were the principal, I'd be seeing about a transfer of that particular staff person.

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure how a parent could cause ADHD and bipolar disorder!

[Anonymous]

I can't write any here- surely the crazy parents of my students read this!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:had a meeting with prinicpal, support staff, mom, and psychiatrist to discuss student who had the following diagnosis: ADHD, bipolar, ODD, and OCD. After going over test results, counseling notes, classroom progress, the psychiatrist looked at us (mom included), and said, "well, you can try putting him in partial hospitalization but I don't think it will help. The issues this child has are because of his parents, not any diagnosis." And then he got up and. walked. out.

I can tell you, it was sure fun putting that fire out with the mother after he left.

For some reason, this rubs me the wrong way. It's ok to be honest but to say it the way he did and then just leave the parents hanging, is quite rude and unprofessional.

I agree. At the end of the day, it is about the child, regardless of the cause of the issues the child had - and he basically abandoned that child by doing what he did.

Typical MCPS employee. No surprise there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'll go first--

A parent recently offered me $100 to "give" her daughter a bump on her report card. Sorry lady, your kid has to EARN grades.

Hilarious!! I taught high school in another country for several years and the faculty was not allowed to interact with parents EVER for this very reason!! The school was mostly super wealthy, powerful families and the teachers were poorly paid, so there had been lots of bribery going on. So the school implemented a policy where teachers were not to ever talk with parents. There was an entire counseling staff put in place to deal with parents!!

Since it was a fairly dangerous country, and we had children of presidents, famous people, etc., a lot of kids came to school with bodyguards. I would have guards with machine guns standing in the back of my classroom!!!

I loved my kids though. They were awesome!