To teachers and parents: Have the kids gotten better?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School closures were the most anti-equity thing to happen in the last 50 years at least. The rich kids were largely fine, while the poor kids were largely not. You can do equity initiatives continuously for the next 10 years and still not be able to completely reverse what happened in the last 2.

At least in my neck of the woods, these was painted as "the poor (and where I am this means Black) families don't want to send their kids to in-person school". So it's this lovely thing where the people most hurt by the policy had the most support for the policy.

Was this because of Covid concern or because their kids weren’t being treated well in school or because virtual learning was so much easier logistically?

Covid concern. The narrative was "Black families are experiencing more illness and death from covid and therefore perceive more risk from sending kids to in-person school." My personal belief is that communicators failed miserably in showing that in-person school did not contribute to a higher likelihood of exposure than what those kids were experiencing alternatively.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School closures were the most anti-equity thing to happen in the last 50 years at least. The rich kids were largely fine, while the poor kids were largely not. You can do equity initiatives continuously for the next 10 years and still not be able to completely reverse what happened in the last 2.

See, there’s these events called pandemics. You can’t just pretend they’re not going on.

This is totally false. I switched from a “poor” largely minority district to a “rich” homogenous white district mid year. The kids in the lower SES school were much better behaved than the kids I work with now. The attitude toward authority in my new district is really poor. Think kids who say things like, “I don’t have to listen to you, my parents pay your salary.” They are ten or eleven at most, this is elementary school. Students verbally refuse to do their work or follow directions. They mock their classmates when they’re speaking, which is disgusting and unkind. I’m considering returning to my old job. I never had this problem in the lower SES school, before, during, or “after” COVID (the pandemic hasn’t ended, we’re just ignoring it). The idea that rich kids are doing better is patently untrue. While they have more advantages, they aren’t better behaved or more academically advanced. Let’s do away with that stereotype.

??? I was talking about why schools why closed.

The internet ate the post you were responding to, which was about how rich kids are cool and school closures were anti equity.

NP. Data shows that the rich kids were fine and the poor kids weren't. Your anecdote doesn't upend that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School closures were the most anti-equity thing to happen in the last 50 years at least. The rich kids were largely fine, while the poor kids were largely not. You can do equity initiatives continuously for the next 10 years and still not be able to completely reverse what happened in the last 2.

At least in my neck of the woods, these was painted as "the poor (and where I am this means Black) families don't want to send their kids to in-person school". So it's this lovely thing where the people most hurt by the policy had the most support for the policy.

Was this because of Covid concern or because their kids weren’t being treated well in school or because virtual learning was so much easier logistically?

Covid concern. The narrative was "Black families are experiencing more illness and death from covid and therefore perceive more risk from sending kids to in-person school." My personal belief is that communicators failed miserably in showing that in-person school did not contribute to a higher likelihood of exposure than what those kids were experiencing alternatively.

Not just Black families but the families of low income workers who were not able to work from home. First, many of those workers who kept their jobs were at a higher risk for exposure to COVID and less likely to have health care that allowed them to go to the Doctor or hospital until they were really sick or sick leave that allowed them to not go to work when they were not feeling well. So there were higher rates of hospitalization and death among low income workers.

Second, many low income workers who have kids were not able to afford child care coverage for their kids who were not in school. So the older kids were expected to keep and eye on and help their younger siblings. You can guess how this influenced those kids ability to attend and complete virtual school. You can also guess how this influenced those kids ability to learn how to socialize and behave in a classroom.

Third, many low income families took advantage of the virtual learning so that their older kids were able to get jobs that helped the family pays its bills. It wasn't just lower income families, I read families of MC and UMC whose kids got jobs because they could. Many of the kids who found jobs did not return to in person school because they wanted to keep their jobs and staying in DL let them do that.

Fourth, even when schools returned to in-person (first 2 days then 4 days in FCPS) low income families who had younger kids at home and who could not find child care coverage, kept their older kids at home to watch their siblings while the parents worked. So while MC and UMC kids were able to return to class, if they wanted to, lower income kids were less likely to return because they were needed at home to watch siblings.

Overall, the pandemic took an exiting educational gap that was already widening and created a gulf. Lower income families bore the brunt of the pandemic in terms of health issues, hospitalizations, and deaths. The kids of these families were less likely to have the resources needed to have a solid chance of making distance learning work (reliable internet, good computers, parents who might be able to help with distance learning) I would fully expect that schools with a higher percentage of low income families are really struggling this year and will continue to struggle for a while.

The MC and UMC kids who are struggling probably is more attributable to parents who decided it wasn't worth the effort and just let their kids do whatever at home for the year. We saw plenty of posts stating that was happening and now those parents are complaining about their kids being behind. A bunch of those families posted that they were not making their kids go back to in-person when their kids really needed to be in-person. And I saw families who looked for ways to help their kids and make the best of the situation with varying degrees of success.

[Anonymous]

I teach in a Title 1 school. Most families in our school live with extended family so childcare was not an issue for most of them. They all got laptops and hot spots and kits of supplies for each child. We reached out to every parent to ask what else they needed. Most of the absences were due to parenting issues. “Larla doesn’t like to _________.” Go to bed, wake up on time, do Zoom school, do class work, participate in class, etc. so our phone calls basically ended up as parenting sessions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I teach in a Title 1 school. Most families in our school live with extended family so childcare was not an issue for most of them. They all got laptops and hot spots and kits of supplies for each child. We reached out to every parent to ask what else they needed. Most of the absences were due to parenting issues. “Larla doesn’t like to _________.” Go to bed, wake up on time, do Zoom school, do class work, participate in class, etc. so our phone calls basically ended up as parenting sessions.

A few months into the Pandemic, I talked to a school counselor at my kid's school. My child (9) was freaking out at any request, throwing tantrums, hiding out in her room for 23 hours a day because anytime we interacted she was ending up with a consequence. The counselor was really helpful. On her recommendation, I focused on positive parenting, reduced my expectations, focused on a few key things that I required. None of us had parented through a pandemic, or been a kid through a pandemic, or taught through a pandemic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School closures were the most anti-equity thing to happen in the last 50 years at least. The rich kids were largely fine, while the poor kids were largely not. You can do equity initiatives continuously for the next 10 years and still not be able to completely reverse what happened in the last 2.

At least in my neck of the woods, these was painted as "the poor (and where I am this means Black) families don't want to send their kids to in-person school". So it's this lovely thing where the people most hurt by the policy had the most support for the policy.

Was this because of Covid concern or because their kids weren’t being treated well in school or because virtual learning was so much easier logistically?

Covid concern. The narrative was "Black families are experiencing more illness and death from covid and therefore perceive more risk from sending kids to in-person school." My personal belief is that communicators failed miserably in showing that in-person school did not contribute to a higher likelihood of exposure than what those kids were experiencing alternatively.

Not just Black families but the families of low income workers who were not able to work from home. First, many of those workers who kept their jobs were at a higher risk for exposure to COVID and less likely to have health care that allowed them to go to the Doctor or hospital until they were really sick or sick leave that allowed them to not go to work when they were not feeling well. So there were higher rates of hospitalization and death among low income workers.

Second, many low income workers who have kids were not able to afford child care coverage for their kids who were not in school. So the older kids were expected to keep and eye on and help their younger siblings. You can guess how this influenced those kids ability to attend and complete virtual school. You can also guess how this influenced those kids ability to learn how to socialize and behave in a classroom.

Third, many low income families took advantage of the virtual learning so that their older kids were able to get jobs that helped the family pays its bills. It wasn't just lower income families, I read families of MC and UMC whose kids got jobs because they could. Many of the kids who found jobs did not return to in person school because they wanted to keep their jobs and staying in DL let them do that.

Fourth, even when schools returned to in-person (first 2 days then 4 days in FCPS) low income families who had younger kids at home and who could not find child care coverage, kept their older kids at home to watch their siblings while the parents worked. So while MC and UMC kids were able to return to class, if they wanted to, lower income kids were less likely to return because they were needed at home to watch siblings.

Overall, the pandemic took an exiting educational gap that was already widening and created a gulf. Lower income families bore the brunt of the pandemic in terms of health issues, hospitalizations, and deaths. The kids of these families were less likely to have the resources needed to have a solid chance of making distance learning work (reliable internet, good computers, parents who might be able to help with distance learning) I would fully expect that schools with a higher percentage of low income families are really struggling this year and will continue to struggle for a while.

The MC and UMC kids who are struggling probably is more attributable to parents who decided it wasn't worth the effort and just let their kids do whatever at home for the year. We saw plenty of posts stating that was happening and now those parents are complaining about their kids being behind. A bunch of those families posted that they were not making their kids go back to in-person when their kids really needed to be in-person. And I saw families who looked for ways to help their kids and make the best of the situation with varying degrees of success.

Much of your post is not about fear of COVID, but about the logistics of taking care of remote education versus kids returning to school, especially under a hybrid arrangement. Lower-income people did experience the pandemic in a different way, facing much more serious illness and death than those who worked from home. Still, the factors you mentioned, which created a greater risk of COVID, from crowded living conditions to multigenerational households, also made it more convenient to continue remote learning, rather than returning to school. These arrangements created situations where older siblings sacrificed their education to help younger ones. People present this trope that those most impacted by COVID from a health perspective wanted schools closed to protect their families. That may be partly accurate, but it's not the whole truth. I can tell you that the lower-income families of color who played on my kids' soccer teams had no problem training indoors, carpooling with each other, or traveling, whereas I took my kids out of indoor activities due to COVID caution. People assess risk based on what is most important to them and what their needs are, and that is to be expected.

The PP's bolded statement is obnoxious. In fact, the first statements show how families experienced the pandemic differently. While working at home lowered COVID risk, doing so in demanding and stressful occupations while supervising children's learning without other support stressed many families, parents, and children, to the brink. There is a reason why most families don't home school their kids.

Most of us did the best we could under the circumstances. Some of us did better than others. I'll also point out that while no community, ethnic group, or income level is a monolith, the pandemic has shown how harmful isolation can be for kids and that harm can't be easily addressed with money. Plenty of people from middle and higher income levels sacrificed almost all social interaction, family gatherings, travel, and visits with grandparents because they thought that doing so was in the best interest of the community and would lead to schools reopening for in-person learning. They thought they were doing the right thing, but the isolation and continuous messaging that their concerns didn't matter left these parents depleted and less able to foster a positive environment for their kids' learning. There's no shame in that, but it is shameful to suggest that kids who are struggling now come from households where their parents were checked out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach in a Title 1 school. Most families in our school live with extended family so childcare was not an issue for most of them. They all got laptops and hot spots and kits of supplies for each child. We reached out to every parent to ask what else they needed. Most of the absences were due to parenting issues. “Larla doesn’t like to _________.” Go to bed, wake up on time, do Zoom school, do class work, participate in class, etc. so our phone calls basically ended up as parenting sessions.

A few months into the Pandemic, I talked to a school counselor at my kid's school. My child (9) was freaking out at any request, throwing tantrums, hiding out in her room for 23 hours a day because anytime we interacted she was ending up with a consequence. The counselor was really helpful. On her recommendation, I focused on positive parenting, reduced my expectations, focused on a few key things that I required. None of us had parented through a pandemic, or been a kid through a pandemic, or taught through a pandemic.

I'm glad you were able to use the help you were given. Most parents weren't interested in help. The pandemic didn't bring up new issues with their parenting. They needed parenting help from the beginning. The teachers all wish we could hire a bilingual parenting coach. This full-time person would hold mandatory meetings with parents about their roles and responsibilities as parents as well as the school's/teacher's roles and responsibilities. They could also have one-on-one family sessions to coach parents on how to parent. They just don't know how and it creates a lot of issues in the classroom. None of this is pandemic-related.

[Anonymous]

Plenty of people from middle and higher income levels sacrificed almost all social interaction, family gatherings, travel, and visits with grandparents because they thought that doing so was in the best interest of the community and would lead to schools reopening for in-person learning. They thought they were doing the right thing, but the isolation and continuous messaging that their concerns didn't matter left these parents depleted and less able to foster a positive environment for their kids' learning. There's no shame in that, but it is shameful to suggest that kids who are struggling now come from households where their parents were checked out.

I always feel bad for people who did this. I assume they lack common sense and are okay letting their extreme idealism work against their self-interest.

We initially bubbled up with both sets of grandparents and nanny, spent a lot of time outside, started seeing other friends and family once summer hit. Our kids were barely affected. Because we kept mental health as the main priority.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach in a Title 1 school. Most families in our school live with extended family so childcare was not an issue for most of them. They all got laptops and hot spots and kits of supplies for each child. We reached out to every parent to ask what else they needed. Most of the absences were due to parenting issues. “Larla doesn’t like to _________.” Go to bed, wake up on time, do Zoom school, do class work, participate in class, etc. so our phone calls basically ended up as parenting sessions.

A few months into the Pandemic, I talked to a school counselor at my kid's school. My child (9) was freaking out at any request, throwing tantrums, hiding out in her room for 23 hours a day because anytime we interacted she was ending up with a consequence. The counselor was really helpful. On her recommendation, I focused on positive parenting, reduced my expectations, focused on a few key things that I required. None of us had parented through a pandemic, or been a kid through a pandemic, or taught through a pandemic.

I'm glad you were able to use the help you were given. Most parents weren't interested in help. The pandemic didn't bring up new issues with their parenting. They needed parenting help from the beginning. The teachers all wish we could hire a bilingual parenting coach. This full-time person would hold mandatory meetings with parents about their roles and responsibilities as parents as well as the school's/teacher's roles and responsibilities. They could also have one-on-one family sessions to coach parents on how to parent. They just don't know how and it creates a lot of issues in the classroom. None of this is pandemic-related.

Can you give some more examples of the parents who don’t know how to parent? You mean they don’t send them to bed on time or make them do their homework?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach in a Title 1 school. Most families in our school live with extended family so childcare was not an issue for most of them. They all got laptops and hot spots and kits of supplies for each child. We reached out to every parent to ask what else they needed. Most of the absences were due to parenting issues. “Larla doesn’t like to _________.” Go to bed, wake up on time, do Zoom school, do class work, participate in class, etc. so our phone calls basically ended up as parenting sessions.

A few months into the Pandemic, I talked to a school counselor at my kid's school. My child (9) was freaking out at any request, throwing tantrums, hiding out in her room for 23 hours a day because anytime we interacted she was ending up with a consequence. The counselor was really helpful. On her recommendation, I focused on positive parenting, reduced my expectations, focused on a few key things that I required. None of us had parented through a pandemic, or been a kid through a pandemic, or taught through a pandemic.

I'm glad you were able to use the help you were given. Most parents weren't interested in help. The pandemic didn't bring up new issues with their parenting. They needed parenting help from the beginning. The teachers all wish we could hire a bilingual parenting coach. This full-time person would hold mandatory meetings with parents about their roles and responsibilities as parents as well as the school's/teacher's roles and responsibilities. They could also have one-on-one family sessions to coach parents on how to parent. They just don't know how and it creates a lot of issues in the classroom. None of this is pandemic-related.

Can you give some more examples of the parents who don’t know how to parent? You mean they don’t send them to bed on time or make them do their homework?

DP but I have many students whose parents allow them to play video games all night, send them to school with exclusively junk food, and don’t enforce any sort of homework/independent reading at home. They come to school and have no motivation to do work, because they’re exhausted and have no stamina for completing tasks. They have no responsibilities or boundaries. I also have students who are 8, 9, and 10 who expect teachers to blow their noses for them. Their parents do everything for them and have taught them no independence. We have kindergarten parents requesting we potty train their kids. None of them know how to tie their shoes. It’s really clear that the parents need support.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach in a Title 1 school. Most families in our school live with extended family so childcare was not an issue for most of them. They all got laptops and hot spots and kits of supplies for each child. We reached out to every parent to ask what else they needed. Most of the absences were due to parenting issues. “Larla doesn’t like to _________.” Go to bed, wake up on time, do Zoom school, do class work, participate in class, etc. so our phone calls basically ended up as parenting sessions.

A few months into the Pandemic, I talked to a school counselor at my kid's school. My child (9) was freaking out at any request, throwing tantrums, hiding out in her room for 23 hours a day because anytime we interacted she was ending up with a consequence. The counselor was really helpful. On her recommendation, I focused on positive parenting, reduced my expectations, focused on a few key things that I required. None of us had parented through a pandemic, or been a kid through a pandemic, or taught through a pandemic.

I'm glad you were able to use the help you were given. Most parents weren't interested in help. The pandemic didn't bring up new issues with their parenting. They needed parenting help from the beginning. The teachers all wish we could hire a bilingual parenting coach. This full-time person would hold mandatory meetings with parents about their roles and responsibilities as parents as well as the school's/teacher's roles and responsibilities. They could also have one-on-one family sessions to coach parents on how to parent. They just don't know how and it creates a lot of issues in the classroom. None of this is pandemic-related.

Can you give some more examples of the parents who don’t know how to parent? You mean they don’t send them to bed on time or make them do their homework?

DP but I have many students whose parents allow them to play video games all night, send them to school with exclusively junk food, and don’t enforce any sort of homework/independent reading at home. They come to school and have no motivation to do work, because they’re exhausted and have no stamina for completing tasks. They have no responsibilities or boundaries. I also have students who are 8, 9, and 10 who expect teachers to blow their noses for them. Their parents do everything for them and have taught them no independence. We have kindergarten parents requesting we potty train their kids. None of them know how to tie their shoes. It’s really clear that the parents need support.

+1

I have many families where the sister is expected to basically parent the brother even though they are almost the same age. The boys are the ‘golden children’ who do whatever they want and get away with murder while the girls are expected to behave, go to school and take care of the boys.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach in a Title 1 school. Most families in our school live with extended family so childcare was not an issue for most of them. They all got laptops and hot spots and kits of supplies for each child. We reached out to every parent to ask what else they needed. Most of the absences were due to parenting issues. “Larla doesn’t like to _________.” Go to bed, wake up on time, do Zoom school, do class work, participate in class, etc. so our phone calls basically ended up as parenting sessions.

A few months into the Pandemic, I talked to a school counselor at my kid's school. My child (9) was freaking out at any request, throwing tantrums, hiding out in her room for 23 hours a day because anytime we interacted she was ending up with a consequence. The counselor was really helpful. On her recommendation, I focused on positive parenting, reduced my expectations, focused on a few key things that I required. None of us had parented through a pandemic, or been a kid through a pandemic, or taught through a pandemic.

I'm glad you were able to use the help you were given. Most parents weren't interested in help. The pandemic didn't bring up new issues with their parenting. They needed parenting help from the beginning. The teachers all wish we could hire a bilingual parenting coach. This full-time person would hold mandatory meetings with parents about their roles and responsibilities as parents as well as the school's/teacher's roles and responsibilities. They could also have one-on-one family sessions to coach parents on how to parent. They just don't know how and it creates a lot of issues in the classroom. None of this is pandemic-related.

Can you give some more examples of the parents who don’t know how to parent? You mean they don’t send them to bed on time or make them do their homework?

Yes. I wrote this. Basically, bedtimes do not exist in many families. I'm a single parent and bedtime was always at 8 pm. Why? It's because I would never have a minute to myself unless I put my kid to bed then. I taught all day long and then had my son after that. My students tell me (and it has been verified by many parents) that kids play video games and watch TV until they fall asleep. There is no bedtime routine. Kids just fall asleep when they can no longer stay awake. There is a lot of sleep deprivation going on. I regularly have students fall asleep in the morning at school. They come in late and look like a college kid on a Monday morning after a weekend of partying.


Parents don't ask kids about school. Most of my student's folders are full of papers from months ago. We clean them out every quarter. There are permission slips in there, report cards/progress reports that go unsigned, etc. It's sad. Parents don't join Class Dojo but also won't look at the kid's folders either. It's very frustrating and sad. It's no wonder kids check out by 5th grade. If your parents never ask you about school and never look at your report cards, why should the kids care about school? Their own parents don't care. There are families we have to send the social worker to their homes just to get in touch with the parents. The social worker tries to help with whatever they need but they don't want to be bothered. I have a student whose mom never joined Class Dojo, never answers calls, texts, etc. She doesn't look at the take home folder. I've never seen her before in my life. She showed up at school last week and came into my room yelling that I stole her kid's school photos. WTH? I didn't even know who she was. Her kindergartener still cannot copy her name and all she cares about are school photos. She won't attend SST meetings about her kid but she wants the "f---ing photos!" So no, very few kids do any homework.

[Anonymous]

Do you think these parents have mental health issues and that is why they don’t spend time trying to raise their kids? I don’t think it’s an income issue because I know many poor people (actually poor) including some in my family, who still put in a lot of effort to raise their kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Things have gotten worse at my school. Kids have gotten comfortable and spring is here. That means, there has been an uptick in outrageous behaviors. Today, I had to half drag a kindergarten student upstairs to the office because he started hitting/hicking us. This afternoon, the entire downstairs at my school had to listen to screaming from a pre-k kid who has been running laps around the school for the last few weeks. I also have a student who eats everything and anything under the sun. Thankfully her classmates tell me when this happens so I can fish it out of her mouth (today it was a twist tie and a cap eraser). My student with the huge behavior issues was absent today so it was a pretty calm day.

I've heard awful stories from the middle school. The admin is always busy with them so they rarely have time to help us out. We are exhausted and we still have two weeks left before spring break. Teachers call in sick so much due to the stress and exhaustion and there are no subs (who can blame them with these behavior issues?) And our school isn't even that bad compared to others I've heard about.

Parents need to be called to pick up their kids or to sit with them in class if they cannot behave.

So they should just leave work every day to come to school? How realistic is that?

Perhaps that will motivate them to actually parent their out of control kids and/or get them psychiatrist help so that they won’t have to keep missing work. Shrug.

Wow you really hit the low end of DCUM. Shrug.

Gross.

Its gross to do nothing and just send your kids to school pretending its nothing. Some kids have real mental health issues and the schools should focus on helping them. Not the made up mental health issues that parents use to handle their kids poor behavior.

No. That is not a school's job. That is a parent's job. Do your job, parent. Get help for your kids. Schools should focus on teaching and learning. Parents are supposed to focus on everything else. Stop making schools responsible for doing something for your kid because of your inability to do your job as a parent.

I am a parent writing this.

There are huge barriers to accessing mental health services for kids right now. We tried for months to get a therapist for my child. Almost none were taking new patients or insurance. Each place we contacted referred us somewhere else and those places were booked too. The need is huge but availability is low. Hence why schools were supposed to get funding to hire more child psychologists and counselors because there is so much demand.

I have a friend whose son boarded in the ER for a month because there were no peds in-patient psych beds available.

Even pre-covid, we had to pull strings and use connections to get our kid in to see a psychiatrist in less than 3 months. We’re a couple of lawyers, and it took a ton of effort. For working class people, even during normal times, pediatric psychiatric care is nearly out of reach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Things have gotten worse at my school. Kids have gotten comfortable and spring is here. That means, there has been an uptick in outrageous behaviors. Today, I had to half drag a kindergarten student upstairs to the office because he started hitting/hicking us. This afternoon, the entire downstairs at my school had to listen to screaming from a pre-k kid who has been running laps around the school for the last few weeks. I also have a student who eats everything and anything under the sun. Thankfully her classmates tell me when this happens so I can fish it out of her mouth (today it was a twist tie and a cap eraser). My student with the huge behavior issues was absent today so it was a pretty calm day.

I've heard awful stories from the middle school. The admin is always busy with them so they rarely have time to help us out. We are exhausted and we still have two weeks left before spring break. Teachers call in sick so much due to the stress and exhaustion and there are no subs (who can blame them with these behavior issues?) And our school isn't even that bad compared to others I've heard about.

Parents need to be called to pick up their kids or to sit with them in class if they cannot behave.

So they should just leave work every day to come to school? How realistic is that?

Perhaps that will motivate them to actually parent their out of control kids and/or get them psychiatrist help so that they won’t have to keep missing work. Shrug.

Wow you really hit the low end of DCUM. Shrug.

Gross.

Its gross to do nothing and just send your kids to school pretending its nothing. Some kids have real mental health issues and the schools should focus on helping them. Not the made up mental health issues that parents use to handle their kids poor behavior.

No. That is not a school's job. That is a parent's job. Do your job, parent. Get help for your kids. Schools should focus on teaching and learning. Parents are supposed to focus on everything else. Stop making schools responsible for doing something for your kid because of your inability to do your job as a parent.

I am a parent writing this.

Well current federal law disagrees with you, but I guess you could take it up with your senator and rep.

You write as if it were so easy for any parent to just pick up the phone and schedule free weekly sessions with a qualified therapist within walking distance. There are MAJOR barriers for many parents in this process. None the least of which is understanding mental health, the utility of therapy in it, and trust in a largely white pool of therapists. - a white teacher

I’m sorry to hear that. Your kids’ mental health is still *your* responsibility, not the school’s. Figure it out.

So let’s say that your child comes to me as his/her/they’re teacher to confide that they’ve been sexually assaulted, are suicidal, etc. You would prefer that I shrug and tell them it’s not my responsibility? I guarantee you that many will harm themselves before confiding in a parent. Be careful- it could be YOUR child in a dangerous mental health crisis one day. And, in my experience, the “ tough luck” parents are not particularly approachable for their children.

I would expect you to call and inform the parent of the minor child so they can handle it. If the parent is the abuser, I would expect you to fulfill your duties as a mandated reporter to CPS.

Next question?

Wow, you’re a real jerk. I sure hope you don’t work with people in crisis.