Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD's 9th grade photography teacher has a board hanging up in her classroom called "closet tears". Yesterday, DD was told by this teacher that she was going to fail her for "not trying hard enough". DD started to cry, as she HAS been trying as best she could to catch up, but the teacher refused to reduce any of the workload despite legitimate absences. DD has been very sick the second half of this year, including being in the hospital and finally getting diagnosed with an autoimmune disease a few weeks ago. The teacher told DD to walk over and put a hash mark on the "closet tears" board.

I was already livid and now I'm just in an absolute rage. She has an IEP for dyslexia, dysgraphia and slow processing speed. I contacted the school on May 24th after we got her diagnosis and asked for an IEP meeting to address her medical conditions. After several email reminders, they finally scheduled it for August 14th.

Do we have any recourse to fight the failing grade? And the teacher bullying her students by boasting about making them cry? WTF?

Oh, DD has video of the closet tears board. She took it before leaving class yesterday (last day of school).

sorry to hear your DC had a rough quarter. But, the teacher can not reduce one student’s workload because that would not be fair to all of the other students. And, you mention special needs in an IEP, but how does that relate to this photography class? Also, is the closet tears an avenue for a kid to pull themselves together when tears well up? There’s always 2 sides to a story. The internet is not allowing due process.

BS. Absolute bs. Anytime I hear the phrase "not faaaaair to the other students" I know I am dealing with someone completely ignorant about disabilities.

Anonymous wrote:To the PP who keeps saying to talk to the teacher- is that the same advice you would give of the student told her mom she’d been touched inappropriately by a teacher? Go in and see if the teacher can talk it away, maybe it was a misunderstanding? I sure hope not.

This is not to that extreme but I have a child who has been repeatedly lied about by a teacher in the past. Kids need to feel believed especially when someone is being a sh*t to them and they have video evidence. This is not one of those times I’d be pushing my child to see the teachers side of things. I’d be going directly to the principal on her behalf.

My kid had an accommodation that a teacher refused to provide. We complained to the admin. Teacher was adamant she was providing accommodation. We were lucky that the AP cared and checked out the class several times in a week and verified the teacher lied. She never provided the accommodation which was simple. The woman would give the class assignments orally - ie not write them down or provide documentation of assignments. Accommodation provided assignments were written even if on the board so kid could take a photo. She never did and got caught. What kind of sicko is this nasty to not provide something that is a good teaching practice. We encountered this kind of insanity constantly.

PP keep arguing for the teacher but those of us who've lived this are fed up by high school.

Also in my county teachers are not available within a week or so of school ending. Their contracts end and we found they wouldn't respond. Op will be dealing with the administration anyway. I would talk to them first but I absolutely would take this to social media so anyone else who wants to hire this psycho knows.

Anonymous wrote:Are you sure the teacher didn’t create a closet tears safe space? An art student at the a university of Utah created a closet tears safe space in the library so students feeling overwhelmed during finals can have a place to have a 10 minute cry to relieve stress.
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2018/04/26/cry-closet-installed-finals-university-utah
https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/04/cry-closets-are-a-great-idea-thanks-millennials.html

Yeah, OP, you really need to tell us exactly what "cry board" means. I think everyone on this thread has a different idea of what you could be talking about. Please clarify: what is a "cry board"?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

No, this is bs. What planet are you from?

That PP is correct.

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s kind of funny. The teacher put up a cry board around finals. They are keeping track of the students that come up with BS excuses around the end of the year to bring up their grade. Like you! Your child has to be given work if their absence was excused. When did the child retrieve the work? Work is not allowed to be turned in when it is close to the end of the marking period. Again, where were you and your child before that? So yes, cry me a river and put your name on the board because you look ridiculous. How are going to appeal the grade? She was absent, she should have made up the work. You want the teacher to give a 100 instead of a 0 because she was not at school? You should get a tally on that board too…

You are vile and despicable.

Anonymous wrote:I think what the teacher is trying to do is to create “antifragile” kids. And teach that kids can’t use tears to get out of trouble. It’s a good lesson, but maybe not well delivered.

Insane. This teacher is not a reasonable teaching strategy in any scenario. This person should not be teaching and it's outrageous that no one at the school has noticed.

Anonymous wrote:

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.

No, this is bs. What planet are you from?

Go in person and look yourself
If you see Ask what it is

Help your DD learn to write emails that state facts and then ask for an extension or a discussion regarding acceptance of her current grade in class as the final grade if there isn’t enough time to complete assignments. She should copy you and her counselor.

Unpopular opinion - elective teachers rightfully want their students to take their coursework seriously and they have to accept that other courses will take precedence for most students even when they are taking the course seriously. To that end, projects and work need to be done in class with only voluntary or extra credit work done outside of class. i’m

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 such bad advice. There is no need to take an F or a bad grade for a teacher who would not work with a sick student. This is such bs. The cry board just shows how truly horrible this teacher is. F the teacher shortage. Our kids with disabilities have it hard enough without being abused by a psycho.

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This would be something worth bringing up before the end of the school year. [/quote]

+1

Admin is still around right now. Don’t wait. [/quote]

+2, I’d ask for a meeting on Tuesday or Wednesday, and if they put you off, just show up.

I’m sorry OP. I’m mad on your and your DD’s behalf. I think that’s awful even if your kid was ND without learning disorders. That’s just a trash way to treat the kids you are supposed to be teaching.[/quote]

NP. And like…a photography teacher? That’s a fun subject. Why are so many teenagers being brought to tears in her classroom?[/quote]

I have a kid with multiple disabilities and almost every year we had to have meetings just to deal with them. Some of the worst teachers were those in those "unique" specials. Art, Typing, and whatever the modern day version of shop is had some of the worst, most ignorant teachers I've ever had to deal with. Many of them have chips the size of Delaware on their shoulders because they aren't taken by their peers. My kid's high school had an art teacher who failed so many students it was shocking. Imagine a kid with dysgraphia in one of those classes.

Anonymous wrote:Wow. I am just boggled by the extent to which some parents sweep away abusive teaching behavior.

I don’t sweep it away, but my focus is on parenting my child. You don’t get your grade changed because you were sick. You get reasonable accommodations to complete the coursework and maybe in Incomplete.

Teachers do wrong and abusive things (I’m not sure this rises to abuse but it’s certainly not right). Both students and parents can take on that behavior. There are consequences to doing so and reasons to be strategic. When you have a grade dispute with the teacher over incomplete work thats not the right time to take on this other thing.

Wow. I am just boggled by the extent to which some parents sweep away abusive teaching behavior.

Students also lie, embellish, and twist stories, too. There needs to be an investigation on both sides. This student could just be a pot-stirrer, too. The cry room may be for a student to collect themselves. The student must have been a very poor student to be failing a photography class. The admin should investigate how many days the student truly missed and what is going on in the other classes. Students are turning into bullies now with cameras. They try to create false narratives about teachers to suit their agenda. One must be careful to place total blame on the teacher. How many attempts were offered to the student and work is still not turned in? Different rules can’t be created for one student. Either the student deserves an incomplete or an F. Which is it? I find it hard to believe that this is some stellar student.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD's 9th grade photography teacher has a board hanging up in her classroom called "closet tears". Yesterday, DD was told by this teacher that she was going to fail her for "not trying hard enough". DD started to cry, as she HAS been trying as best she could to catch up, but the teacher refused to reduce any of the workload despite legitimate absences. DD has been very sick the second half of this year, including being in the hospital and finally getting diagnosed with an autoimmune disease a few weeks ago. The teacher told DD to walk over and put a hash mark on the "closet tears" board.

I was already livid and now I'm just in an absolute rage. She has an IEP for dyslexia, dysgraphia and slow processing speed. I contacted the school on May 24th after we got her diagnosis and asked for an IEP meeting to address her medical conditions. After several email reminders, they finally scheduled it for August 14th.

Do we have any recourse to fight the failing grade? And the teacher bullying her students by boasting about making them cry? WTF?

Oh, DD has video of the closet tears board. She took it before leaving class yesterday (last day of school).

sorry to hear your DC had a rough quarter. But, the teacher can not reduce one student’s workload because that would not be fair to all of the other students. And, you mention special needs in an IEP, but how does that relate to this photography class? Also, is the closet tears an avenue for a kid to pull themselves together when tears well up? There’s always 2 sides to a story. The internet is not allowing due process.

Given MCPS grading policies, the very idea of a failing grade is suspicious on its own-- suggesting the OP may be right that this is more about the teachers's perception of the student than rather than the submitted coursework. A failing, vs incomplete, grade given the circumstances is even more suspicious. The cry board just fits into that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

F*** this. Oh hellllllllll no. This person should not see the inside of a classroom ever again. I say that as a teacher.

I am livid for you OP.

Last time I’m going to try this.

Can we get more info first? Before the pitchforks come out, talk to the teacher.

I’m also a teacher. Yes, I absolutely believe that this could be true. I just haven’t read anything on this thread yet that justifies a huge take-down.

I know a teacher who had her reputation destroyed by a parent who was working on false information. Get the facts first. Always.

How will OP feel if she takes this to the board before talking to the teacher, only to have new info revealed?

The cry-board is a fact recorded by the student. The mom should send the picture and her DC’s description of the situation to the teacher and ask the teacher if she could please share what happened. Teachers often continue to incriminate themselves in this kind of situation, and that provides good additional evidence.

Yes, send it to the TEACHER and ask the teacher to explain. There are plenty of posters who want to skip that step and go immediately to public shaming. Having known an innocent teacher who had this happen, I am now very suspicious of all parents who skip the important step of talking directly to the teacher.

The fact you assume (hope?) that the teacher will further incriminate themselves is also suspicious.

That depends on the circumstances. If there is any chance the cry board is still up, the OP absolutely should not go to the teacher first. She should raise this to the principle, so they can investigate before the teacher removes it. And in a perfect world, the principle would bring the OP along.