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View Full Version : wow those parents were mad



Zoe Girl
9-13-12, 10:32pm
Sooo, at bacl to school night I had 3 families approach me angrily over an issue that I was in the process of solving. I had a table set up to get more enrollments in our programs and they were waiting for me. I saw the other family who first approached me in the background, the mom who called around and got everyone fired up. I had already listened to her the day before, I had responded to everything, and we were working on a solution with the principal that was pretty complete. I ended up giving my personal guarantee to pick up all the kids in the program from their classrooms on Monday. One parent even said that we should do that since we meet a bus morning and afternoon for a special needs child. Um yeah, the child needs a harness to ride the bus so of course we put her on the bus and pick her up. My supervisors response was to call me during the crunch time of finding all the kids and I told her I could not talk, then later she told me that the customer is always right.

In addition the complaint they all share I had a parent very upset about our behavior system and called it public humiliation. He had said this before when he came to pick his children when they were in trouble. So I called him the next day to make time to talk and he didn't answer so I left a message.

Meanwhile my director staff is getting on my nerves. I posted about her in family/relationships. She has had an issue with everything and rather than getting better it has gotten worse. I pretty much had to force her to do the curriculum today and she keeps saying she doesn't understand why we just can't do things different. Well she got hired by an organization with 60 school programs, we do it the same.

Thank you for letting me vent, I am talking to the principal tomorrow, we already have a plan, then setting up meetings with parents so we can get on the right track, and frankly telling my staff that she does not really act like she wants to be at this job. Also I am going to change my phone message to say I do not accept calls between 3 and 5 pm because I am actively engaged with children. (engagement was another complaint from the person who talked to me for 20 minutes while I had children waiting)

awakenedsoul
9-13-12, 10:57pm
You have my sympathy. Ridiculous. This is why I stopped teaching. It's so backward now. The respect is gone. It's so political. I was taught old school, and I loved those classes and teachers.

Zoe Girl
9-14-12, 12:27pm
Thanks AS, I fretted a lot last night and then got to work. Today there is no school for an assessment day and so I got to talk to the principal. I really like her. Neither one of us sees the concern totally but the parents are adamant so we are making a change that they can be comfortable with. I am trying to work in a project and a chance for older child leadership with this.

I am so happy the principal backed me up on some things. One parent came to talk to her and started saying something about a lost child. She was very clear with the parent that there has not been ANY lost children. There was a child who did not follow clear directions and basically disobeyed what she was told to do so at 10 minutes after school was out we went to find her. Later that day i had a serious talk with the child, it is not like we have children coming late and just let that go. The principal told the parent that stories get told and changed as they go so be careful passing them on. I think that the principal and I agree that the first parent started a bit of a mob mentality.

I just wrote a long email telling the parent what we are doing, addressing all concerns about our procedures on locating children, and ended with a note of appreciation (the #1 reason we go searching for a child is mom or dad pick up and don't tell us) for communicating so well. I also said that if she wanted to talk more or any other parent had a concern to please contact me directly.

Whew,

Jilly
9-14-12, 2:21pm
Whew is right!

bunnys
9-14-12, 3:00pm
Zoe: So sorry you had a bad back to school night and the parents were so disrespectful.

It's incomprehensible, disgraceful and totally believable.

Parents can be real jerks.