Posted on 06/14/2007 8:18:08 AM PDT by TornadoAlley3
INDIANAPOLIS -- Sixth-grader Matt Porter didn't enjoy getting "Most Likely Not To Have Children" and "Sir Clowns-a-Lot" awards from two teachers at his school.
His parents aren't pleased, either.
Matt said he received the awards in front of classmates during a ceremony at the Decatur Intermediate Learning Center at the end of the recently finished school year. His mother and his stepfather have asked the Decatur Township school system to reprimand the teachers, and they want an apology.
"Words cut deeper than any knife could. They hurt," said his stepfather, Joseph Sims. "When you hurt a child like that, you not only hurt him mentally, but it does hurt physically because you withdraw within yourself. That is what Matthew has done."
The certificates were signed by the teachers who distributed them. Matt recalled what the ceremony was like.
"I was standing in the middle of (the two teachers), and they (were) reading them off," he said. "Everyone was laughing."
Matt felt humiliated.
"They (were) putting us down and everything," he said. "That is not what their job is for, to put kids down. They are supposed to teach us."
Amy Sims, Matt's mother, said she met with a school official over the matter but was not satisfied with the response.
"She just told me that the teachers would call and apologize to him, and we've not heard anything at all," Amy Sims said.
Gary Pellico, spokesman for the school system, declined to say whether the teachers have been disciplined. He said system officials regret the incident.
"We don't feel like it was an appropriate awards ceremony at all," Pellico said. "It wasn't part of the school's award ceremony, and it will not happen again."
Amy Sims said her son needs counseling because of the awards. The school has offered it, but an agreement on who will provide it has not been reached, Thomas reported.
Congratulations to YOU on your obviously wonderful parenting skills! :*) I agree—don’t these parents realize that by advertising all of this in the media (and now it’s on Drudge, it’s world wide) people are going to look at the kid and reflect on *their* lack of parenting skills?
I have in-laws from India, where education is super important to them—I can already imagine them complaining that the parents should have controlled the boy better so that this embarrassing (for all around) incident wouldn’t have occurred in the first place! :-)
READ...BETWEEN...THE...LINES.
It’s a handy skill for reading ANYTHING the MSM puts out. :-)
Isn’t that more or less what the teacher did to the kid but you are rabidly defending?
My prayers and condolences go out to you. :-)
Seriously, though, there’s a lot of good teachers ‘in the trenches’ there—hang in there! You are making a difference to a lot of lives, even though it might not seem that way!!
We’re dealing with a situation with my son. The school closed their computer lab with only an announcement over their PA system. My son didn’t hear the announcement. The school did not post the closure online on the school website. The school did not send a flyer home. They just closed it and made an announcement.
He had to take a computer test after school for an end of the 6 weeks grade. He was shocked when he stayed after school and the computer lab was closed. (He had tried staying after school earlier in the week, but I couldn’t pick him up late on those days because of appointments with my daughters.)
The next day, he asked his teacher what he should do. He suggested writing reports and e-mailing them to her that afternoon. She said no. (We found out later, she let another kid do this.)
We’ve been complaining about this to the teacher.
When we met with the teacher, she was very atagonistic about my son. She kept on saying he “procrastinated” until the last minute. She made him out to be a horrible kid.
My 12 year old 7th grader son has the 2nd highest grade in high school Algebra I math. He has 98% in science, and another A + in social studies. His lowest grade is in PE because he’s not athletic.
I have been so mad at the teacher and principal of his school. There has been no working with them. There have been no compromises. It’s their way or the highway.
What also irriatates me the most is that they keep on saying that they hope that my son uses this as a learning experience. We’ve told my son that the school does not know how to communicate well. That you should never just rely on a PA system to communicate things.
He’s also learned to never rely on the school for providing materials needed to do school work.
He’s also learned that his parents back him up, and appreciate his hard work and dedication.
I could go on and on about what he’s learned from this experience.
I can't 'condemn' her to not having children. I said she shouldn't have any children. It's obvious she hasn't the slightest idea how to handle discipline.
You are correct. I’d rather give kids awards that actually inspire and build them up.
I think the misunderstanding comes from the phrase, and not the intention. To me, they might have been referring to him not being able to sit still long enough or have a long enough attention span to ever get married or hold a job or whatever. You read it as an attack on his reproductive system. YMMV.
My son had a teacher who used to give him “C’s” in writing-not handwriting but Writing...She said his sentences were not expressive enough. IN FIRST GRADE, my goodness the child just got out of Kingergarten, cut him some slack. She also would send me notes stating he daydreamed. I finally went up to the school and told her not to send me anymore notes like that. He is a well behaved, intelligent honor student. I was gonna cut that chick.
Yeah, they alomost alwys have a class clown, but, what's with that other one?
I don’t think that anyone wants the boy to get anything.
However, they also don’t want poor teachers to keep on humiliating kids.
Sometimes parents have to stand up for what’s right.
Why yes I did write that! The child is not sticking up for himself. The parents are making a big deal out of the situation. Again, read the quote I referenced in my original post.
The child can fight back. He can work hard, stop being a goofball in school, and earn the respect of his peers and teachers.
I'm not sure where you got the parents contacting the press but if true that is contemptible.
The media doesn't send people door to door looking for stories to report. Who else would have notified them?
IF she did, then what good did this 'parting shot' do for the kid? Nothing. It was immature behavior designed only to hurt the child.
The teachers bear responsibility here, but SO DOES THE KID AND HIS PARENTS.
I don't disagree with that, but the sole reason this child's behavior is being discussed at all is because the teachers couldn't resist acting like misbehaving children themselves.
And sometimes by treating them that way makes them more prone to it.
The kid is 10.
Again, not condoning the award, BUT playing the devil’s advocate from my own experiences...(see post #44)—we don’t know what this teacher/s went through this past school year. I can tell you I had some students in the past who belonged in juvie who sat in my classroom with their feet up on the desk, blowing spitwads on other kids, causing general disruptions, who NEVER turned in a single assignment—yet, because they were considered “ESL” students I was required by law and district policy to pass them with a grade of 70—unless you’ve actually been in a classroom yourself, teaching a classful of kids who don’t want to be there, and you’ve got to play policeman/counselor/mediator/judge before you EVER get to the teaching part—I honestly think you shouldn’t condemn the teacher/s until you have all the facts. If it turns out this kid was a model student and the teachers were crazy whacky moonbatty liberals who got upset at him because he said he like President Bush and thought we were right for being in Iraq and they decided to get revenge on him by giving him this award—yes. Condemn them. But if the teacher/s were pulling their hair out day after day after day because of his behavior—no. Give them the benefit of the doubt before you condemn their behavior. They certainly shouldn’t be drawn and quartered in public like the Duke boys until all the facts are known. IMO.
” The school closed their computer lab with only an announcement over their PA system. My son didn’t hear the announcement. The school did not post the closure online on the school website. The school did not send a flyer home. They just closed it and made an announcement.”
Why would the school send a flyer home to announce they closed the computer lab? It’s pretty unremarkable, requiring only a PA announcement.
Truly, your son WILL pay better attention in the future. Don’t you consider that a valuable lesson?
Really? See, to me that's EXACTLY what you said when you said this in post 12.
I've got no sympathy for the kid or the parents. Good behavior=good consequences. Bad behavior=bad consequences. Pretty simple.
Again, my point, let's hear ALL sides of the story, not just the part the MSM *wants* us to hear.
What? Why do you want to hear the "All sides" since you already said you "have no sympathy for the parents or the kids." NOW you want to hear all sides?
And you might want to slow up with the righteous indignation until you've put a couple of kids through high school and college, teacher or not.
My son had a teacher who told me that she thought he was cheating on his spelling tests because he always got 100% on them. He also daydreamed in class.
I knew he wasn’t cheating because I always gave him a spelling pretest the night before and he would get 100% with me.
The next year, he didn’t go back to that school.
We found out my son is just gifted. He was bored to tears in her class.
After seeing cases like this get awards in the millions of $$$$ for incidents like this (that we taxpayers footed the bill for) I’m a bit jaded, unfortunately. Hopefully you are right and the parents will settle for the apologies, written and spoken, and will move on. I’ve just got a gut feeling that it won’t end here, though. This is how Judge Expensive Pants started out! And look at what a mess that is now. Oy.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.