Simple solution, if he leaves the answer blank, count it wrong. No further action needed.
"Why is it ok for kid to refuse to to do his work??? Again he just deserved a bad grade but should every kid get to deside if he/she likes the questions enough to answer?"
So browbeating and humiliation is the answer?
What's wrong with simply marking the question wrong?
Screw the principle, screw the teacher. Mark it wrong and get on with life. Don't make a mountain out of a molehill.
If you don't know the answer to an unaswerable question do you lie about it? The kid left a test answer blank that's it. The moron in authority who yelled at and suspended the kid for five days over it deserves the criticisim here, not a nine year-old.
government educators do not know how to teach grammar-aged students how to write... a kid cannot put onto paper what is not in his head... he didn't deserve a bad grade because he left that one section blank... not if he did well on the rest of the test... all they needed to do was give him "no credit" for the blank section...
Since when does not answering a question (which wasn't even a question) cause a suspension? Things are not filled in all the time on all tests.
And your attack on this kid is beyond the pale.
He was probably raised, correctly, so that, "if you can't say something nice about a person, don't say anything at all."
And seriously, given what transpired, what do you think would have happened to him had he actually written a blurb about the principal being a "witch"? The principal has already demonstrated beyond all doubt being possessed of skin too thin.
CA....
This is a test that students must pass in the 10th grade to graduate. It is the means of assessing students, and in turn, schools' progress and effectiveness.
If the kid writes nothing he can't get the answer right, as the scores on the written portions are pass/fail.
Kid fails=school looks bad. That's why the schoo was ticked that he wouldn't answer it.
I agree the kid should have just answered the dang question and the mom should later explain that not all adults are smart. My dad told me once to do what the teachers told me too and then come home and let him deal with the stupidity later.
When my 4th grade teacher wouldn't let me go to the bathroom I wet my pants. We had a slight modification to that rule after he had to leave work to bring me new clothes.
Here's a better question: Why were the teacher and principal interfering with a standardized test?