90s46 Telling Information

(Since my journal entries make reference to real people I have changed the information enough to protect identities.)

Tuesday, October 19, 1999 – I met with an upset parent and the Superintendent last week and it went Ok. I think he got his pound of flesh and I hope we can move on. He has very little support from the rest of the parents and the PTA executive board doesn’t support him. He has been very mean to just about everyone. I will try to work with him but can’t let him run over us on every issue. A student has had a lot of difficulty this fall. He is very verbal with profanity and pulled the fire alarm once. He has also pulled down his pants a couple times. We are meeting with his parents today and hoping they will agree to send him to Circle School at Child Psych. That could really help him! We have another child who is very needy and crying out for attention. He is a first grader. He is very disruptive and has been in time out in the office many times. He is very disruptive here, too. We have sent him home twice and may have to do that more often. We met about him this morning and tried to come up with a plan. Hopefully we can help him, but I think he may end up in a BD classroom.

Friday, October 22, 1999 – The parents have agreed to send their child to Circle School at U of I Hospital. That is good news and should help him and us a great deal. It will be a new beginning and should make a big difference for him. We are excited about it. Still dealing with our difficult first grader. We are hoping to get some help from the AEA and he is going to Child Psych. on Monday for an evaluation. Kids like these two are really difficult for us to deal with. Often we really don’t know what to do and try everything we can think of without much success. We really need more supports in the schools for these kids and their teachers. Hopefully, that will happen. In the meantime I think it often has a negative effect on all the students and staff.

Friday, October 29, 1999 – Two students who used to be at Longfellow have been charged with assault and theft. They are fourth graders in another building and may be returning here. Their case is in the courts and I don‘t know what it will mean. A parent made some comments in a public meeting that have several of our staff members upset. He said he and his wife had spent an inordinate amount of time teaching his children’s teachers how to teach. That is pretty offensive! One staff member has already written him a letter about it. The parents have always thought that if we would just do the right things their child would be fine. Their parenting skills are very weak. Their idea of handling him is giving into him so he tantrums every time he doesn’t get his way. We have a behavior plan in place for our first grader who has major behavior problems. I hope we can help him.