Went to help out in Gia's class. Before hand I was dropping by Cath's class to give her lunch money. I walked in and the teacher was talking to a few kids in front and Cath's desk is right in the door. She had her head on her desk. I must've had a startled look on my face because all the girls at her table looked at me and said sympathetically "She's tired!"

Cath's head popped up and she said "MOMMY!"

Ok, so after all that mouth she's still calls me MOMMY.

She was tired too. Probably why she slept in this morning.

Helped out in Gia's class. The kids have a "keyboarding" program that's really cool. All the kids type really fast.

I went into Cath's class afterwards to say bye to her and ended up having a conversation with Mrs. O about the whole thing with the girl that's being really destructive. Apparently parent/teacher conferences were really bad with some of the parents. This girl had badmouthed the teacher to a bunch of soccer moms and before getting another side of the story, a few of the parents came into conferences and jumped down her throat, one father even saying that he'd had a teacher fired before and could do it again. I was afraid that sort of thing was going to happen.

Why are some parents total dumbasses? I mean, c'mon. I know full well how kids operate and though you want to believe your kid, you also want to hear what the teacher has to say before you start threatening her with causing problems.

You just have no idea how destructive this kid is and what effect she has on the other kids. I had written a note to the teacher to find out if Cath was hanging out with this girl because Cath was just not herself for a few weeks. This week Cath is her old self, still mouthy, but Cath. The teacher told me that she's been getting about a letter a week from different parents asking if their kids are hanging out with this girl because their kids are just totally "off." The kids are making a choice, sure. But I just don't know how to explain how incredibly persuasive this girl is. And she's dragging in kid after kid in this smear campaign against this teacher. Peer pressure starts.

Like I said, Lee and I were so disturbed by some of her behavior that we wrote a letter to the principal. I'm glad we did it because I had no idea the situation had escalted to the level it had.

You don't want to give up on kids, however I know at this time this girl has so many complex problems and there's nothing I can do for her right now. And I have to protect Cath. The teacher said she's never said this before, but she said she would advise at this time to not encourage Cath and this girl to be friends. I agreed and had already come to that conclusion. She said that this girl is meeting with the school therapist daily and the principal is totally backing the teacher and have made up a program for her.

Still though, I'm still thinking about the girl. I know her home life is not good. She's trying to survive the way she knows how.

***Just emailed the local Big Sisters program. This girl could sure use a mentor of some sort. I can't save the world and I realistically can't do anything to help her, but hey. I can email someone and see if she can get set up with something positive. Something.

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Tanya McBee Gunby | Create Your Badge