Monday, January 14, 2008

Spanky Update

A couple of days ago I posted about Spanky getting in trouble at school. He's been sweating bullets ever since. After torturing the kid for almost a week, the school finally called me today. It was all I could do to remain calm during the conversation with the woman who called me.

Apparently, several 13-year-old boys were doing what 13-year-old boys do: they were talking when they were told specifically not to talk. Okay, I'm fine with that. I'm even 100% fine with punishing them for their crime. However, I think the school may have gone just a bit overboard.

There are 5 possible punishments when you receive a referral. They are:
1. Lunch detention
2. After school detention
3. Saturday school
4. In school suspension
5. Out of school suspension

I knew there was no way they'd go nutso and suspend the boys, so I figured I'd flow with whatever punishment was doled out. Then the office clerk called me. She made the crime sound very serious. She even sounded a little disappointed when I told her that Spanky had confessed the entire thing to us last week. I think she was hoping to get him in trouble.

Then she said, "Since I don't know who did what, I'm punishing them all the same. I didn't want to give them ISS (in school suspension), so I'm giving them all Saturday school. This Saturday."

Okay, the kid broke the rules. He talked when he wasn't supposed to. But Saturday school? For that?! Seriously, aren't there more serious things happening in school that deserve that punishment? What do they do when they catch someone doing something BAD? I mean, this was his first infraction, and not all that serious, by the way, and they act like he committed a cardinal sin.

I promptly informed the office clerk that he would NOT be serving Saturday school this weekend, as he is going out of town with his church youth group. I did agree to have him serve the next time they have it, which is in 2 weeks. I figure maybe he'll learn his lesson and we can prevent this scenario from repeating itself.

Meanwhile, I tell SuperHubby about it and he wants to know if we can appeal the ruling. This is only humorous if you know us, since I'm usually the one arguing for the boy and SH is usually the one saying "MORE PUNISHMENT!!"

Spanky's biggest complaint wasn't Saturday school...it was that they ALSO said he dared another kid to bite his finger. And so ends another dramatic evening in the Spankster's life.

4 comments:

bekster said...

One time I got a detention for talking because the boy sitting next to me wouldn't shut up, and I couldn't just keep ignoring him. The teacher admitted that I was only talking because of sitting next to the boy (because she had seen him continue to talk to me over several weeks), but she did NOT seem to remember the fact that she ASSIGNED our seats. If I could have, I would have saved myself by sitting somewhere else, but that was not an option.

What lesson did I learn from this experience? "Don't talk while the teacher is talking?" No. More like "life just isn't fair" and "some people are just idiots." (Also, "sometimes it's worth a detention to talk to the cute boy.") :)

super Hubby said...

and why did I want to appeal it you ask? Does he deserve getting in trouble for running his mouth? your darn skippy he does! Let's take a poll, shall we? ok all you guys out in Lori blogland, between the "Queen" and myself who do you think is going to have to get up at a quarter till dawn to get spankster to his detention?

Super Rog said...

Hey, he's already made it to The Breakfast Club
Don't you, forget about me...don't you, forget about me

Lori Fitzgerald said...

It is interesting that SH puts it out there that he'll be taking Spanky to Saturday school...and implying that I won't because I'll still be snuggly warm in bed. Let's ask SH who gets up at the crack of dawn and who only gets up early if he's running that morning.

Don't get me wrong. I'm sure SH will be delivering the boy to Saturday school. I'm up, but I don't get dressed unless I have to go somewhere.

I just want it on the record that most Saturdays I'm the first one up, doing laundry and figuring out a way to not make noise so the rest of my wonderful family can sleep in.