Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Interesting story out of Texas...

Given the school battles I have seen discussed here, I could see how this could happen...

http://www.texasmonthly.com/daily-p...-who-was-suspended-refusing-shake-school

WOW.. That is completely ridiculous. I hope the parents have the ability to move that kid out of the district or to a private school. A ten day suspension at the beginning of the year that keeps him out of the honors classes for not shaking his hand? Sounds like that principal has an AX to grind, and that there is history here. If it's really between the principal and the parents like it's implied here, why are they taking it out on the kid. What crazy judge upholds this decision.

Looks like a big power trip on the part of the school administration. They were fed up with the family (the parents probably had to advocate all the time to get the kid's needs met) and the school looked for any chance at retaliation. So now the kid doesn't get to take honors courses even though he was valedictorian? Good grief.

In a town of just 652 people, which the article mentions - this does sound like it is more of a personal issue between the family and the specific members of the school. Without being involved in either side of the story, with its slant towards the family, it does sound more like a power struggle with the school district and using the child in retaliation. However, as I mentioned, we don't know what is going on with the parents and the school district and as with all news story, there is always going to be a bias one way or another.

One thing I would say - even if/when my parents had a dispute with the school or teachers (and I had IEPs from kindergarden to when I graduated high school), there was one thing they made VERY clear to me. Regardless of the issues with the school and their feelings, I was not to use that to disrespect an authority figure including the school administration. Even if I felt that a teacher was wrong or did not treat me well, it did not excuse me to behave poorly against that teacher - they made that very clear to me and I got punished when I did act out against a teacher, even though they agreed that the teacher was not completely right either - they took care of that issue separately.

I guess this brings up a question as to why our society has a big hag up on 'disrespect an authority figure'. And what it means, this is a social minefield for me and I suspect my son. I personally believe that it is healthy for our society for us to question authority and dislike teaching kids that teahers/principals are alway right. Although I do admit there is a time and place.

When my son was in 6th grade and still in elementary he had a lot of problems with the playground rules. He thought a lot of them were stupid, and I kind of thought he had a point. (We are not talking about safety rules, but how games were to be played and such.) My son & I ended up having a discussion that he had to follow the rules and listen to the volunteer playground monitors. But he could take up his issues with the rules with his teacher and/or the principal at a different time.

Mom uses child to insult superintendent, superintendent punishes child to get back at parent. Adults are so childish.

ETA: I'm surprised the parents didn't successfully take the district to the mat over the issue of denying the honors courses to the valedictorian. An appropriate education is not a privilege.

It is one thing to question authority and to understand that there is no one person (teacher, coach, president, parent) who is infallible - and it is another to be insulting on a public stage.

I agree with dude that adults can be childish, and it is sad when they use a child as a pawn.

If my child were in this ceremony, I know that I would not appreciate a family using the graduation celebration of my child to express their personal issues like this. Just as I would be very angry if my high school or college graduation ceremonies were marred by people who use it as a platform for whatever ax they want to grind, instead of celebrating *everyone's* accomplishments that is being marked by the ceremony.

but... it should not be used to impact the child's education. He learns nothing from this, and it only shows excessive abuse of power by the school district.

What happened is that the authority figure grabbed the hand of a minor kid against the kid's will in a public place with witnesses. That constitutes assault. I would never be OK with a person my kid does not like forcing physical contact with him. How do these guys get the time to run schools if they spend so much time on writing letters to 8th graders and going to court over something that should not have happened. And, something is not right with that judge - this is the land of the free and if a kid refuses physical contact with someone, his rights should be upheld.

If it were my kid, I would be suing the Superintendent for physically assaulting and harassing and traumatizing my child. That would put the principal and the superintendent in their place.

It sounds like that was the reaction of the mom, and it didn't. The adults involved got a stern talking-to from the judge, but the punishments for the child still stand.

Why is it okay for an adult to deny contact with someone but not a child?