I'm at a loss. I don't know how to handle this situation and I need some "unbiased" (sp?) opinions.
As most of you might know, we are slowly weaning Nat off of her Dystonia meds. The doctor feels that it has gone into remission. Which is wonderful news. He said that it may come back, it may stay in remission forever. Anyway... she has been doing wonderfully and has been managing her stress quite well. (In case I hadn't mentioned it before, Dystonia is not caused from stress. Stress can "irritate" the symptoms.) Well, I got a call from the nurse today. Trust me, I was hoping for her to tell me she had a stomach ache or somthing along those lines. But no... Nat supposedly got into trouble this morning and was stressed the "f" out! The nurse told me she was all locked up and what should she do. I said I wanted to talk to her. Nat told me that she was trying to get her stuff together before class and forgot her book in her locker. The teacher punished her (and 4-5 others) with 200 sentances. "I will always bring my materials to class each and every day".
Ok, here's the hard part for me...besides the fact that she's crying while she's telling me this and trying to say that she just forgot cause she was trying to get eveything else together before the bell rang. It's hard cause I know (#1) how she stresses about being late. BUT, on the flip side...was she chatting while doing this? Was there 5th grade drama happening in the hall? She says "no", but what else is she supposed to say. It's also hard (#2) to know the whole story. Nat's gonna tell me her side and the teacher's gonna tell her side... (haven't gotten to talk to the teacher yet). I want to OF COURSE side with Nat, but I also have to be an adult and realize that I don't know all the details.
But the one thing I do know is that Nat will now stress all day about these sentances and will stress the whole time she does these sentances. AND her arm will physically stress from all the writing. UGH! I told her that just cause her arm acts up isn't a reason to get out of trouble. But in my mind I thinking the punishment is a bit much!! I do not want her to get special treatment, but on the other hand...she needs to be addressed with a little different approach. When you have a child who stresses easily and you know that this stress can cause her Dystonia to act up... there's got to be a different way to handle this.
Grrr... I'm just so tore up over this! I don't want to be one of "those Moms" who thinks their child does no wrong. But... Thoughts?
I'll hopefully talk to the teacher today, if not..I'll have to wait till her conference period tomorrow.
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4 comments:
Poor thing -- the teacher ought to realize how good of a student Nat is and that she normally doesn't do that -- not only that she has medical problems that will make her lock up if she stresses out! Tell her not to worry that teachers just don't understand that she is only a kid and we all make mistakes -- like the teacher hasn't forgotten something before!!!
I think you should kick the teacher's ass!! You should hear what the bitch says about you behind your back, and that thing she said about your momma, um um um um um, shameful. It's an outright disgrace. She has it coming, I swear.
No H Cheryl, just plain old ADD, at least we get to skip the hyperactive part. Would that change anything?
Jim
wow, that is a tough one to figure out what to do. I am with you. I always want to side with my children, but then I have to stop and think.. Umm Yeah Kelsey WOULD do this, or that... If Nat being late for class is a regular thing, and she continues to make up excuses.. Yes I could see some punishment from the teacher to make her realize that she can't continue to do this. However, if this seldom happens with Nat, then No, the punishment was indeed to harsh!
As for the punishment she did receive. I think having to write 200 sentences is a bit much, giving the Dystonia. I would indeed talk to her teacher and tell her that Nat needs a different form of punishment if she sees fit to still punish her.
I hope this all gets worked out!!
Love ya.
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