Posted on 06/14/2007 8:18:08 AM PDT by TornadoAlley3
INDIANAPOLIS -- Sixth-grader Matt Porter didn't enjoy getting "Most Likely Not To Have Children" and "Sir Clowns-a-Lot" awards from two teachers at his school.
His parents aren't pleased, either.
Matt said he received the awards in front of classmates during a ceremony at the Decatur Intermediate Learning Center at the end of the recently finished school year. His mother and his stepfather have asked the Decatur Township school system to reprimand the teachers, and they want an apology.
"Words cut deeper than any knife could. They hurt," said his stepfather, Joseph Sims. "When you hurt a child like that, you not only hurt him mentally, but it does hurt physically because you withdraw within yourself. That is what Matthew has done."
The certificates were signed by the teachers who distributed them. Matt recalled what the ceremony was like.
"I was standing in the middle of (the two teachers), and they (were) reading them off," he said. "Everyone was laughing."
Matt felt humiliated.
"They (were) putting us down and everything," he said. "That is not what their job is for, to put kids down. They are supposed to teach us."
Amy Sims, Matt's mother, said she met with a school official over the matter but was not satisfied with the response.
"She just told me that the teachers would call and apologize to him, and we've not heard anything at all," Amy Sims said.
Gary Pellico, spokesman for the school system, declined to say whether the teachers have been disciplined. He said system officials regret the incident.
"We don't feel like it was an appropriate awards ceremony at all," Pellico said. "It wasn't part of the school's award ceremony, and it will not happen again."
Amy Sims said her son needs counseling because of the awards. The school has offered it, but an agreement on who will provide it has not been reached, Thomas reported.
I thought of another one. “Teacher Most Likely to Have an Affair With a Student”
No insult meant by righteous indignation. And I stand up for teachers too, where warranted. You stand by your posts and I’ll stand by mine.
I have no teaching credentials, but you’ve not raised children through beyond first grade. Let’s talk after you’ve been to a dozen or so of these “awards ceremonies”.
Interesting reading all of your takes on this story. As a family therapist, I have a different take on the probable cause here. I would bet that jr came home, mom and dad asked about his day and he told them about the “awards”. Mom and/or dad got pi$$ed and jr didnt dare tell them he was fine cuz he didnt want to disagree with them.
Nonetheless, I am concerned about the “least likely to have kids” award. I would like to know what jr thought it meant b/4 I passed judgement.
And to make matters worse, It had a sissy bar.
“I know that I always have him repeat things that I tell him to do to make sure he hears me.”
Oh yeah.
I had my parents thinking I was completely deaf from ages 12 to about 23.
;)
Seriously though, it’s a lot to ask of the school to make a routine annoucement in several different forms. A note home to parents that the lab would be closed after school?? Not going to happen.
As a teacher who taught in an inner city school, believe me, I’ve helped ‘raise’ a kid or two whose parents were too busy to take care of them. :-( Sad experiences all.
Like I wrote before, having experience with kids from newborns to 8th grade, been there, done that.
“And to make matters worse, It had a sissy bar.”
That’s still no reason to get all Huffy about an award.
Good point.
There must be something prompting these “stress relievers”!
My guess is he came home and was genuinely upset and that the reference to not having kids was possibly a gay reference. The latter would be bad--especially since teachers are so "tolerant."
I used to be so on the side of teachers until my kids started going to school.
The lack of education given my daughter has really been amazing. My other 2 kids are gifted, and they can easily pick up things.
However, my one daughter has brain damage. Everything is hard work for her. What has amazed me is that when I would tell the schools that she had a problem, they ignored me.
I remember telling them over and over that it seemed like she had a hearing problem because we were always repeating things to her. Her hearing was tested by an audiologist, and we knew that she could hear, but something else was going on.
She also has speech problems, and I told them that she had a hard time finding the words to say to things I knew she could pronounce. They ignored me on that.
In 3rd grade, I finally asked for an independent evaluation. We found out my daughter has horrible auditory memory. She can’t remember things you tell her. She was 9 years old by the time we figured this out. The schools had the tests for this, but they never tested her.
Then we found out that she has word finding problems (like a stroke victim).
Even after we found out these problems, the schools didn’t want to remediate the problems.
For 4th grade, we placed her in private school with a reading tutor, and private speech therapy. She’s making good progress now. When I bring up a problem, everyone now tries to figure out how to help her. Even if they can’t, they suggest who I should take her to.
“Seriously though, it’s a lot to ask of the school to make a routine annoucement in several different forms. A note home to parents that the lab would be closed after school?? Not going to happen.”
The schools in Dallas would send home announcements IN EVERY LANGUAGE spoken by students in that school—a one page announcement was literally 1/2 inch thick!! I can’t even imagine the paper budget and wasted time that went into such things, with so many announcements to be made. Crazy.
My daughter’s school has a daily work folder for teacher/parent communications, and a weekly school folder with a school ‘newspaper’ announcing various activities, etc. that the parents should know about. Seems to work pretty well.
But what will my husband say?? ;-)
He’s from India, and quite the jealous type.
You're absolutely right, because we all now that when there is a PA announcement all of the kids in school immediately clam up and pay attention.
Gimme a break.
Any school relying on PAs alone to convey that kind of information is asking for trouble.
Ha, ha! I’ve gotta’ go!
Happy Freeping!
I wasn’t Huffy until I noticed that someone stole the David Cassidy bubble gum card AND the closepin from the spokes.
“There must be something prompting these “stress relievers”!”
Yeah, and we’re not in the best situation to judge it, with the information provided.
My guess... the class clown kid teased the girls all the time.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.