This is a 12 year old girl. You are going to put her on equal footing with a teacher? Isn’t it more likely that she insulted her teacher because he enforced discipline in his class or made her follow instructions? Or do you think that children don’t need guidance from teachers and that they should approach each other as equals?
Or alternatively, 12 year olds are going to bitch about their teachers sometimes no matter how excellent the teacher, in which case it’s also not something to get anyone’s panties in a bunch, never mind invading the privacy of a kid without so much as notifying her parents.
As for defamation, opining that a certain teacher is a big jerky jerkface or even a big fucky fuckface isn’t actionable. Saying that a certain teacher is a raging goatfelcher might be more questionable, but really unless a student says something falsifiable that isn’t obvious hyperbole, defamation isn’t an issue.
Honestly I think the issue is that school administrators get a little drunk on authoritarianism sometimes, and can’t stand having their noses tweaked in public.
However your rights as a parent are orders of magnitude more powerful than the schools. Our constitutional rights protect us from the state, not from our parents. The school is an arm of the state.
I have little problem with a variety of other school issues that irk some others like having drug dogs check the lockers.
Speaking as someone who has worked with high school students for about 8 years now, I will agree that every once in a while, there will be a kid who will act like a douchebag because they aren’t used to having rules actually apply to them. You get a couple of those a year and it’s possible this girl is that kid.
That said, the vast majority of complaints about teachers coming from students are perfectly understandable in their origin. I can’t tell you how horrifyingly often I hear about teachers outright calling kids stupid, saying the kids have no opportunity in life, telling inappropriate stories, etc. And this isn’t just second hand from kids— I hear teachers openly say this shit all the time, sometimes to students.
Now, I’m not saying ALL teachers are like that-- far from it. My point is that there are enough douche apples that it’s entirely possible that this girl’s teacher might actually be an asshole. Without knowing the whole story, I’m going to say I give equal weight to both sides, given my experience.
Have you ever *met *an actual 12 yo? Have you ever *been *an actual 12 yo?
Virtually all 12yos use profanity, bitch about their teachers, and investigate their sexuality amongst their peers. They always have done and they always will do.
The idea that a 12yo who uses profanity, complains about teachers and discusses sexuality amongst their peers, in private is somehow abnormal and “problematic” is just bizarre.
The courts disagree with you.