You did the right thing, but I can understand that you feel some ambivalence about it.
I wonder how the kid would have reacted if you’d confronted him one-on-one and given him an opportunity to 'fess up and return the items quietly.
It’s been awhile since I was 9. I might have just dug in my heels and insisted the items were mine.
I just hate to think of a kid being branded as a thief, even if he is one.
LHoD, you absolutely did the right thing in reporting Emmett, even though it felt bad for you. If you hadn’t said anything, you might have been seen as complicit somehow, and you’d definitely have been enabling. Emmett will probably be pissed at first if he finds out it was you, but you can spin it like you were just doing your job, nothing personal, you still like him and want to help him.
Kids are surprisingly often much better than adults at separating the “professional” and the personal. I’ve had kids that I’ve had to fail with whom the mutual admiration and warm feelings remained untouched. In fact, he might respect you more for drawing and maintaining an appropriate boundary. Kids want adults to be consistent and set limits, and I find they appreciate you more in the long run when you make them tow the line.
It’s interesting that you say this because our late and unlamented former principal was pushing for a bookfair for years. The librarian refused to do it because she said it was just going to be a lot of overpriced junk. There were other issues too, and the whole thing got 86’d, so I guess the librarian was right as usual.
Do they really call it the “Christmas Store”? Is this a public school? We are totally not allowed to say the word “Christmas” as attached to anything related to a school activity (except the winter chorus concert songs, somehow). Hell, I was told not to put up a sign that said Happy Halloween.
Yes, she was. The bookfair is evil. One of the librarians in my district tried to get away with just putting the books out for sale and keeping the junk in the boxes in her office. The parents complained. :rolleyes:
You have to realize that I am in Arkansas, where the defining detail about your life is where (not if-it’s just automatically assumed that you do) you go to church. sigh A previous principal had us hold hands and pray at faculty meetings. We routinely send home notices about events for churches where some of our staff are members. They’re with you on the Halloween part, though. Can’t have any devil-worshiper stuff creeping into our schools. :dubious:
If I couldn’t laugh about the ridiculousness of it all, I would run amok with a machete in alphabetical order.
Sorry, forgot to answer this part. Yes, this is a public school in one of the largest districts in the state.
Maybe they were just happy that someone wanted a BOOK bad enough to steal it. The interesting thing about knowledge is that once you’ve stolen it, you can’t give it back.
I hope the school officials know and understand the full depth of Emmett’s disorder. It sounds like the teacher just found out about it. A kid with real problems – whose folks weren’t giving him prescribed meds may or may not deserve a break on the suspension given the circumstances.
All that isn’t to say you shouldn’t have turned him in – you did absolutely right. It is up to the school and parents (not in that order) to make sure this is a learning experience/turning point and not an embittering one for Emmett - their responsibility to make it positive not yours - to protect/teach/help Emmett
I have very fond memories of the book fair. At my elementary school (this would’ve been in the late 80s), they would set out all the books on tables and everybody got one free book. When your class was called, you got a couple minutes to see which books were available and pick a place to stand at the tables. When everyone was standing quietly, the teacher would blow a whistle and everybody grabbed for the book they wanted. I remember once I got in a tug-of-war over a Laura Ingalls Wilder book. (I won.)
That is pretty much word for word what I was going to post.
Although, even the suspension is a bit much, really. When I was at school, suspension was unheard of in primary (elementary) school. It was a thing reserved for the worst of the worst hairy-arsed, half-grown men in the final years of high school, usually because they’d brought drugs to school, or tried to blow something up, etc. For a child of nine, whatever happened to the old standby punishments comprising one, some, or all of:
Suspension? Charges? Those are adult punishments.
Maybe not flame, but — tut, tut!
On the other hand you have a point …
Suspension of a nine year old whose parents are too busy to pick up his medication? Um, what’s he going to do during that time of suspension? Sit in front of the television all day and watch Nickelodian or Cartoon Network? Sounds like a vacation to me…
If the parents are too busy to pick up the meds, what is the likelihood that they’ll be too busy to deal with his suspension, and he’ll sit at home by himself? (I’m assuming that they weren’t dealing with a major life altering event–like a family member in the final stages of cancer, or a new baby or something dramatic like that.)
Regardless of what lead up to the situation, it sucks for the kid in both the short term and in the long term.
BTW, LHOD, are you sure you reported it because it was your job, or because it was the right thing to do? Big difference, I’m thinking. (I would have reported the student.)
Yeah. What the hell were these parents thinking?!? Gee, little precious ran out of his meds last week, we’ve been meaning to pick up a refill, but in the meantime we’ll just send him to school…
That’s not what happened. The ass is all in your mind. Or vice versa.
well, if you have to use a mail-order pharmacy like I do, and if you happen to be a bit short on money one month, what with all the school supplies to buy, and if you are clumsy and spill a few pills down the drain one day…yeah, I can see how you might have a few days’ medication gap. Cut them some slack…stuff happens, you know?
I think we’re all being a little hasty in assuming that the parents are “too busy” to pick up a script. Most psych meds aren’t cheap, and not all of them are covered even if you have a drug plan. It sounds like Emmett’s prescription ran out before payday.
If you can, suggest to the parents that they work something out with his doctor. Many drug companies now offer some of their drugs at a lower price to people who can’t afford them. If nothing else, the doc may be able to get samples to cover any future gaps.
Robin
Sorry, but why should that be my kid’s problem? If Emmett hurts another child because of a lack of impulse control, is that supposed to be just a standard risk of sending my kid to school? No, thank you.
If I am supposed to keep a child home with a fever, then those parents had better damn sure keep a kid home with a lack of psych meds!
From what I can tell, Emmett’s parents are not going to win any awards for their parenting style any time soon. As someone in the classroom, there’s nothing I can do about that; just like I can do anything about the poor kid whose mom kept her out of school all last week because mom didn’t feel like driving her to school, and then claimed the girl had been sick.
I think that charges aren’t going to be pressed, which is good.
Daniel