Sorry. Very long. All I want to do is get my kid through another 2.5 months to graduate.
So, a few weeks ago I told y'all about my son having the assignment (for eng/lit) of the privilege walk and then the students having to email the teacher their thoughts. (That was the assignment) Max's email respectfully told her the assignment was worthless, divisive, racist bullshit.
So, since then, it's become obvious the 6 students who responded the same have been actively discriminated against. And I'm talking not allowed to turn in assignments/presentations and being given '0' for said assignments she's not allowing them to turn in. They're all white boys. (Her daughter is transitioning, for context) Kept my mouth shut while helping my son handle this for himself (with definite plans to really make my opinion clear in the not so distant future in a way that really can't be ignored. Scholarship money talks until bullshit is allowed to walk.)
And then...Max had a dentist appt last week. I was with him. (It's a consult to have his wisdom teeth removed). While sitting in the dentist office, his phone starts blowing up. Dude, where are you? A is telling everybody you're skipping and she knows when you're skipping because you show up in the afternoon so you can play AND she says you better have a note in hand or she's failing you. An entire class period of this crap.
Yeah. 1st. Max has never skipped. He doesn't have to. If he really isn't feeling it for whatever reason, I call him out. (It's been a whopping 2 whole days and one morning this year).2nd: I schedule his appts as close to lunch as possible (per his request) and it's always been known since elementary school. They get an hour for lunch, minimum missed class time. Perfect. 3rd: how fucking dare a teacher rant to the entire class FOR THE ENTIRE CLASS TIME, that she knows Max is skipping AND requiring a note (when it's already excused).
*Can't wait to see if she freaks out when Max misses 3 days immediately after Spring Break to go the Masters. She had no problem when his sisters did the same. I'll just tell her he was on a culturally significant field trip. He'll write up his paper on his experience and observations.
*
So, Max got his note and waited at her classroom for 30 minutes(same day) ...and she didn't show up to class. Hmm...(She's known for not showing up the past couple of years)
Meanwhile, I'm now beyond pissed and call the principal. It's rare I directly intervene. So when I do, they tend to pay very close attention. Everybody has to learn to deal with assholes in life. Might as well learn young, right? But blatantly unfair and discriminating and false accusations are something else. Nobody should tolerate that. And there's a long history of Max being targeted for certain agendas. Anyway... I refrained from calling his personal phone (all of our kids are close friends, which means we are 'friends'. I mean, if your kid has beer in my fridge and knows the code to get into the garage to get the beer...yeah. We're friends ) because I wanted this taken very seriously.
Let's just say the principal was less than thrilled with what I was telling him what was going on. He obviously followed through on 'taking care of this' because as of Monday, this teacher is back to the the person I've known for 12 years (she had my daughters in class over the years and they loved her) It might have also had something to do with Max handing her his note the next day in front of the entire class. She asked 'why are you giving me this? It should go to attendance.' He told her she's the one who demanded it, even though his absence was already excused. Apparently, she knew she went way beyond the line. According to Max and his friends, she went death pale and didn't say a single word the rest of class. 2 days later, her attitude had completely flipped. (Pretty sure she got the talking to the next morning ).
So that leads us to today. (This a a story about a good, thoughtful teacher) Max is taking comparative religions. Not an easy class. Not an easy class to teach. But it's a great course. I know his teacher (I've known her since she was 13 years old). Today, the speaker was a humanity unitarian pastor. Let's just say, when she explained they are all inclusive and even see the good in Hitler (I'm not kidding or making this up) it got a little tense in class...even more so since one of Max's crew is Jewish and sitting in said class. She then went on to say they accept and love everyone from gay to trand and everything in between. And that anybody who does not affirm is not welcome. So, a couple of kids were wearing her out and Max quietly raises his hand. She calls on him and he asks, 'so you accept everybody except those who disagree with you. Not exactly inclusive of all humanity is it?'. Dead silence. He then gets up and walks out of the class.
His teacher follows him out and is pissed. Just starts to lay into him. He stops her and asks if she would rather he sit there and be really 'disrespectful' (honest) to a woman who couldn't be respectful or honest and praised Hitler in front of his Jewish friend or would she rather he excuse himself from class after one question that shut her down? If she wanted him to go back in, he wouldn't hold back.
The teacher recognized where he was coming from. No problem. Apologized and excused him. And the legit nazi admirer who is the first to label my son and his friends as nazi will not be back. At least not for that particular lesson.