Surrogate Parents, Ward of the Professionals

Teacher parent meetings are not all that unusual and in a program for kids who are a bit rough around the edges, these meetings occur a little more frequently than "normal".

Usually these meetings are precipitated by some random act or behaviour that is completely unacceptable in a school setting and the school, out of obligation, must make the attempt to involve the parent(s) in the solution.

In this particular case the student had lost their licence due to at least one DUI that we knew about. Rumour had it that two accidents and one vehicle theft had also contributed to the licence revocation.

Needless to say when said student was transporting a number of other students to the local Micky D’s for lunch we just had to blow the whistle. A quick call to the local police garnered a traffic stop, which resulted in this student receiving a number of fines and a formal invite to a court appearance at a later date.

Not 24 hours later we receive a call from the parents of this child requesting a meeting about the incident. Not wanting to pass up the opportunity to meet with parents we happily accepted.

Most parents arrive at these meeting sheepish and apologetic, eager to make amends for their children’s behaviour. This was not one of those occasions.

“We thought you were suppose to work in the best interests of our son”

“How could you call the police on our son?”

Our explanation about how the safety and wellbeing of the students under our supervision is of paramount importance and that their son’s actions was a threat to the safety and wellbeing of himself and four other children fell on deaf ears.

After almost an hour of hashing out the finer points of what the responsibilities of teachers are, the father sums up where he and his wife are coming from.

"We have left the raising of our child up to the professionals and you have sorely disappointed us”