AMBush
04-29-2008, 07:42 PM
My youngest daughter, Teaghan, came home and told me that her PE teacher got angry with the class because they were being too rowdy and noisy and she called them "retards". Teaghan was outraged. She believes this is an offensive thing to say, right up there with racial slurs. Besides Teaghan, one other girl in the class has a sibling with special needs, and one of the girls in class has autism.
I was horrified when she told me, and I called the 6th grade assistant principal and left her voice mail telling her just how inappropriate I found this to be, and not just as the mother of a child with special needs. She called me back an hour or so later and advised that she was unable to talk to the teacher involved but had talked to another coach, who indicated that the one in question had told the girls to "shut up" but that the "R" word was not used.
Well, I got off the phone with the assstant principal and told Teaghan what she had said. Teaghan was (again) outraged, saying that the coach the principal talked to hadn't been in the locker room when her coach used the "R" word. I told Teaghan that unfortunately, we were entering into a "students v teachers" situation, and -- unless the other 37 girls in the class are willing to speak up -- we had done all we could.
I don't think that the Assistant Principal put my voice on the phone together with me as Marijke's mom and Mrs Wilson's (the developmental teacher at the school) daughter. In any case, I'm peeved for two reasons now -- the coach's unbelievably poor judgement, and the assistant principal implying that my daughter lied to me.:mad:
I was horrified when she told me, and I called the 6th grade assistant principal and left her voice mail telling her just how inappropriate I found this to be, and not just as the mother of a child with special needs. She called me back an hour or so later and advised that she was unable to talk to the teacher involved but had talked to another coach, who indicated that the one in question had told the girls to "shut up" but that the "R" word was not used.
Well, I got off the phone with the assstant principal and told Teaghan what she had said. Teaghan was (again) outraged, saying that the coach the principal talked to hadn't been in the locker room when her coach used the "R" word. I told Teaghan that unfortunately, we were entering into a "students v teachers" situation, and -- unless the other 37 girls in the class are willing to speak up -- we had done all we could.
I don't think that the Assistant Principal put my voice on the phone together with me as Marijke's mom and Mrs Wilson's (the developmental teacher at the school) daughter. In any case, I'm peeved for two reasons now -- the coach's unbelievably poor judgement, and the assistant principal implying that my daughter lied to me.:mad: