Student asking for a snow day snowballs into something bigger

[Drolefille]

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

Thats my point of contention Drole...the initial call.

regardless tho...his follow up by posting the message and phone number shows that he couldn't be responsible enough to handle adult biz on his own.

An ADULT would have saved the message and contacted the school board and LET THEM handle it...not pimping youtube...that part was childish.

Neither does "an adult" call a kid back and whine about snot nosed brats calling and using her answering machine in the way it was intended... to take a message. It wasn't even her call to return, yet she did. Adulthood is a fickle thing.

These days everything can and does end up on the internet. I'm not sure that it's "immature" anymore or if it's simply a sign of the times. In the past he would have told everyone else what she said and it would have been nothing more than a rumor, is this really so different?

[NappyBison]

SMH

Although this student was a little out of line for calling the principal's house, adults sometimes let their "seniority" go to their heads. There is a certain way you handle certain situations and Mrs. Tistadt didn't handle the situation in a mature way. She shouldn't have even wasted her sweet time responding to the student because that student, or any student for that matter, isn't on a need-to-know basis when it comes to matters which don't concern us [speaking from my point of view as a high school student]. Sometimes students need to stay in their place and let things play out as they may. It isn't a matter of First Amendment Rights, it's a matter of respect. I can't stand the way my generation is, as soon as something is stated that "we" don't like "we" throw hissy fits and act like we've been wronged. At any rate, both child and adult were out of line and Mrs. Tistadt has ended up looking foolish for entertaining this students petty inquisitions.

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by Drolefille

Neither does "an adult" call a kid back and whine about snot nosed brats calling and using her answering machine in the way it was intended... to take a message. It wasn't even her call to return, yet she did. Adulthood is a fickle thing.

These days everything can and does end up on the internet. I'm not sure that it's "immature" anymore or if it's simply a sign of the times. In the past he would have told everyone else what she said and it would have been nothing more than a rumor, is this really so different?

well it isn't a rumor thats for sure...HAHAHA!!

Both of them should be spanked!!!

[nittanyalum]

Originally Posted by NappyBison

SMH

Although this student was a little out of line for calling the principal's house, adults sometimes let their "seniority" go to their heads. There is a certain way you handle certain situations and Mrs. Tistadt didn't handle the situation in a mature way. She shouldn't have even wasted her sweet time responding to the student because that student, or any student for that matter, isn't on a need-to-know basis when it comes to matters which don't concern us [speaking from my point of view as a high school student]. Sometimes students need to stay in their place and let things play out as they may. It isn't a matter of First Amendment Rights, it's a matter of respect. I can't stand the way my generation is, as soon as something is stated that "we" don't like "we" throw hissy fits and act like we've been wronged. At any rate, both child and adult were out of line and Mrs. Tistadt has ended up looking foolish for entertaining this students petty inquisitions.

You are, seriously, one of my new favorite people, NB.

[Senusret I]

Originally Posted by alum

I don't think it was so much Kori's phone call as all the other Lake Braddock students calling as well.

Mrs. Tistadt works in a very multicultural school with a high ESOL and FRL rate. She may be able to get away with that attitude with parents and kids from that school, but not at a school with LBSS demographics.

Wow. Just, wow.

[alum]

Originally Posted by Senusret I

Wow. Just, wow.

Let me clarify. From what I've seen as a parent and as a college administrator is that immigrant families and the families with fewer financial resources are more reluctant to fight with a school administrator than those families who have more resources or who are US-born citizens.

I believe that many immigrants at Eagle View ES would hesitate to confront Mrs. Tistadt if she was rude to their kids or to them. She would be able to get away with a certain amount of disrespect towards the students and their parents because there would be no complaints. Now if the immigrant family was at Haycock or any other McLean/Langley feeder (which I would infer would need a certain level of income to live in those pyramids), I think it would be a different story. The kids and their parents are treated with respect at these schools and those families have no hesitation complaining about anything whatsoever that doesn't go their way.


Mrs. Tistadt overstepped her bounds and at a minimum, needs to be put on administrative leave and to enroll in anger management classes.

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by alum

Let me clarify. From what I've seen as a parent and as a college administrator is that immigrant families and the families with fewer financial resources are more hesitant to fight with a school administrator than those families who have more resources or who are US-born citizens.

I believe that many immigrants at Eagle View ES would hesitate to confront Mrs. Tistadt if she was rude to their kids or to them. She would be able to get away with a certain amount of disrespect towards the students and their parents because there would be no complaints. Now if the immigrant family was at Haycock or any other McLean/Langley feeder (which I would infer would need a certain level of income to live in those pyramids), I think it would be a different story. The kids and their parents are treated with respect at these schools and those families have no hesitation complaining about anything whatsoever that doesn't go their way.


Mrs. Tistadt overstepped her bounds and at a minimum, needs to be put on administrative leave and to enroll in anger management classes.

Return Call rehab.

[BabyPiNK_FL]

Originally Posted by alum

Let me clarify. From what I've seen as a parent and as a college administrator is that immigrant families and the families with fewer financial resources are more reluctant to fight with a school administrator than those families who have more resources or who are US-born citizens.

I believe that many immigrants at Eagle View ES would hesitate to confront Mrs. Tistadt if she was rude to their kids or to them. She would be able to get away with a certain amount of disrespect towards the students and their parents because there would be no complaints. Now if the immigrant family was at Haycock or any other McLean/Langley feeder (which I would infer would need a certain level of income to live in those pyramids), I think it would be a different story. The kids and their parents are treated with respect at these schools and those families have no hesitation complaining about anything whatsoever that doesn't go their way.


Mrs. Tistadt overstepped her bounds and at a minimum, needs to be put on administrative leave and to enroll in anger management classes.

I feel bad for her. She's probably tired of people thinking they have the right to access her husband 24 hours a day 7 days a week. I see how it is for my mom as a teacher. Parents with failing kids are insisting that she stay after school to tutor them. WHY? The school already offers tutoring for all students and the parents never show any interest in their own kids. My mom has the 4 of us at home and after work is done she doesn't need to deal with their brats, they (as parents) do. People love to blame and harass others with their problems nowadays. That kid should have expressed his concern to his parent. They have the authority to let him stay home. Obviously they weren't and he should have just went to school instead of calling this poor woman in her home looking for her husband like he owes every Tom, Dick, and Harry something. Like she says in her rant, he does his job. Enough is enough. There are some boundaries that should just not be crossed. Her husband wasn't even at home. She doesn't need an anger management class, she needs for people to stop treating her husband like public property and more like a human being. It seems as if he doesn't have a lot of time to spend it with her.

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by BabyPiNK_FL

I feel bad for her. She's probably tired of people thinking they have the right to access her husband 24 hours a day 7 days a week. I see how it is for my mom as a teacher. Parents with failing kids are insisting that she stay after school to tutor them. WHY? The school already offers tutoring for all students and the parents never show any interest in their own kids. My mom has the 4 of us at home and after work is done she doesn't need to deal with their brats, they (as parents) do. People love to blame and harass others with their problems nowadays. That kid should have expressed his concern to his parent. They have the authority to let him stay home. Obviously they weren't and he should have just went to school instead of calling this poor woman in her home looking for her husband like he owes every Tom, Dick, and Harry something. Like she says in her rant, he does his job. Enough is enough. There are some boundaries that should just not be crossed. Her husband wasn't even at home. She doesn't need an anger management class, she needs for people to stop treating her husband like public property and more like a human being. It seems as if he doesn't have a lot of time to spend it with her.

I had a funny and simple thought this morning how she could have handled it better.

Instead of addressing him...why didn't she call and speak to his parents directly?

When you are dealing with kids you know they are prone to doing devious things...

[Munchkin03]

Originally Posted by alum

...families with fewer financial resources are more reluctant to fight with a school administrator than those families who have more resources or who are US-born citizens.

I believe that many immigrants at Eagle View ES would hesitate to confront Mrs. Tistadt if she was rude to their kids or to them. She would be able to get away with a certain amount of disrespect towards the students and their parents because there would be no complaints.

Sorry for cutting down your post, but I wanted to highlight this. I think that poorer or less-educated families, especially if they are New Americans, respect teachers' authority so much that they wouldn't even think of questioning a teacher's decision unless it was blaringly wrong. It's not even that the parents are reluctant to complain--it just wouldn't even come up.

Meanwhile, in an affluent school, the parents and students may see the teachers as just another service provider. Yeah, they're professionals--but so are the vast majority of the parents at the school. Just like how you'd voice your complaints about a bad plumbing job, upper middle-class American parents are more willing to complain about a teacher's actions.

FWIW, I think this woman is nutz.

[UGAalum94]

The woman was a jerk, and I think she acted badly.

But there's no way that I think she should be punished by the district. She wasn't acting as a school official at the time of the call; she was acting as the wife who took a phone call at home and was angry about it.

She didn't use any of the schools' time or resources and her call didn't reflect an action by the district or relaying official information from the district. Her call relayed the personal message of "get over yourself and quit calling here."

Now, again, I think she should have been smarter and I think it would be wise for her to apologize to the kid for the insulting language in the call.

But no way is punishing people for a lack of professionalism in the calls they take at home justified since there was nothing professional about the call in the first place.

If she acts this way at work, bust her for that, not for how she acts at home.

[nittanyalum]

I didn't think the wife's call was that bad. I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt that she was having a bad day and this kid who presumed to call her HOUSE to bug her husband about getting out of school just sent her over the edge at the moment. Lapse in judgment, but I didn't think she was that out of control. It's not like she left the kid a message full of profanities.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by alum

Let me clarify. From what I've seen as a parent and as a college administrator is that immigrant families and the families with fewer financial resources are more reluctant to fight with a school administrator than those families who have more resources or who are US-born citizens.

I believe that many immigrants at Eagle View ES would hesitate to confront Mrs. Tistadt if she was rude to their kids or to them. She would be able to get away with a certain amount of disrespect towards the students and their parents because there would be no complaints. Now if the immigrant family was at Haycock or any other McLean/Langley feeder (which I would infer would need a certain level of income to live in those pyramids), I think it would be a different story. The kids and their parents are treated with respect at these schools and those families have no hesitation complaining about anything whatsoever that doesn't go their way.


Mrs. Tistadt overstepped her bounds and at a minimum, needs to be put on administrative leave and to enroll in anger management classes.

Although I completely disagree with your conclusion to punish her, I'm afraid you are right about the standards school personnel are held to.

My opinion does differ about lower SES families a little; my experience in Georgia is that some of the very worst kids and parents about blowing up any perceived slight or disrespect (much less the kind of insults here) into a huge deal are the kids at the bottom of the SES ladder. On some level, it makes sense they'd be sensitive to disrespect in a culture that values material success so much, no doubt, but I see the greatest amount of "you can't make me do that; you can't tell me what to do; you can't talk to me that way" attitude from lower SES kids, even when what's been said or asked is really just standard protocol for the school and is handled politely. (For example, we're supposed to take up cell phones if we see the kids using them and turn them into the front office to be picked up by parents.)

The richer kids are more likely to superficially play the game and are more manipulative, in my experience.

But as far as school staff, richer schools often have a surplus of applicants and if you are a jerk to the kids or parents, they will run you off. At a harder to staff school, they might be more disposed to let more go. I think that's a sad reality.

[KSig RC]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

The woman was a jerk, and I think she acted badly.

But there's no way that I think she should be punished by the district. She wasn't acting as a school official at the time of the call; she was acting as the wife who took a phone call at home and was angry about it.

She didn't use any of the schools' time or resources and her call didn't reflect an action by the district or relaying official information from the district. Her call relayed the personal message of "get over yourself and quit calling here."

Now, again, I think she should have been smarter and I think it would be wise for her to apologize to the kid for the insulting language in the call.

But no way is punishing people for a lack of professionalism in the calls they take at home justified since there was nothing professional about the call in the first place.

If she acts this way at work, bust her for that, not for how she acts at home.

I disagree completely - if teachers want to be treated as professionals, they must act as professionals at all times. Attorneys are subject to discipline from their respective bar associations for "off-duty" actions, and many other professions have similar codes of conduct.

There is indeed something "professional" about the initial call - the kid was asking an (apparently) earnest question that was well within the job guidelines for the guy he called. The wife chose to make a scene, even though it was completely outside of her "authority" or responsibility.

[Drolefille]

Originally Posted by nittanyalum

I didn't think the wife's call was that bad. I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt that she was having a bad day and this kid who presumed to call her HOUSE to bug her husband about getting out of school just sent her over the edge at the moment. Lapse in judgment, but I didn't think she was that out of control. It's not like she left the kid a message full of profanities.

I just don't understand the "calling the kid back" bit. Rant and rave, delete the message if you must, but why call a kid back JUST to rail at him.

No it wasn't that bad, but it wasn't her business either

I'd get annoyed if my boyfriend called a coworker back if they had a job related question and left a message on my phone. It isn't his place.