The Brotherhood!

I've had a bit of a rough week at school on both the student front and the parent front. First, I had a student who made a highlighter drawing/writing instead of doing his work where he wrote about being "obsessed" with suicide. I had to get guidance and parents involved with that one. Second, I had a parent, who I've known for several years and have had two of his children in class, really cause some grief for me. The parent called me on the phone after I had tried to get in touch because his son was having some behavioral issues in school that needed to be resolved. The kid has some anger issues and is defiant about seemingly simple things. Kind of passive-aggressive defiant I suppose. Anyway, Dad called me and went on and on about how teachers aren't doing what they need to do to get his son to participate. He claims that when he asks questions about how teachers are teaching, that he gets ignored and that the teachers are like a brotherhood and always say everyone is doing everything they can when they actually aren't. It felt so conspiracy-theoryesque. He said that when he asks questions like that, that we target and BULLY his son. Mind you, he sent me a really, really, long e-mail which I spent 45 minutes responding to addressing his concerns. It's hard to be patient and empathetic when parents don't hold their kids responsible for their actions. If your child is not following directions, and has to be asked multiple times to, for example, take out a pencil, or open his notebook, that is not a failure of teachers employing effective strategies. Finger pointing is not going to help this kid get his act together.