Could School Get Any Worse?

Eighth grade was pure disaster. I knew we had to do something. I had a good friend who felt inspired to bring me a book on ADHD in Teenagers and legal ways to get schools to cope with and help these children. We went to the principal, ready to make changes. However, the school could never get all the teachers together or the teachers were there without a counselor, there were hundreds of excuses. We talked with the school board and they assured us this was possible, but we did have to meet with this entire board of people and we felt they were giving us the runaround. We tried getting to the teachers individually, however, without the proper meetings, they said they couldn’t adjust the requirements or even the consequences of late work, tardiness, amount of work, etc. The vice principal seemed to almost enjoy our frustration. Almost daily, I got a phone call from him that Todd had been tardy or caused a disruption or skipped school. The school had labeled him a 'bad' kid and nothing we could do would change that. The cherry on top was when Todd was called in by the vice principal for a really disruptive event that involved being crude to another person. We would not stand for that, but thus far, that was totally out of character for Todd. Well, sure enough, it wasn’t Todd, but he had already been dragged out of class, been embarrassed and once again felt worthless.