Help responding to my 9 year old's teacher...

I've run into the same problem but with my son forgeting a pocket knife in his coat pocket or his pants pocket. Both times he brought it to the teacher as soon as he realized his mistake. 1st teacher was a lunatic but the second one took it to her truck and let him call me to come get it. In his school they'll expel a kid for that. But i'll always stand up for my kid if I feel he's right.

mfcmb seems on the most logical track.... since you apparently have no idea what the picture was of.... I would wait to be upset at least until I get the facts... the proceed with tact...

You might mention to the teacher that your son has a right to express his FIRST Amendment rights, and if she continues to hamper his freedom of expression, you'll just sue her for violating his civil rights.

Personally, I'd go straight to the lawsuit without the warning. Bureaucrats only understand the stick, not the carrot.

I would have slowly torn up the offered form in front of the staff and let the peices scatter to the floor at my feet. Detention? Yes, Suspension? No problem, Corporal punishment? Simply a trial of your pain tolerence threshold.

I would have taught my kids (If any... life is still young) as well that way. The problem is they would have been probably expelled from any public school system that wishes to engage in such brainwashing activity.

Im saddened that our kids are going to be needed to be torn down and rebuilt when they join the United States Marines or any other Service.

Sometimes even standing ground and landing punches or properly playing with your girlfriend was part of growing up. Now they going to regulate that too?

No wonder kids feel that they dont want to do anything at all. It's easier to shut one self up into a room and play a video game.

I remember when I was 9 testing a very large plate window that protected the assistant principal that was the queen that was feared by all of us for her punishments with a very large wet snowball from 30 feet while she watch it at lunch hour. I paid for that one with 6 hours on one of the hardwood benches deliberately overbuilt to be discomfort.

Even today it's worth the pain. Im just happy that the engineers who designed that window made it strong enough to withstand the impact of that ice/wet snowball.

Meh, 9 year old? That is when yer feeling oats... it's a great age.

If this were my child, they would have NRA and GOA stickers on their backpack, and they would wear a Glock hat & shirt with pride. Every time they recieved scorn for supporting their beliefs, I would be their fighting for them.

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His beliefs, or YOUR beliefs?

...i can understand an irrational fear of guns by some lefties...

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Because only "lefties" have an "irrational fear of guns"?

With no right to do so, left-wing dominated public schools are trying to destroy our cultural heritage and indoctrinate our children to loath and fear firearms.

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Uh... wow.

Or, you could take an approach that will have the same odds of changing her mind, which is to say it won't, and just let her know what a ridiculous human being she is. Sometimes idiots need to be called out, and it will make you feel better. Tell her she is a ridiculous excuse for a teacher, a blind follower of a dangerous, mal intentioned movement, a simpleton lacking any of the common sense needed to be worthy of your child's attention. I am sick of trying to figure these people out, and I am sick of trying to change their minds.

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How very low road of you.

mfcmb seems on the most logical track.... since you apparently have no idea what the picture was of.... I would wait to be upset at least until I get the facts... the proceed with tact...

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I do not see how ANYTHING he could draw would warrant this teachers actions. He is 9 years old. If he were drawing, in graphic detail, a full auto .50 BMG baby arctic seal hunt fest, it would not warrant any form of reprimand. HE IS 9 YEARS OLD. The teacher is the only one offending here. I'm offended, and it's not even my kid. It's a FREAKING DRAWING. It's not like he did something REALLY offensive, like pointing a finger in the universal make-believe gun sign or anything. God help us if we find out he said "bang", or some other outlawed word. Yea--let's investigate THE KID.

How very low road of you.

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The teacher chose the road, friend. I go where I'm needed.

AKELroy, I am with you.

I would almost wished the kid to make a finger and sprout the word bang as I would have in sign language in my school at the time explaining the drawing to the teacher.

In my time teachers were hunters and at times they took vacations while subs taught. And man those subs were tough and no nonsense.

His beliefs, or YOUR beliefs?

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I have two, 7 and 11, and thier beliefs are my beliefs on matters that allow no compromise. Principles are not subject to change by children under my leadership. When they are adult leaders, their path is theirs to choose. I plan on spending all energy needed to ensure that path is the correct one. Truth is absolute. Law is law. Rights are rights. They are mine for now. Do you allow your children to develope whatever beliefs they choose? Is that self-actualization something you indoctrinate into them? Do you not see how ironic that notion is? All parents influence the thoughts and direction of their children. Some on principle, some on self. It is still behavior and thought control, regardless how enlightened you think you are being.

See mfcmb's post 20!
Find out the facts first before responding. Respond respectfully, intelligently, and calmly. Flying off the handle will make achieving any solution more remote!

Things to ask:
May I see the picture?
Is the Honor Code in writing?
Has the school/teacher made students aware that this behavior is a violation?
If not...How was this behavior deemed a "violation"?
Could this have been handled in a different way?

If your son had no idea he was breaking a rule, then request that this occurance be used as a warning, and a learning experience (albeit a bad one), and demand that his incentive be reinstated.

Explain your situation and point of view. Remember individuals have the right to disagree. See if you can sway the outcome in your son's favor, while maintaining a working relationship with the teacher.

Good luck!

Kilo729, I wish you receive the help you need! Good luck!

Let the teacher learn first hand just how calm, cool and responsible of a gun owner you are. How you train your child and enjoy the sport with your wife.

This is your chance to convert someone to being pro-gun.

Could you post the picture?

Before rushing to judgement I would want to see "the picture" All I ever drew in school was guns so I'd have been suspended to the point of expullsion for life 8 million times if it's just for drawing guns.

On the Home Schooling note.. I can speak from some experience. I was Homeschooled for a couple years I learned alot and probably gained more knowledge (book) than anytime other than College. However it took all of Junior High, High School and my Freshman year of College to recover from the social retardation of not being around other kids. If you are going to HomeSchool make sure your kids have friends outside the family and are involved in Sports (not just shooting I'm talking Football, Baseball etc.) so they won't be socially inept when they have to go out on their own. --Note all this is coming from a guy on a Gun Board at 1 in the morning. Eeesh

You need to ask yourself if the teacher would have objected to another child drawing a picture of him/her with their family attending church. Or if they would have objected to having a child draw a picture of their gay/lesbian parents holding hands. (two males or two females) How screwed up are we when something that is constitutionally protected, like firearm ownership, is attacked and something that must need "correcting"?

I would go in there ready to defend your son's drawing, it's sick that our schools are teaching our children to hate/fear/despise guns.

I would contact the teacher and inquire what your child did to violate the school code. As some have stated above, I would inform the teacher that it was his mother doing something that both the child and she enjoy doing.

For those that keep mentioning home-schooling as an option, I feel that is a cop out. Instead of challenging the system and trying to bring about a change, that action is just giving into and letting the ultra-left win and push their agenda.

I would ask for some time to cool down before the meeting. Just enough time for me to come up with plan D. Plans A thru C all involve none high road tactics form a punch in the snout to yelling obscenities. Use this as an opportunity to fight the schools biased policy about guns. They are afraid of inanimate objects, not the sort of people I would want teaching my kids.

Definately ask to see this Honor Code and it has to be in a written format approved by the school district, and have this teacher SHOW you what portion your son's drawing violated. 9 times out of 10, this is some B.S. that the teacher pulled out of her hat and it won't fly.

At that point you ask the principal for action to fix this, not the teacher. Technically the principal is the teacher's boss and you can ask for administrative action (and for a period of instruction on this "Honor Code") so that "future incidents" in applying the Honor Code won't happen again.

I've done this in the past, and again 9 times out of 10 the teacher will be totally upset that you've questioned them, but the principal won't have that attitude and you can work with them.

I do think this is totally unacceptable as it appears that this teacher is instilling her own personal view on your son.



Kris

To qoute, a bad movie...

" ... be nice, until its time to not be nice"

Having delt with school district over the years( both having a student and on the professional level) I can tell you, Niceness only goes so far. I have had to go way over some ones head and make it public. ( Trust me, getting parrents/ news envoled gets things done right now.)
I did it once, not had a prob that a single phone call has not fixed since then. where as before it was the run around.

Perfect example, bussing, I was told it would take 3 weeks after school started to be set up( for sp ed btw) 1 phone call, and magicly 6 am the next morning I got a call saying every thing set up and they will be there in a hour to pick up my student. This from the same person that said, it would take 3 weeks the day before.

what I'm saying is... start with the teacher, then the adminstrator next in line( vp, p depending on the school) next its the PTA/ district meeting... if that does not work, go strait to the super. Get there before the office opens, tell the recpetionist you want to see the super and your willing to sit here and wait for them. they always say they don't have time... yet once they realize your not going away( 30-45 mins normally) they can magicly fit you in.


Also, never, ever say something you don't mean. if you say your going to sue, be ready and willing to sue.

Since it was lunch time, the boy wasn't "on the clock", so to speak. And, unless he was being disruptive, the teacher had no grounds whatsoever to do anything.

If you want to sound cool on the internet, go say something snarky and post it here, and lots of people will venerate you as equivalent to someone who died heroically in battle for The Absolute Good.

You probably have a lot of latitude if you don't mind annoying drawn-out administrative crap, legal battles, and needlessly stressing your child out.

You could use one of the many matter-of-fact approaches already suggested in one of the first posts.

I do think it is worth some deliberation in how you role model conflict resolution for your children, and I think it is our responsibility as parents to be mindful of drawing them into what are not ultimately our battles of true conscience, but rather of ego.

Do I want to verbally smack a lot of anti's over the head? Yes. Is it even remotely helpful? No, in 90% of cases. Do I want to drag my children into it? No.

I don't know where you live. But I do think it is a "teachable moment" for these folks about true diversity. And hearing what the background is is probably the first step. If you really get a lot of completely unreasonable pushback, you can always make clear that they don't want legal trouble. But why start there?

As someone who has lived under more than one "honor code", I have to say that it sounds as if there is a lot more definition of what happened to be done first. On the face of it, it's ludicrous. Which is what all the angry posts reflect, I presume... But really, ask them what is the principle of the issue, and how their honor code proscribes what happened.
(ETA: I think MarineOne has sniffed out the correct explanation)

Fact is, we live in a society where a lot of people think "guns=bad". IMHO, we can work to change that, or create little worlds to feel angry in while our freedoms are slowly eroded.

Good luck with handling this well! I am curious to know how it evolves.

I took my son's teacher some deer sausage, that seemed to satisfy her!

I do have to wonder what monumental idiot made this an Honor Code violation. I helped found the Honor Council at my school, and I studied many honor codes in the process, and they were all about HONOR-- not lying, cheating, stealing, or plagiarizing. Not one mentioned issues of "violence" or "weapons"-- that was left to separate school administrators.

Wow, I must be lucky as all get out. My son draws tanks and talks about WWII armored fighting vehicles at school, and they just comment that he really likes his WWI combat video games. I have been to his school in uniform, visibly armed, (legally, thank you), in front of his teacher and principal, and not one comment of any kind. They have Tobacco Free School Zone signs everywhere, not one Gun Free Zone sign anywhere, (even though state law forbids it for CCW on non CCW for now, and any law abiding firearms owner should know that. They know criminals don't look at signs.), and they don't have any issues whatsoever with shooting or firearms in general that I can tell. The principal is a student of President Lincoln, and despite some issues we have had with them over non-gun related things I won't go into here, when it comes to firearms or military, there seems to be no issue at all at his school.
I wish you the best with reasoned discourse, sir.

desidog said:

"after a conferencing with him"? That is poor grammar and incorrect word use...i can understand an irrational fear of guns by some lefties, but bad grammar from a teacher is inexcusable, IMO.

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Oh man, don't get me started. My wife is a teacher and the stories I could tell you .... like the Head of the English department that didn't know how to use a dictionary ...