To think this teacher is fucking loopy?

[OverReactionMuch]

DS2 (just 5) apparently broke a branch off one of the trees in the school playground. He was swinging on it (normal boy behaviour?).

Teacher, who is Head of KS1 then paraded him around all the KS1 classes with the offending branch lecturing the other DC on how naughty my DC was and what a terrible thing he did.

She also phoned me (I did not know she had taken him round the classes) to inform me of my DS's 'crime'. I said I would talk to him. She also took the 'dead' branch into the afterschool club and showed all the DC there and so the staff could show me the offending article when I picked him up.

DS has said that he did not mean for the branch to come off.

I am actually quite furious that she has demonised my DS to the other DCs. DS has found it very hard to settle into school and I actually had a meeting with this woman before he started at school as I was concerned about how he would settle (undiagnosed SN is my mother's gut instinct) and she has totally ignored every thing I said.

AIBU to loudly voice my displeasure on Monday?

[Happymum22]

Sounds like a big over reaction.
How big was the branch?!

Typical 5 year old behavior. Yes it was probably a bit unsafe but not that unsafe that he wasn't injured as it broke.

Are you sure he didn't pull it deliberately (not trying to say that harshly, just checking- and btw its exactly kind of thing my innoncent DS would have done!)?

Had he been told not to do it?

[countrykitten]

Thinking that the OP went in like a ship in full sail and then got all deflated as she realised the truth of what really happened.

[holidaysarenice]

I hope you took her to every class to apologise to him today.
A broken tree branch - storm in a tea cup springs to mind.

[cory]

If the school is anything like the ones my dc have attended, the children will have been told that they must not climb trees or swing from branches.

If the child has been told this, he has been disobedient and should be told off. If not, then he should not be told, merely told not to do it again.

[BoneyBackJefferson]

OP, you have 11 years (ish) of the school system to go. If you keep this up you will be burnt out very quickly.

[Lottikins]

The thing is ripping a sizeable branch off a tree can ruin it's shape, and , mean it is always skewiff, even in an older tree can take many years to look normal again.I would be furious if some child ripped a branch off a tree in my garden when they had been not to swing on them and ignored that instruction.

I am guessing there is a strong school rule about not swinging on trees which your DS flouted. I think your comment about how difficult he has found it to settle into school , is code for he has been a right PITA!!

Finally, sometimes trees are planted to commemorate special events or in memory of someone.If this is the case the teacher's upset is more understandable.

[amillionyears]

Will you be telling your son not to do it again?

[Feenie]

Some others are saying there should be a punishment because the boy damaged school property. I haven't seen OP dispute that.

There you go, Kirk1. She doesn't 'see this as bad behaviour'.

[OverReactionMuch]

countrykitten you're right there. I'll probably be calmer NEXT Monday.

Can I just say again - HE DID NOT CLIMB THE TREE! He climbed a few today though. No branches broken thankfully.

My DD (10) is quite capable of accurately relating events and she related what her friends said and had no reason to lie. DD also said that the teacher was still very cross when she brought DS into the afterschool club with the branch and as I remember the staff were very when they showed me it as she insisted they did. Did she expect me to glue it back on I wonder? Now I even think just the telephone call to me was OTT, never mind relating his 'crime' and then parading the evidence to the the classes

I don't make any excuses for my DCs behaviour. If they are badly behaved, I expect them to take the consequences but I don't see this as 'bad' behaviour. Now if he'd nicked the caretakers chainsaw, decapitated all the trees and used them as swords to attack the others DCs with it then my view would be obviously be different .

Regarding my poor attitude towards the teacher - FFS I can think she is a loopy bitch in the confines of my own mind and an anonymous internet forum. I have not said it to her face yet. I can think anything I bloody well like, it's my reaction to her face that matters and if she's on here, meh, you are loopy.

[countrykitten]

I agree fully with kirk1 that some teachers can be appalling - I have met a few. I hope that this turns out not to be the case and that it is more of a misunderstanding which means that things can be sorted out quickly.

Am a little confused though - if the OP's son was in school last week then they will be on half term this week so going in tomorrow might not be much use!

[socharlottet]

Climbing trees is fine when it is on your watch , but it is very understandable that schools do not want to open themselves up to the possibility of being sued.You all seem to be talking as though falling out of a tree will result in nothing worse than a bump, at worse a broken arm.The child could fall awkwardly and break their neck, bang their head resulting in paralysis brain damage or death.

[Redbindy]

DS would obviously never lie. Let's all have a pop at the teacher.

[Yfronts]

Have a meeting with the head. The teacher has really gone to town humiliating your son when in fact a more normal punishment and quiet words would have been appropriate.

[Kirk1]

Grr, and well done anyone who can read that with lack of paragraphs. I'm typing on my phone while trying to bath excited children.

[Kirk1]

Countrykitten I didn't mean to imply that anyone had accused the OP of lying, I'm sorry it came out that way My badly phrased first sentence was basically that not all teachers are good teachers. I've known some stinkers, and some years ago the HT of a local high school nearly managed to cause a mutiny thanks to badly managing a minor disciplinary matter - so you can even have senior staff that make horrendous mistakes. I think he ended up emigrating to South America. I'm hoping it will turn out to be a huge misunderstanding but I'm not ruling out the teacher being a bit loopy.

Oh and I did mean the first thing, I wasn't being sarcastic. Just to be clear

[countrykitten]

We are on half term this week.

[BoneyBackJefferson]

I am quite sure that the truth is somewhere between a branch breaking and a Teacher humiliating a pupil.

[Pagwatch]

I do not believe the OP made it up.
I do however have considerable experience of listening to very detailed descriptions of events from children right up to years 6 and 7, which have turned out t be a mixture of imagination, minimising and wish fulfilment.

I listened to a gaggle of year 5s describe in great detail a disagreement between two parents two weeks ago which ended in air pulling and some pushing and shoving.I was quite excited. Sadly it was actually a bit of shouting yet they remain convinced...

I also think the OP is quite determined to see her child as a victim and the teacher as 'loopy'. I am not sure life is ever quite so straightforward which is why one tends to try and find out before wading in..

[Fairenuff]

The fact that all of you absolutely don't believe it must mean that it is unacceptable, no?

Maryz I would agree with your statement here.

If it did happen in exactly the way the OP describes, (...paraded him around all the KS1 classes with the offending branch lecturing the other DC on how naughty my DC was and what a terrible thing he did) then yes, of course it's unacceptable.

Or, if the teacher was supervising the child at the time and said to him something like, 'lets go and remind the other children that it's not safe to swing on the trees, it's lucky you weren't hurt' then it's a different matter.

OP, when did this happen, btw, were you not on half term last week, or next week. I know they seem to be a bit different at the moment. Or perhaps you're not in the UK?

[amillionyears]

countrykitten "Maryz and others you dont actually know this happened and neither does the op"

That is where it looked like you were saying that the op may be lying

But perhaps you meant it as in, the information the op received from her dc may be incorrect.

But the teacher did ring her up, and seems to have confirmed the afterschool club bit at least.

[Feenie]

With MrsRajeshKoothrappali in the audience