Child thrown off school trip for eating chocolate, seriously?!

[Sparklysilversequins]

AIBU to think this is absolutely ridiculous? Would you have gone and picked your child up?

here

Course there's more to it. The Mum couldn't even spell "Holly" correctly when naming her daughter. She don't believe in no rules innit.
"My Holli can eat choclit if she wants even if its against the rules innit?".
She is a "type" I bet. Low teeth to tattoo ratio

What reason is that then?

20p confectionary?! Not where I live.

Freddos are 20p, just saying

There's always something MORE to it on MN though, where teachers are involved. Not saying there wasn't in this case btw. But I do think some of you just have no awareness of how shit some teachers can be.

I've experienced a really shit teacher who assaulted my child and everyone said that there must have been MORE to it. That worked out great for her because she got to get away with assaulting and bruising a child with significant SN.

If this child was being a PITA the day before she should have been sent home then. It is totally unacceptable that her PRIVATE mail home was opened and she was punished for the contents. She's a CHILD and I bet she wasn't the only one smuggling in a bit of chocolate. It obviously wasn't an issue because they only found out after they read her PRIVATE mail after the event.

Sounds like she is a general PITA but not so much that they didn't just ban her from the trip but chose to take the £300 but it also sounds like they were looking to come down on her like a ton of bricks, hence the reading of her mail and searching for further "evidence".

Sparklysilversequins

If this child was being a PITA the day before she should have been sent home then.
Why? I would think that the teachers would say if you break the rules again you will be going home. Second chance and all that.

It is totally unacceptable that her PRIVATE mail home was opened and she was punished for the contents.
We don't know under what circumstances the mail was read, or even if it was read at all.

She's a CHILD and I bet she wasn't the only one smuggling in a bit of chocolate.

She wasn't the only child eating chocolate, The reason for the headline is because its emotive and brings out the teacher bashers.

It obviously wasn't an issue because they only found out after they read her PRIVATE mail after the event.
And we know this how? Because that is what her mum said.

Really? I packed ds some chocolate to share with his room mates for a midnight feast.

I've always tried to give dd sweets to take on her school trips and tell her to eat them with her friends when in the coach or walking. She always declines because "you're not allowed". . I don't really see the problem with a few chocolates or sweets on a trip. Dd lives on salads and fruit so I don't really have an issue with sweet stuff but I suppose some people do.

Wouldn't it have melted by bedtime?

Well to be fair BBJ we don't know anything except what the mother told us do we? So we can't say the headline is "teacher bashing" because it could be wholly true couldn't it? All we've got to go on is the article, we can't choose bits we believe and bits we don't.

Oh and in one article it says the mother is off work with "stress and panic attacks" which gives a certain impression of her doesn't it? Then in the other says she is a full time carer for her autistic son, which gives quite another.

this gives a wider view (from edlyu).

read the comments for an idea of the child and her mother.

Some 14 - 17 year olds from our local comp (very MC intake) went on an orchestra trip to France.

One very posh mother gave her 15 yr old son a bottle of vodka to take.
He most of it on the long ferry crossing and was unconscious.
The ferry almost turned back but didn't in the end.

Parvati: I don't think that Mum said 'innit'.

Oof. Some of those comments are harsh.

'What isn't made clear in this article is that Mrs Graves took photographic evidence of what was found in Holly's Suitcase , it was a huge bag full of over £30 worth of food and that isn't including what the children had already eaten! So you the Watford observer printing it was three chocolate bars is lies!'

'the McCann family at Bromet school are known as criminals and bully's'

'My child was on this trip. Lets put it this way, it was no loss to the class. Taxi for Holli!'

'My child was also on this trip and believe me, if anyone was going to 'push the boundaries' it was going to be Holli.'

Very interesting. It was the hotel that banned the children from taking food into their rooms. According to someone who claims to be the mother of another child on the trip this girl didn't have just the odd chocolate bar, but something like £30 worth. The mother knew about the no food rule before she helped her daughter pack this stuff.
The only thing that surprises me is that the Telegraph publishes this sort of stuff.

The long post at 7.48 is a very telling one.

I already had read them all.

Why the hell are they writing letters home when its only a week? Its not like they have been on the front for 6 months.

That's what I was going to say dementedma.

sparkly

you have read them all yet you still come down on the side of the petty minded parent whose child "pushes boundaries" and causes other children to miss out?

As part of a targeted investigation into chocolate smuggling perhaps?

No, not really, I did say in my post that there was probably more to it.

I just hate the knee jerk reaction on here towards issues at school and the automatic assumption that its the kid or precious parents fault. The article I posted to did not have those comments on and still the immediate reaction was "theres more to it, Mum must be rough etc".

I see it quite a lot on here. Unfortunately it does sound like Holli's story is quite problematic bit she's only 11 and while it may be that she is a brat, it's not really her fault at that age and it makes quite to see those comments about an 11 year old, even if her Mum did instigate it by approaching the press in the first place.

Obviously only rough Mums produce DCs that push boundaries.
Mum's that can't spell names correctly.
Oh, and Mums that say 'innit'.

Good to see that snobbery is thriving on MN.

oh here we go again, tonnes of people who were not there and do not know the people concerned are prepared to take the word of a mother who would have her young child pouting in the paper and slagging off the school, rather than give the school staff credit for acting in a proper and professional manner.

That the head took a photo meant she KNEW this mother might kick off with deny deny deny, my child is an angel blah blah blah. This woman is the same as the "caring mum" who packed her 16yo off to the prom she had been forbidden to attend, then went crying to the paper when the child was turned away.
All they have taught their kids is that mummy will let them get away with anything and will back them even when they are in the wrong. The correct way to react is to be cross with the child and put some of the blame on yourself for parenting that has allowed them to think this was acceptable behaviour. That's assuming the mum knew nothing about the stash and the girl planned it all, which actually I don't think is the case, I think this was the mother having a little dig at the staff and the rule, sticking 2 fingers up and telling her DD ignore them,this will be our little secret.