My daughters first day at school was a nightmare, just like all other children you don’t expect them to like their first day at school which is understandable. But as the weeks went by she soon enjoyed meeting new friends, learning, and showing me all the things she had drawn in class. She was always happy about anything and everything, she would talk non-stop about how her day went at school, and happily skipping all over the place around the house telling her grandma and grandpa about how much she loved school.
She was now eight years old and still thrived with energy, her bubbly personality and usually at that age they are always a handful. One day when I picked her up from school, I somehow got the feeling that there was something wrong, which didn’t seem right. I thought she might have been coming down with a fever or something, when we got home. I thought I would ask her how her day had been, expecting to hear her rave on about what she did, and instead she cried. I sat there, a concerned mother hoping that if I asked her what was wrong she would tell me. Fingers crossed, and yes with a sigh of relief as she told me what had happened.
During school interval, my daughter and her friend where playing on the playground area which has a slide and all the amusements to keep children entertained, but what her and her friend did not realize was that the bell had rang to go back into class. I guess in my opinion maybe they were just having too much fun to notice. So I said to her, well that’s alright, than what happened. She said that her teacher had pulled her off the playground by the hair and she ended up falling to the ground, now my reaction to that was “What the” “How could she” and everything you could imagine was going through my head. I asked her did anyone else see what happened and apparently she said her class saw what happened through their classroom window and not to mention her friend that was present at the time. I was absolutely shocked at what I had heard, so first thing in the morning I went and approached the principal of the school about what my daughter had told me. The look of disgrace that I received from the principal when I told her what had happened was as if she was going to sort it out. But a week later she was still teaching at the school, it made me feel ill knowing that what she did to my daughter could happen to any of the other children at school. I ended up approaching the principal yet again and told her that I wanted something done about this teacher if not I would take it further.
I guess at the time when this all happened she thought I was just another young parent who had know idea of filing a formal complaint. Yes, I was young at the time also but I was not going to let them get away with it. I thought by being polite about this problem and approaching the principal rather than the teacher would make things a lot better but I was wrong. I ending up approaching the BOT (Board of Trustees) and put my complaint to them along with a threat that if they didn’t do anything about this particular teacher I would get my complaint published in the local paper so that all parents will be aware especially those parents who’s children were being taught by this teacher. All in all, the teacher had confessed in front of the BOT meeting, and along with other parent issues that I did not know about, I guess other parents had heard what had happened and what I had done. By doing what I did, made other parents speak out, I soon found out that some children where being pinched by this teacher in a way so that parents would not notice. I am glad what I did for the sake of my daughter, and all the other children, she is no longer teaching and that makes me feel more at ease. My daughter is now 15 but can always remember that day, something she should never have to remember about school just the good times.
