Entitlement whore parents at their finest

[MaggieTheCat]

This story happened several years ago, so I'm a little foggy on the exact details, but I remember the outcome well. I'm not sure what reminded me of this story, but whatever it was, I thought it would be appropriate to share it here.

My high school offered a few foreign language classes...French, Spanish, and German, I believe. All 3 of them would take a trip to their respective countries every few years and any student who had been in the class for more than a couple of years could go, if they wanted. This story is about the German class taking a trip to Germany one summer between school semesters.

Some of the students who were going were 16 or older, which, I believe, is, or at least was, the legal drinking age in Germany at the time. The school required all students 16 or older to sign a form stating that they would not purchase or consume alcohol while on the class trip, and that getting caught with alcohol could result in suspension, failing the class, expulsion from extra curricular activities, etc. All the students who went on the trip had to sign this form (and if I recall correctly, their parents did too) or they were not allowed to go.

One of the students who was going -- I forget her name, but let's call her Julie -- was the head of the debate team, captain of her sports team (I forget exactly what she played, I think probably tennis), a straight A honor student, and daughter of a prestigious doctor in the area. She was 17 at the time so she and her mother had to sign the "do not drink" form before she was allowed to go on the trip.

The second day after the class had gotten there, during one of their "free times" the teacher of the class got a tip from one of the other students that some of the students from his class were down the street in a pub, drinking. He went down to investigate and sure enough, sitting right at the bar with a mug of beer, there was Julie. I think there were others with her, but he confronted her first, maybe since she was closest to the door. He grabbed her shoulder -- not hard, just enough to get her attention -- and asked her what the hell she thought she was doing.

For that, the teacher got fired from his job as the German teacher, Julie's mother threatened to sue him and have his teaching license revoked, and the high school hasn't had a German program since because they haven't been able to find a qualified German teacher. Julie (and the rest of the students who were drinking with her), on the other hand, got absolutely no punishment whatsoever.

It just makes me sick. I don't know whether Julie's mother actually did sue the German teacher and get his license taken away or not...as soon as the class got back from Germany, he packed up and left town, and I never heard of anything that happened after that.

[ditchdj]

Yeah, a teacher taking a class on a field trip to another country is risking a MAJOR liability risk!

The bottom line is that America law pretty much dictates that ANY minor in your care means that you're responsible for their actions, no matter what.

No matter what the kids do, the teacher's the one responsible. I know a Spanish teacher that took one of her classes to Mexico and some of the kids were wild and went to clubs and got drunk. Luckily she didnt get in trouble for it, but she vowed to NEVER chaperone a field trip like that ever again.

[MaggieTheCat]

The teacher didn't get fired for liability reasons, though. I should've made that clear. He got fired because he "touched a student inappropriately" (by putting his hand on her shoulder) and basically pissing off a huge EW mother. The mother didn't like that he yelled at her daughter, and because her daughter was such a perfect model student and the mother had so much clout in the community, the school didn't want to rock the boat so instead of disciplining Julie or the other students (by suspending them or expelling them from sports, like the form said they would) they just fired the German teacher instead.

[ditchdj]

Oh really????

He should have sued her parents for that crap.

Sounds to me like the guy was non-tenured, so the school simply simply let him go as a precaution.

But, these days, as a teacher, I would NEVER chaperone a field trip to another country. It's one thing to take a class to a German restaurant on the other side of town, but to another country......no dice! These days, with people so engrossed about what can happen to our kids (especially because of the constant barrage of child molestation stories in the media), that's just like asking for trouble. It's way too easy for a student to scream "Teacher touched me!" when something goes wrong. Sad but true.

[MaggieTheCat]

I'm sure he was non-tenured, he'd only worked at the school for maybe 3-4 years prior to this trip. Class trips to other countries were fairly common at my school (at the time, anyway, we're talking almost 10 years ago so not sure if that's changed now.) The German teacher before him had taken several class trips to Germany with no issues. So I'm sure he wasn't anticipating any problems, at least not like this.

[LillFilly]

That's just really sad.

I had a really good Philosophy professor who assigned us to read Huckleberry Finn. We knew when we bought the book before classes even started that it was being assigned, and he even asked us if anyone had any objections to studying it.

Halfway through the classes first reading when the 'N' word was spoken, the sole African American student in the class threw a fit and the professor almost ended up being fired and had to undergo some sort of 'sensitivity' training, and these ethics counselors were sent in to talk to us about what 'the professor had done...'

Umm, he read out of a book. A book he knew only 1/2 of us would buy, and that out of that half, only 1/2 would actually READ it; which is why he read aloud the parts he wanted us to absorb...But of COURSE, that student felt that the reading was being directed at her.

Yeah, because the other 29 of us weren't even there. She actually transffered from the college because she got no support from the other students after doing this.

[EvilEmpryss]

As a substitute teacher, my DH was threatened with physical violence at one of the schools he was subbing at. He told the boy to put down the weapon and sit his ass down (which seemed to shock the kid into obeying: apparently he wasn't used to having people stand up to him).

When the parents of the {insert appropriately-obnoxious-but-prohibited-from-being-used-on-CS-word-to-describe-minors} boy were called to come pick up their little precious they cussed a blue streak loud enough to be heard in the classrooms down the hall from the principal's office. Why? Because a teacher used the word "ass" in front of their precious. They wanted DH fired for it.

The principal was as spineless a manager as anyone ever encountered. She banned him from subbing at that particular school again and threatened DH with calling the school board and having him banned from working in the county for the "inappropriate language" he used with a child. Ignoring the fact that the parents of the child just used every swear word and vulgar descriptive in the book in the presence of a school-full of kids and DH had managed to defend himself from violence without laying a hand on the kid.

The was the day that DH quit his subbing job and started working on his graduate degree.

[Whiskey]

all this shit right here

Precious was just expressing himself.

[MoonCat]

I would think these stories couldn't possibly be true, but I know a pair of teachers who could corroborate every word. He taught fifth grade (retired now) and she teaches (still) in a state prison. We like to say he got them at age 10 and she gets them at age 20.

[wraiths_crono]

I know in AZ the news right now was all over some kids on a band trip to China that got drunk, the parents are 1. mad that the school did suspend their kids 2. banned them from trips 3. the teachers/chaperones didnt get in trouble at all.

The case went to court where the judge determined 1. the school is free to punish as they wish (since the parents signed the no drinking policy) 2. found that 5 chaperons for 30 students is sufficient and 3 since it happened after everyone was supposed to be in bed its not really the teachers faults since the students broke curfew and did it while sneaking out.

Last I heard the parents want a retrial.

[MadMike]

Some of the students who were going were 16 or older, which, I believe, is, or at least was, the legal drinking age in Germany at the time. The school required all students 16 or older to sign a form stating that they would not purchase or consume alcohol while on the class trip, and that getting caught with alcohol could result in suspension, failing the class, expulsion from extra curricular activities, etc. All the students who went on the trip had to sign this form (and if I recall correctly, their parents did too) or they were not allowed to go.

Interestingly enough, when my school's foreign language clubs (we had French and Spanish) took trips to other countries, the parents could sign a form allowing the kids to have "small amounts of alcohol with meals." However, they weren't allowed to go out and get drunk, and I heard about one kid doing just that and getting suspended for it.

I was in the Spanish club, and they planned a trip to Spain at the end of my senior year. Unfortunately, I couldn't come up with the money for the trip, so I ended up dropping out of the club.