Angry Parents on Social Media

[DisneyOma]

Is it just my city, or have parents lost their minds? A few here have taken to local Facebook pages to bash the school system for not supporting their children. One mother (a city councilor!) made a 40 page Powerpoint that she shared publicly, detailing a multitude of emails she had sent one child's teacher, and how she was not satisfied with the responses. Another reposted an email sent to the superintendent, complaining that her autistic child, who was doing really well in school (by her account) had become violent at home and the superintendent needed to do something about it. She wants services in her house? Both posts contained such private information that I'm embarrassed for their children.

We're all trying to survive this trying time. Posting private issues on public spaces isn't the best way to get the help you need, IMO. The first posting backfired big time, and I doubt she'll run again in the next election. Waiting to see what the second post devolves into. I tried to alert admin for that FB page, but wasn't successful.

 

[godisney14]

There are angry parents on this board, my local neighborhood, and everywhere else on the internets about the insufficient distance learning in the public schools. Maybe or maybe not to the extent that you’ve described as an example. But, yes, there are always parents wanting more for their child. It’s just natural. I don’t condone certain extreme behaviors, but I understand their position as a parent myself.

Send the kids to private school is what I’ll say to those parents, or move to a district with better public school staff and teachers. Stop complaining about free things. Yes, I get that tax dollars goes to pay for education. But, in the same respect, there are many other residents without kids in school continuing to pay into the local schools as well.

 

[HeatherC]

People are crazy now. While there are sooooo many doing so much good, there are always those who are certainly more of a hindrance than a help. Too many news reports of people freaking out on others over ridiculous things. Like someone punching a store clerk because they were told to wear a mask. News flash. It is not the poor clerk making those rules, they are just trying to do their job.

So angry parents on social media is certainly no surprise. People give voice to their frustrations without really thinking about someone on the receiving end of their rant. Very sad.

 

[Turn the Page]

I have seen a bit of that. A friend of mine and I have kids in the 2 largest school districts in the area. We shared similar frustrations in that as soon as schools were closed they were immediately getting information out about when and where to pick up meals for their kids if that was a concern. Don't get me wrong, that is a great service and in my, admittedly somewhat sheltered, experience the need for those services in the community was much larger than I ever realized.

However, the schools had absolutely nothing in the way of academic work for our kids for 3 weeks. Three entire weeks in which we were told to try to have the kids read. Every other district in the area was online from day one. They had a system in place already. My friend and I were both told that the schools were legally barred from doing online lessons because some students with IEP's wouldn't be able to access it. Then we were told we couldn't do online learning because not all kids have access to the internet. All the other districts in the area were able to do it so those were both just excuses.

We are finally up and running and I really hope they keep it going and refine it for things like snow days and other school closures. I have friends with kids in 4 different states whose kids immediately go to online stuff any time there is a school closure. There is no reason we can't too.

 

[zoo2tycoon]

That is sad but understanding in these crazy times. I think many parents are hopefully starting to realize how hard teachers work. This goes for regular and special Ed students. Parents are seeing how their kids deal with assignments and the attitudes they have towards teachers. Their perfect child isn’t so perfect. I think everyone probably needs to reread anything before they post or send- maybe wait a day.

I can’t imagine being a teacher right now or a parent working from fine and being a teacher!

 

[mjkacmom]

The worst I’ve seen are on college parent Facebook pages, endless, wanting tuition reduce to in state tuition for out if state students, live classes at the same time they used to be... My college students are fine with it all, albeit disappointed. One mom just posted all of these expensive professors should be fired and replaced with cheaper ones.

 

[DisneyOma]

However, the schools had absolutely nothing in the way of academic work for our kids for 3 weeks. Three entire weeks in which we were told to try to have the kids read. Every other district in the area was online from day one. They had a system in place already. My friend and I were both told that the schools were legally barred from doing online lessons because some students with IEP's wouldn't be able to access it. Then we were told we couldn't do online learning because not all kids have access to the internet. All the other districts in the area were able to do it so those were both just excuses.

Actually, there's been a lot of talk at the state and district levels (at least here in MA) about the legality of providing equity across the district. That includes students with IEPS. Other districts around here are actually going against state mandates and assigning grades to work. It sounds like your district is following the guidelines and others aren't. They would be open for lawsuits, while your district should be safe.

Also, if there isn't enough equipment for every kid to have a laptop that needs one, for example, no one can have one and they can't make it mandatory to use one. Here, we were able to get them out to every kid that didn't have access to something similar at home. Then we expanded local hotspots so they could have free WiFi. Teachers did not have the ability to go back into the schools to get curriculum until a good two weeks into the quarantine. That might explain the 3 week lag.

 

[SaintsManiac]

Large portion of people on social media are angry, including here.

Block and ignore features work wonders.

 

[disykat]

I have an autistic great nephew that is really struggling. Thankfully my niece understands that this is an issue with his reaction to the circumstances caused by the PANDEMIC, and doesn't have anything to do with the schools. She is often one of the first people to complain about public schools, so I was worried I'd be seeing this sort of thing on her Facebook but she gets it.

How people think closing down for a pandemic is the public school's fault is beyond me.

 

[Turn the Page]

Actually, there's been a lot of talk at the state and district levels (at least here in MA) about the legality of providing equity across the district. That includes students with IEPS. Other districts around here are actually going against state mandates and assigning grades to work. It sounds like your district is following the guidelines and others aren't. They would be open for lawsuits, while your district should be safe.

Also, if there isn't enough equipment for every kid to have a laptop that needs one, for example, no one can have one and they can't make it mandatory to use one. Here, we were able to get them out to every kid that didn't have access to something similar at home. Then we expanded local hotspots so they could have free WiFi. Teachers did not have the ability to go back into the schools to get curriculum until a good two weeks into the quarantine. That might explain the 3 week lag.

Our kids aren't getting grades. I don't even think participation is required, just strongly encouraged. But again, friends in 4 different states have had online programs in place for years. One of those is in the metro Atlanta area. One of the largest school districts in the country and they have had online stuff for school closures for years without the school issuing devices for every student. It can be done.

 

[Lumpy1106]

There are angry parents on this board, my local neighborhood, and everywhere else on the internets about the insufficient distance learning in the public schools.

You know how you fix this? Improve the distance learning or reopen the schools. I don't like how bored my Kindergartner is, but I will never complain about her teacher because she is doing a great job considering the circumstances. The HS teachers OTOH - YIPES! some have been OK, but a lot more have been downright bad. We did e-mail the teachers in the classes that were truly bad, and did copy that e-mail to the principal. The teachers that did respond (not all did even that much) just made excuses, the principal did not respond. Nothing improved. Not condoning the actions of the parents the OP described, but I understand the frustration. What exactly are we supposed to do to make it any better?

 

[tcufrog]

I have been pleased with how my kids' schools responded to this mess. DS9 goes to a K-8 private school that had a plan in place already to provide distance learning to middle school students on snow days. They adapted it pretty fast to accommodate all of the students. It's not as good as regular school but much better than what most kids are getting.

DS13 goes to a small (for our area) school district that is considered underperforming compared to a lot of area school districts. I feel that they've responded to this crisis better and faster than a lot of local school districts. Very quickly, the superintendent posted a video about the crisis and they posted district-wide lesson plans on the district website. They also rolled out a plan to provide school worksheets to those without Internet and 3 meals a day to those who needed it. A few weeks later they started distributing Chromebooks and hot spots (one per family) to those who needed it. His teachers are all offering online advisory times and he's having band via Zoom twice a week. His school is also offering social Zoom sessions a few times a week. The only class he's getting a grade in though is honors math because his math class counts towards his high school GPA.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

Is it just my city, or have parents lost their minds? A few here have taken to local Facebook pages to bash the school system for not supporting their children. One mother (a city councilor!) made a 40 page Powerpoint that she shared publicly, detailing a multitude of emails she had sent one child's teacher, and how she was not satisfied with the responses. Another reposted an email sent to the superintendent, complaining that her autistic child, who was doing really well in school (by her account) had become violent at home and the superintendent needed to do something about it. She wants services in her house? Both posts contained such private information that I'm embarrassed for their children.

We're all trying to survive this trying time. Posting private issues on public spaces isn't the best way to get the help you need, IMO. The first posting backfired big time, and I doubt she'll run again in the next election. Waiting to see what the second post devolves into. I tried to alert admin for that FB page, but wasn't successful.

Karen really gets around.

 

[piccolopat]

Some parents haven't yet realized that they are ultimately responsible for both the education and the disciplining of their children. Many have been quite content delegating this to the local school district and teachers. Now that school is not in session, they are seeing what full days with their own kids is really like. I hope they use this time to get to know their kids and help them become better learners.

 

[godisney14]

You know how you fix this? Improve the distance learning or reopen the schools. I don't like how bored my Kindergartner is, but I will never complain about her teacher because she is doing a great job considering the circumstances. The HS teachers OTOH - YIPES! some have been OK, but a lot more have been downright bad. We did e-mail the teachers in the classes that were truly bad, and did copy that e-mail to the principal. The teachers that did respond (not all did even that much) just made excuses, the principal did not respond. Nothing improved. Not condoning the actions of the parents the OP described, but I understand the frustration. What exactly are we supposed to do to make it any better?

Write letters to the superintendent. And if the superintendent won’t react, then write to the school board. If they won’t react, then vote the school board members out in your next local election (at least where I am in CA, they are voted in).

The process is much easier and quicker with private schools since everyone is being paid by the parents. We had to go up the tree and do some back and forth, but every request by the parents for our kids’ current distance learning plan was listened to and quickly.

It’s amazing how almost all private school teachers are paid less than public school teachers, yet private school teachers are held to a higher standard of education than public teachers. And I live in an area where we have public elementary to high schools that are ranked at the tops in the state (CA). And many of the private school teachers do not even have teaching degrees.
I won’t provide opinion or get into a debate as to why since I have no evidence to confidently say one way or other.

**Disclaimer: I do not know whether this is the case across the nation, but it is true of schools in my greater area. And I am talking just about private vs public. From what I hear, all charter schools around here are about equal to public schools. Don’t have any experience with charters personally, though.

 

[Kestryl]

My friend and I were both told that the schools were legally barred from doing online lessons because some students with IEP's wouldn't be able to access it. Then we were told we couldn't do online learning because not all kids have access to the internet. All the other districts in the area were able to do it so those were both just excuses.

They aren’t excuses. The school district my husband teaches at was threatened by several parents who have kids with IEPs. If the school moved to required online learning, they were planning to file lawsuits on not meeting equitable education standards. Thus, the school bore, after talking to state officials, decided to effectively cancel any required learning for the remainder of the year.

 

[spiders]

Honestly I just go to social media to look at photos. Once someone starts getting political or angry about whatever then I usually begin ignoring them.

With that being said, I'm happy with my school system and I think general consensus is that they did well. I know they said they had a 90% participation/completion rate for the online assignments which was much higher than nearby systems.

 

[Turn the Page]

They aren’t excuses. The school district my husband teaches at was threatened by several parents who have kids with IEPs. If the school moved to required online learning, they were planning to file lawsuits on not meeting equitable education standards. Thus, the school bore, after talking to state officials, decided to effectively cancel any required learning for the remainder of the year.

I can't really say I care if it is required or not. I know our school is currently not requiring participation. My concern is that they have access to grade level appropriate material so they don't miss out on a quarter of the material they were to have this year. I don't care if they receive a grade on their transcript for it.

 

[okeydokey]

They aren’t excuses. The school district my husband teaches at was threatened by several parents who have kids with IEPs. If the school moved to required online learning, they were planning to file lawsuits on not meeting equitable education standards. Thus, the school bore, after talking to state officials, decided to effectively cancel any required learning for the remainder of the year.

Holy cow. So those few parents canceled learning for the entire rest of the school year. I bet they will be super popular at PTA night next year.

 

[MarBee]

As a teacher, I’m not shocked even though I could see why most folks of sound mind and attitude would be shocked. We had a parent complain on Facebook that the schools have not been teaching her kids discipline and manners because he’s being rude and defiant at home to his mother. Many people thought it was satire, but it wasn’t. And many other parents commented about the failing of their schools in teaching their children the same.
I thought it was bad when our school was threatened with a lawsuit by a mother who said we were not feeding her child enough during the day (he got free breakfast, snack, and lunch) because he keeps asking for dinner every night, and we don’t send him home with anything on the weekends. This is a mother who gets a full mani, pedi, and massage every other week at my friends salon to the tune of $150. This is not someone struggling for money.
It’s just in general there has been a shift from parents parenting to relying/forcing these things on teachers and schools. It’s really a shame.