Abby Connolly
Everyone who has ever been in school or has raised a kid that goes to school knows that there is always that one parent who tends to make everything difficult for the faculty and other members of the school community.
One man is afraid he’s become ‘that parent’ after having to clear up an issue his daughter was having with her teacher, especially after he found out that other teachers were gossiping about the incident.
He has an 11-year-old daughter named Cleo. Cleo is very bright and active. She plays sports after school and loves to play outside with the neighborhood kids. A lot of Cleo’s friends are ones she’s made outside of school.
In school, however, Cleo has struggled to make friends.
Cleo has ADHD and used to be bullied through 3rd and 4th grade because of it. Now, she’s in 5th grade, and although things have improved, kids in her class still tend to exclude and ignore her.
As awful as it sounds, Cleo has made peace with spending time alone at school. At recess, she typically plays by herself or reads. She loves to read and has been reading through her mom’s collection of childhood books.
Cleo’s lack of socialization in school and her recess habits have been concerning her teacher, even though he and his wife have explained to her that Cleo gets plenty of social time with other kids after school.
On a recent day after school, Cleo came home distraught after her teacher confiscated a book she was reading during recess. Unfortunately, it was one of her mom’s old books.
“Her teacher walked over, took the book, and told her to go play,” he explained. “My daughter begged for her book back, and the teacher refused.”
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