Chip Chick
This 16-year-old boy’s mother, who is in her 40s, teaches at his high school. Their school offers a teacher’s aide elective program for students. The program involves grading papers, making copies, and mentoring for the teacher the students work with.
Usually, the teacher’s favorite student becomes the teacher’s aide. When the second semester started recently, he learned that his mother picked a student named Dave, 17, as her teacher’s aide.
Since middle school, Dave viciously physically and verbally bullied him. His parents and school staff members are aware of Dave’s bullying history.
Over the years, the school administration met with him and Dave, and Dave was suspended several times, but the bullying didn’t decrease until high school. However, the only reason Dave no longer bullies him as much these days is that they don’t cross paths as often.
When they do, though, Dave is still cruel to him. He was understandably upset and baffled after discovering Dave would be his mom’s teacher’s aide.
“I asked her why she would want to spend extra time with someone who made my life so terrible. She said that she had him in one of her classes and that he isn’t such a bad kid, but he has a terrible home life that she can’t tell me about, which makes him act out,” he said.
His mother has always been empathetic toward children who experience unhealthy living situations. During the conversation, he emphasized how awful Dave had been to him, and she told him she could see where he was coming from but claimed that Dave needed support.
In response, he said that he understood that, but he questioned why she had to be the teacher to support him. He pointed out that the school was massive, with tons of teachers and staff members to mentor Dave. His mother asked him to quit being self-centered, adding that some students struggle more than he’d realize, and she wanted to provide support to these students.
“I was honest with her and told her that if she continued to have him as her aide, she was dead to me. She was choosing him over me, and she would no longer be my mother. I would no longer talk to her, and the minute I turned 18, I was moving out, and she would never hear from me again,” he explained.
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