I think my childrens' principal has poor judgment..

[CoffeeCat]

My children told me today that their principal made an
announcement on the loud speaker today.

I know it's true, because one child told me about it.
I asked the other child to tell me about the announcement
and she echoed what my first child said.

Apparently, the principal said that the
bathrooms have been very messy, with lots of toilet
paper strewn about. He's very concerned about this
and wants the culprits to come forward. He told
the entire student body, that if the perpetrators
do not come forward of their own volition, that
they will be in serious trouble because fingerprinting
was done in these bathrooms and those fingerprints
were given to the police. The police will then
identify the culprits and then they will be in
even more trouble--and it will be trouble with
the police.

Ok, people, I'm trying to keep my wits about me, but
this police threat (over toilet paper!) was announced
to ELEMENTARY-SCHOOL CHILDREN! He just threatened
kindergartners with the police!

I am really outraged by this. For one, it's dishonest.
No one took fingerprints and obviously, the police
aren't working hard in their CSI crime lab to root out the
messy 2nd graders who threw toilet paper on the ground.
Also, since when is terrorizing young children with
police investigations and incarceration a viable
teaching tool?

This is the same principal who berates the children
in the lunch room--repeatedly telling them to eat
everything on their plate. He makes kids stay late
and miss recess if they don't eat every thing, even
if they hate it.

Enough is enough...I'm going to calm down and figure
out how to best approach this, but I feel that this
cannot be allowed.

Does anyone have and opinions or suggestions?

[TheCentepedeShoes]

1. I don't have kids of my own

but I wander into this forum on occasion to see what's up.
NCLB is one of my pet peeves and I like to see parents' experiences.
Sounds like this guy has some serious control-freak issues. Talking to the kids about helping to keep the bathrooms neater as a "school pride" thing would be ok, but threatening them with calling the cops!?! And the lunch thing - NCLB has cut away at recess enough. I recall at that age how fidgety I got in the afternoon if I didn't run off some of my energy after lunch.

[Quakerfriend]

2. THat's pretty bad, Twosparkles! My boys once attended

a very small private school where I worked. The head of the school used similar tactics. She also emotionally abused some of the kids- "Saying things like, "Well G. did it better than you did it" etc.
Fortunately, she never directed this at my kids but, you know how it is- eventually, they would have been subjected to such stuff.

Well, when I told the director that I was taking the boys out of the school. She begged me to keep the boys there. But, I told her that I could not because of what I saw as emotional abuse.
I didn't have the guts to tell her, that I felt that everyone knew what was going on but CHOSE to overlook it.


One of the boys in the school drew a picture of a penis on the wall in the music room, and someone else added "Fuck K_____" (the principal!) underneath.

I had to chuckle at that one!


If I were you, I would get together with some of the other parents and write a letter to the school superintendent. Threats, of any kind cannot be permitted.

[Tumbulu]

3. You are right to be upset

I usually have to get over the emotional reaction before I can think of a response. Perhaps you are this way too. But this principal is way out of bounds in my opinion. Maybe some of the good folks here will have useful ideas other than changing schools.