Turning Kids Around

Our school is different from a public school: the rules, the classroom, homework. So when 5th grade comes in there is a challenge. One student in particular was really difficult at the beginning of the year. “Katie” was younger than the kids and more immature. She would throw a fit and talk very disrespectfully, especially for the first month and a half. She got a couple bad grades. She was asked to leave the classroom a lot, was often in isolation, didn’t get her homework done. She didn’t do well.

As the year went along, we set up boundaries for her and talked a lot about how we could work on her behavior. Katie’s mom was really involved. She would call every time Katie got in trouble at school. Her mom was very intimidating. Every time she called I was afraid she was going yelled at me.

Toward the end of the year, Katie was really improving. But she had a big fight with her Mom and ran away. She expected her family to chase her and say, “Oh, we’re sorry.” But they just let her go. She stayed with her grandmother.

At the end of school, her Mom called and said Katie decided she wasn’t going to live at home any more. Her Mom was really worried about her. Katie felt that because they didn’t go after her that they didn’t want her back.

Katie and her mom were going to have a meeting with the Principal but he was busy. So her Mom asked if I would meet with them. Katie explained why she didn’t want to live at home. Her Mom explained how she was acting at home. The way she talked to her Mom was the way she used to talk to me at the beginning of the year. I asked, “What happens when you talk to me like that?” Katie answered, “You have to go to isolation.” “You can’t talk to your Mom like that either. It’s not respectful,” I replied. She was listening to me!

Even though I had so much trouble with her at the beginning of the year, I felt that she had grown so much. I know it wasn’t just what I did, but it involved a lot of other people too. I felt like we made a difference. If she hadn’t come to our school, she would still be at the public school acting in the same way.