I picture Grasshopper as Judd Nelson's character, yes? The Bad Boy who doesn't take shit from anyone.
When I listened to the voicemail message left by the Student Manager (the WHAT?!), Grasshopper’s offense was “throwing food in the cafeteria.” My immediate and horrific thoughts were of John Belushi in Animal House. God, please don’t let it be that bad! And if it is, at least tell me that he was defending a smaller kid who was getting pelted with hot dogs and green Jello.
No. The cafeteria monitor caught Grasshopper tossing a piece of gum to his friend. Not chewed up and mixed with BB’s or shards of broken glass, aimed at the eyes of a school bully. No. This was a wrapped piece of gum, under-hand tossed a distance of about a foot to a friend who wanted a piece of Juicy Fruit.
Cafeteria Monitor gave Grasshopper the choice of cleaning the cafeteria (WTF?!) or a Saturday detention. Grasshopper chose the latter.
I will not force him to make an appearance. Because you know what? I do not agree with the detention, Saturday or otherwise. I think the school is taking it’s Zero Tolerance Policy a bit too literally. Tossing a piece of wrapped gum to a friend at the next table is classified under “disturbing the learning environment.” I’m not sure about the learning disabilities of other students in Grasshopper’s high school, but Grasshopper is not “learning” how to eat at the age of 14. He’s been doing quite well ever since he picked up his first Cheerio.
If a student does not show up for a Saturday detention, he/she is handed a 3-day, out-of-school detention. Wow, that’s showing ‘em! Nothing worse than staying at home, playing video games, eating junk food, sleeping whenever the mood strikes, and trying to figure out the parental lock on the porn channel. Unlike most parents who have a child at home for 3 days as a punishment for some kind of nonsensical offense, I will not forbid him the luxuries of being at home. I am not punishing him. I will punish him for creating a meth lab in his closet, I will punish him for ‘dealing’ to other students, I will punish him for his involvement in events similar to what happened at my alma mater last week.
But I will not punish him for the anal attitude of
Chris,
Oh my God! I'm so mad just about hearing this. Did the cafeteria monitor need to fulfill her/his quota of catching kids doing something stupid. After all what or who was being harmed?
The only time I had a problem in school was my history teacher catching me chewing gum in class and she had me stay after school the next day.
Never told my parents - at least not the truth of why I had to stay a half hour late.
Bonnie
Posted by: Bonnie | 01/02/2010 at 12:02 PM