STRESS, CONT'D...

Ok, so I never made it back here yesterday, nothing new about that...LOL!! But I did want to fill you in on Keith's school "situation" that I talked about briefly at the end of my last post.

Last year, about mid year, we decided that it would be best to separate him and his sister and put them into different schools for a couple of reasons. Krystyna is a straight A student and a brown noser...LOL. She's the student that kisses up to the teacher and does what she needs to do to get on their good side. Keith, on the other hand, is a very smart/intellingent child, he just has NO drive. Put a test in front of him and he'll get an A+ every time, but it's the day to day work that brings his grades down MAJORLY. He's always been a handful.

Anyway, with is severe ADHD diagnosis, we looked at our "options", and found a charter school in our area that specifically taught not only ADHD/ADD kids, but also kids with Aspbergers (sp?). We felt that we checked the school out fairly well. It came with some high reccomendations from people that were knowledable in this field. So, to make a long story short, we enrolled him in this "school" with some minor "bad feelings". Those feelings mostly came from the bad rep that the charter schools were getting.

The remainder of the year went fairly well for him, and at their end of the year ceremonies, he was presented with a plaque for getting straight A's. I was quite proud of him. But I still had a few "bad feelings" about the school. Over the period of time that he went there, several times, I asked his teacher to see his school work. I wanted to see what he was working on, and how he was doing. For one reason or another, I was never presented with said papers. We talked to Keith over summer break about the possiblity of attending another school this year, but after much talk and consideration, we reluctantly allowed him to go back to this school when school started in August.

The first week of school went very well. I think mostly because it was what they called "camp week". Rather than spend that first few days in the school, they opted to do different outings with the kids to get them excited about going back to school, and to give them time to meet and get to know the new kids that were coming into the school this year.

The second week started off on a "bad" foot though. I needed some information so I called the school, only to get their voicemail/answering machine. So, I reluctanly left a message. Now mind you, this was on Monday. Tuesday I had a doctors appointment after I got Kryssy off to her first day of school, and she only had a half day, so Tuesday I didn't attempt to call Keith's school. By the time I got both kids on busses Wednesday, it hit me that the school hadn't returned my call from Monday yet, so once again, I called his school, and once again, I got their answering machine/voicemail, and once again, I left a message. Wednesday evening rolled around and I still had not recieved a return call, by this point, I was simply fed up and really felt as if something was just NOT RIGHT about this whole situation. Finally on Thursday afternoon, after calling 2 more times Thursday morning, I got an actual human being on the other end of the line when I called. I explained to this person who I was, who my son was, and that I now was requesting a meeting with Keith, his teacher and the principal. The person on the other end of the line then says "OH, I remember taking that message, hold on a second and I'll see if it has been picked up yet". She comes back and says "I know what the problem is, I couldn't understand what your last name was while listening to your message, so I was unsure as to who to give the message to because the name I thought you said did not register with any of the last names we have in our school." I'm like WTF? So I asked her "UMMMM, with every message I left, I also left my home phone number, wouldn't have just been easier to have called me to find out what my name or my sons name was?" To which she giggled and replied "Yeah, I guess that would have been easier." She then went on to say that she would see to it that my message was delivered that day and that they had alot "going on" on Friday, so I probably wouldn't get a call from the teacher until they returned back to class on Tuesday. ARRRRRRRRRRRRG!!!!!!

OK, I guess if that's the best they can do, there really is not much I can do about it, is there? So I sit through the long holiday weekend. As you know from my last post, on Monday night, I ended up at the ER with Kryssy over her leg, and Tuesday we ended up at her doctors office. On my way home from the doctors with Kryssy on Tuesday afternoon, my cell phone goes off. It's coming from a number that I have never seen before. I answer it, and on the other end is Keith's teachers assistant/aide. I explain to her that she's calling me on a prepaid cell phone that I really don't have alot of time on and that I'll be home in 15 minutes, and ask if I can call her at the number she is calling from as soon as I get home, to which she says "SURE". I hang up, and drive home, NOT the happiest camper in the world after what just happened at the doctors office.

When I get home, I literally run into the house and call the number that Keith's teachers assistant/aide called me from, and I am sent to a voicemail that announces the name of a person I have never heard from before. I leave a message as to who I am and why I am calling and that I hope I haven't dialed the wrong number and that I will try to redial incase I did call the wrong number. I redial the number that has shown up on my cell phone and once again am directed to this same persons voicemail, so this time I leave a more detialed message, along with my phone number. This was at approximately 3 p.m.

At 4:45, Keith gets off the bus. When he walks in the house I ask him "Did anything happen at school today?", to which he says "NO". I then ask him why Miss Leech called me and he then goes on to say "Oh, so and so brought a stick into school today and they told Miss Leech that I broght it in and tried to poke them in the eye with it", or something like that.

Now I must tell you, I AM NOT one of those parents that say "My child does no wrong", simply because I know my children very well and know that they are MONSTERS!! But I was a bit "miffed" at the thought that Miss Leech was possibly calling me because of the stick incident, yet no one had yet returned ANY of my phone calls from the prior week. By this time, frankly, I'm at my maximum stress level. I can feel that my blood pressure is up, because I can feel my heart pounding in my head. So I looked at Ric and said "OH SURE, they can call me about a stick, but they CANNOT return my phone calls requesting a meeting?". THEN, Keith goes, OH YEAH MOM, HERE, and hands me a note from his teacher. Rather than take the time to call me personally, his teacher instead wrote me a note saying that he wanted to know why I was asking for this meeting, and could I please call him and let him know what I needed. THAT was the straw that broke the camels back!!!! Something inside of me simply SNAPPED!!! At that point, I simply picked up the telephone, called Keith's school and left them a message stating that until I recieved the courtesy of a phone call with a meeting date and time, and at that meeting I was able to review the cirriculum for Keith for that year and IF I felt said cirriculum was at the 7th grade level, my son WOULD NOT be returning to their joke of a school, and hung up....LMAO!!! Ok, I have to be honest, there were several not so nice words thrown into that message too! But dang it, he's in the 7th grade. It's wonderful that this school addresses their ADHD needs, but at this stage in their lives these children also need Academics and seriousness!! Keith's "biggest" problem in school each day was whether or not he was going to take his Yu-Gi-Oh cards to school or his Game Boy.

So, to make a long story short, the chickenshits never had the intestinal fortitude to call me until this morning. And the only reason they called me today was to ask where Keith had been. I simply told the lady at the other end of the phone "listen to your voicemail, you'll hear why", and hung up the phone. But back up to yesterday, Keith is now attending the Jr High for this area. It appears to be a decent school, and obviously more academic. He has Pre Algebra, Pre Bioligy and English and Reading classes, along with Phys Ed, Chorus and some sort of Social Studies class. So far he likes it, but time will tell whether that one holds up...LOL. All I know is that I HAVE to put his academics first!!

On another note, I took a road trip with a friend today. We had a really nice time and I put almost 200 miles on my car...LOL. When I got home, there was a message on the voicemail from Kryssy's surgeons office asking me to call them. Her surgery is scheduled for Thursday Sept 15th at 9:45 a.m., but she has to be to the hospital by 8. So, it's scheduled. Ric has put in for the day off work so that he can go, and the nurse at the doctors office put in her paperwork that they want one parent to go back into the operating room with her until she is put under. We let her choose, and she chose daddy. Although I wanted to scream "I WANT TO GO", I know that daddy is the better choice, because I'm going to be a basket case that day!

OK, it's 9:40 and I started this dang post at 8:55...LOL. I need to get off here and get to bed! Thanks for listening!!

**huggles**
LUV YA!!