Reply #52: Thanks to everyone for your replies and feedback [View All]

[southlandshari]

I'm going to sleep on this tonight, but my preliminary plan at this point is to:

a) get in touch with the parents of one of the children who was with my daughter when this was said and see if they heard a similar report

b) along with those parents, or alone if necessary, go to the school tomorrow afternoon and speak first with the principal, and then request a three-way meeting that includes the "teacher" herself (who is probably nothing but a recent college grad who hasn't found a real teaching job yet so she's working at the afterschool program at the public kindergarten - common in our small college town)

c) confront the teacher in the principal's presence and ask for an explanation and apology

I would also like to get my daughter's regular teacher (the one she is with from 7:45 am to 2:15 pm) involved in this. I think she will be quite sympathetic to my position.

I can see some value to having my daughter repeat this story to the principal and/or other administrators. On the other hand, I do worry about making her further confused or worse, intimidated by all the meetings with all the grownups and therefore a little more cautious about speaking up on this kind of thing in the future.

If I am not fully satisfied with the outcomes of these actions (I've got to decide between now and tomorrow morning what it is I really WANT from them), I will not hesitate to go on up the ladder. Regardless, I plan to write a follow up letter after the meetings tomorrow to be put in this woman's file, if she is still employed next week.