COVID-19 (Blog 1)

This is odd...We are well into this COVID-19 quarantine and this is the first blog I'm putting out...The old me that wrote daily would have been all over this shit...But my writing slipped...But as I have been feeling myself getting more and more in a funk, I started thinking it was a good time to start exercising some demons...Get the rants out...Just let it all fly...The good, the bad and the ugly....

So, here in Pennsyltucky, since early March school in the traditional sense is no more for the year...My high school senior like so many other have lost out on all the big Senior moments...Spring Musical cancelled, concerts cancelled, no Prom, no Graduation...It's a big bag of shit for the class of 2020....

But then we come to the at home, online schooling...As my family sits here watching Global Citizen At Home Together, there was this great piece about amazing teachers are being and the great shit they are doing to stay connected with and teach their students...That's great! I'm pro-teacher...Teachers should be paid more...Teachers are great...That said...WTF!?!

Teachers here in my Township are not impressing me at all...They aren't teaching my kids shit...They send an email of what needs to be done and when it needs to be done by...They aren't going over material with the kids before a quiz or test...The kids are going over it themselves...They're teaching themselves...My oldest works with my youngest, because fuck that new math...That shit makes my head want to explode...

I see all these stories of teachers going above and beyond and I see my kids teachers sending an email that says do X, Y, Z, A, B, C, and have it done by this day...Are you shitting me...I honest to God find myself wondering why the fuck are these teachers getting paid their full salary but my friends working at Walmart can't get hazard pay for dealing with the panicky public crashing the store for toilet paper! 


I'm sure this whole thing threw teachers for a loop, and I'm sure they care, and I've got a feeling that not every teacher is doing the intense above and beyond shit they love to show on the ABC news....Thank you to those that are...Those that aren't, I'm still paying taxes...Taxes that go to the school system...You're still getting your full salary...Knuckle up...Step up your game, or give your check to grocery store worker who would be lucky if they make half of what you do.

Stay Healthy

Have a drink

I'm Proud of My Son, Not His School

If you read my LAST post, you know my kids' school really pissed me off this week...And two days later I am still pissed...The school has not responded to either of my wife's emails, (one angry, one apologetic for the angry one, but explaining some of the frustration.) or my very angry email...After humiliating him at the bullshit awards ceremony on Wednesday, he didn't go to school Thursday...He was embarrassed and upset, and my wife was pissed and didn't care if he stayed home...I wanted him to go, be the better person...But really, should I have to expect my 10 year old son to be the bigger person when his teacher is 70-ish and his principal is in her mid 40's? He went today and we heard nothing from the school. He did get an apology from another student that he didn't get any awards...So if the kids notice that the adults shit on another kid, that's fucked up...

I have talked to some other parents recently and heard some things...Some unhappiness with things that go on there...We put the kids there because they promoted a "zero tolerance" policy towards bullying...I had always felt the term bullying has gotten overused...It seemed trendy...And that maybe we are making our kids too soft...But after my daughter was physically assaulted at her old school, and the kid got a tickle on the wrist for it, I was in with a "zero tolerance" policy....But from my talks, I now know of three families that have removed their kids, or a kid because of bullying and the schools lack of doing anything about it...they all seemed to get the brush off and saw no punishment for the offenders...

There was also a little girl from the school who's hair briefly caught fire at a mass where the kids were carrying in candles...No one from the school ever contacted the family just to check in and make sure everything was okay...Instead, the mother just gets dirty looks because she dropped a F-bomb in the church hallway when it happened and she putting her daughter smoldering hair out...

My son is a high-strung, nervous, sensitive, emotional kid, with eczema that makes him fidget, and A-D-D that makes him fidget more...We talked with the Principal and his teacher earlier in the year, because he said he wanted to leave...He was nervous to go to school most days...He felt picked on, and excluded, and that no one liked him...From talking things out with him, and them, some of this was built up in his head. He would hold something in that happened 3 weeks ago, and pile it onto something that happened last week, and today, and so on, and it would blow up in him...They said they would keep an eye on him, and talk with the students about how they should treat one another...There was never anything major that happened after that but there were dumb things here and there that bothered him more then the average kid...It is what it is...

But they knew all this going in, so on Wednesday when every kid in his class had their name called at least twice, and he stood there in front of the whole school not getting his name called, it hurt us as parents, and it validated all his fears...He had to work his ass off, and his grades were good...There was no justification for what they did...

Was he that difficult? I doubt it...

Is it because we aren't sending them back there because we can't afford it, and because he was unhappy there? 

Is it that they don't like me, and they took it out on him? I hope not...If so, I'll personally drive them to hell and watch them burn...

The fact that they have remained quiet and not even, at least offered an apology just makes me more angry and frustrated...It doesn't seem like the right actions from people that teach  Christian morals...Love, respect, forgiveness, kindness, compassion...Sure, I sent and angry email, and wrote an angry blog, and I stand by those...But I'm not the one riding around on a religious high horse with a "zero tolerance" policy...I have my own Zero Tolerance Policy...You fuck with my kids, I'm gonna light you up!

I'm hoping this is the last I have to say about this...My wife wants me to just drop it...But if I don't vent My heart might blow out of my chest while watching what I'm sure will be a stressful Rangers hockey game tonight! 

Now, My boy is looking forward...

Fucking Awards

Look at that sad looking fella...What is it?  It's a character from some thing called "Five Nights of Freddie" that my son is into...He made this in just a few minutes after he got home from school today...My wife brought the kids home early...She was quite pissed off and upset...Today was their schools awards ceremony...They do it every year, they give out awards to the kids that made honor roll, and all that stuff, but they always mix in bullshit awards so everyone feels good....Right? That's the world we're in...

I've always been against the whole "Every kid gets a trophy"..."Every kid is a winner"..."Every kid gets an award" mentality...But I've accepted it...When I was coaching Baseball for the Rec that didn't keep score, and everyone wins, everyone got pissed when they found out the Rec didn't put awards in their budget...I was the guy that bought medals for the kids out of my pocket...So yeah, I've accepted it...

So at the Awards today, they brought up each class up on the stage and called the kids names out for their awards...Academic ones, band ones, and the BS ones...Every kid in my sons class got at least two awards...My son's name was never called for anything...What the fuck! 

The thing is, they know how hard it has been for him...When we moved the kids there a few years ago, it was because my daughter was choked at recess by a boy, and his punishment was no recess for a week...Also my kids weren't being challenge academically...When he got there he was a half a year behind his 2nd grade class...they worked hard with him and got him caught up...He had struggles each year and was diagnosed with ADD this year...But he always did well...This year was also tough because his two best friends, (twin brothers) moved during the Summer...He felt excluded often...He's a high strung kid, and often nervous...It was a long year, but his final grades are all A's and B's with one C...So how the fuck does he not get at least a BS award?

He's amazing at art...He has more artistic ability in one pinky then the idiot art teacher could ever dream to have...Now her kid sucked at Baseball, but when he was on my team, I still gave him an award...So at least throw the kid a bone in art right? Wrong!  I assume she (the art teacher) dogged my son because I chewed her out last year when in her art classroom, a boy called my daughter a dyke, and she responded by telling him he's going to die alone...My daughter got detention, and the asshole boy got no punishment...

Yes, this Catholic school has done some good things for my family and helped our kids...But today they embarrassed and alienated my son in front of everyone...They kicked his confidence in the throat, and gave him back the feelings he had earlier in the year, that "No one there likes me." Doesn't seem very Christian to me...It just seems shitty...His 80 year old homeroom teacher should retire, or at least die!  My kids aren't going back there...That place can suck my ass....

Seems like my son was able to put his sadness into this little guy...Totally more talented then that bitch will ever be!