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My son was suspended for five days for fighting today, then he made the decision to say a smart aleck comment and it escalated to a hearing for a long-term suspension. I am now in official panic mode. He is a Junior who was on track to graduate.
Does anyone have any suggestions for a private Christian school, online program or homeschooling? I do not want to put him into one of the APS Alternative Schools where they warehouse the kids who make bad choices.
So sorry to hear about this. As a mom, I can certainly imagine being in panic mode (among other modes). This exact same thing happened to my cousin, who is a sophomore, earlier this year. He is now at a charter school, which is mostly conducted online (2.5 hours per day of actual classroom time). I don't know the name of it offhand, but can find out if you're interested. There are a lot of online resources for homeschooling if you do a search. You might also look into charter schools. As for private Christian schools, the two big ones that I can think of are Hope and Menaul. On a smaller scale there are Victory Christian School and Evangel Christian Academy. Best of luck to you and your son.
So sorry to hear about this. As a mom, I can certainly imagine being in panic mode (among other modes). This exact same thing happened to my cousin, who is a sophomore, earlier this year. He is now at a charter school, which is mostly conducted online (2.5 hours per day of actual classroom time). I don't know the name of it offhand, but can find out if you're interested. There are a lot of online resources for homeschooling if you do a search. You might also look into charter schools. As for private Christian schools, the two big ones that I can think of are Hope and Menaul. On a smaller scale there are Victory Christian School and Evangel Christian Academy. Best of luck to you and your son.
Hello Marmom,
I am very interested in the charter school information.
Thanks
I'm going to recommend something unpopular and recommend a different option: support your kid's schools decision to long-term suspend him and do whatever is in your power to force him to make amends, get back into that school, and graduate late if that's what it takes. If that involves making life at home even less pleasant than getting back into school, then many would argue that's the parent's job to endure it.
The rushes parents go through to find alternative schools for their kids shows a triumph of hope over experience when it comes to teens. By finding an alternative school, it shows young adults that they can rely on their parents to enable them to escape their actions without consequences, and puts them at high risk for failure for the rest of their lives.
I think many people would agree with me that a young man/woman who graduates late but learns responsibility for their actions is far better educated and prepared for the world than a young man/woman who bounces around from school to school, escaping consequences every time.
It's a fact that teenagers, no matter the make or model, are jerks at times. You can blame biology on that. What separates jerk teenagers from full-fledged jerk adults is effective parenting during those years; are you going to coddle your kid until you're no longer able to get him out of his messes, or are you going to step up and apply some tough love, teaching him the coping skills he needs to survive?
Put a different way: any school that would accept your teen, public, private, or parochial, will likely insert him in a track with very similar kids. These are kids who will influence your kid from here out more than you will. To achieve success, your kid needs to stick with the winners. My suggestion for education: do the homeschooling until he can return to the people he wronged, hat in hand, and get back in. If that means graduating late, too bad.
I'm going to recommend something unpopular and recommend a different option: support your kid's schools decision to long-term suspend him and do whatever is in your power to force him to make amends, get back into that school, and graduate late if that's what it takes. If that involves making life at home even less pleasant than getting back into school, then many would argue that's the parent's job to endure it.
The rushes parents go through to find alternative schools for their kids shows a triumph of hope over experience when it comes to teens. By finding an alternative school, it shows young adults that they can rely on their parents to enable them to escape their actions without consequences, and puts them at high risk for failure for the rest of their lives.
I think many people would agree with me that a young man/woman who graduates late but learns responsibility for their actions is far better educated and prepared for the world than a young man/woman who bounces around from school to school, escaping consequences every time.
It's a fact that teenagers, no matter the make or model, are jerks at times. You can blame biology on that. What separates jerk teenagers from full-fledged jerk adults is effective parenting during those years; are you going to coddle your kid until you're no longer able to get him out of his messes, or are you going to step up and apply some tough love, teaching him the coping skills he needs to survive?
Put a different way: any school that would accept your teen, public, private, or parochial, will likely insert him in a track with very similar kids. These are kids who will influence your kid from here out more than you will. To achieve success, your kid needs to stick with the winners. My suggestion for education: do the homeschooling until he can return to the people he wronged, hat in hand, and get back in. If that means graduating late, too bad.
Zoldberg,
When I asked the question, I also included homeschooling as an option. We are exploring the paths to try to make his life structured over the next few months (no sitting around playing video games all day) without enabling. Our behavior standards are high, this was the first fight in my son's life and hell will freeze over before he gets his cell phone back.
I agree with the basic premise of Zoid's post, that people have to understand that their actions reap consequences, but to go from a five-day suspension for fighting, a reasonable penalty, to a long-term suspension for making an inappropriate remark is only going to teach him that authority is arbitrary, capricious, and at worst, corrupt.
I think the administration at his school has seriously failed.
I agree with the basic premise of Zoid's post, that people have to understand that their actions reap consequences, but to go from a five-day suspension for fighting, a reasonable penalty, to a long-term suspension for making an inappropriate remark is only going to teach him that authority is arbitrary, capricious, and at worst, corrupt.
I think the administration at his school has seriously failed.
It could be a whole school year screwed up because of saying the F word, and this is honestly only the second time he was in the office.
N8, I am a mom that gives consequences, checks text messages, does random drug tests and follows through.
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