One GINORMOUS Rant

OK...so I started this post last night and only got so far as the title.  I was tired and beat...yesterday was a day like I hadn't had in a long while! 

There was a wonderful silver lining in the whole day and that was when I was able to see my Uncle who lives in Holland and my Mommom (grandma). My Uncle normally isn't able to come a lot so he comes about every 2 years and that's just him, the rest of his family rarely comes because it is just too darn expensive to come, and I can't blame him. I've priced it and just the flight alone is eye opening! Doesn't even begin to cover hotel, car, food, entertainment...so on and so forth! We met at Red Robin and then after the kids and I ate, we drove to our house! Very exciting as it's been since Ian was little that they had come to my house, they came and visited for awhile and I'm glad we were able to do that!

Sigh...so that was the good part of my day yesterday...the highly irritating part of my day...well shoot from the time I got up and got my day going things were irritating. Just dealing with things and situations and all around just highly annoyed.  To top that off I got a call from the school yesterday about Lee...no surprise there. If I was going to pick a kid of mine that I'd be getting phone calls about it's him. Love my boy but most of his problems are caused by him...he's gotta work on that!  Anyway, the phone call was because he was sent to the solution room...think detention room.  Here is the back story...in class they were decorating their Valentine bag holder and the teacher said draw hearts and other stuff.  So, my son, God love him. Drew other stuff. What is the other stuff you ask? Well I will tell you. He drew guns! I know! Keep it together people! He drew guns shooting birds (a hunting scene) and he drew guns shooting carrots (Lee being outright silly).  His teacher walked around and was looking at the different bags and saw Lee's and said that's not OK and sent him to the solution room.  I get SUPER annoyed when first they send him there with out stopping and thinking, OK...I left the comment "hearts and other stuff' to open ended and vague and this IS Lee we are talking about.  So instead of saying, " Lee don't draw guns at all anymore, and give him a new bag and let him start over. He just goes straight to detention. 

So there is the back story...forward up to the phone call and the gal in charge of the solution room is calling me.  She gives me a brief description and by that time I'm already thinking really?  Really? Of all the battles to pick with Lee THAT'S what you are going with!?! Honestly people! So part of what ever it is they do in this room, it requires at times for them to have the children talk to their parents. Therefore that means Lee is getting on the phone with me to tell me what happened.  So I ask him what's going on...he says he drew guns on his Valentine bag and then got sent here (and I will say I talked to his teacher today and that's is exactly what happened...) so I said OK well what happens now? He said he didn't know....great Lee...put the teacher back on the phone. And you have to know how honestly irritated I am now...really irritated.  So the teacher gets back on and I ask what happens from here, because I'm trying to figure out just what exactly the point of all this is and what do they want from me.  She is telling me that they aren't allowed to draw guns anymore and that's not what Valentines day is, and it's about kindness, hearts and stuff. To which I said well not to Lee it's not and he's a 9 year old boy, who could care less about hearts and stuff.  He drew guns on his bag...BIG FLIPPIN DEAL people!  As I kept asking this teacher what happens now, she said well he will fill out a paper on what not to do or something (so not a supporter of this place but I sorta get why it's there...) he missed a recess because of it and then she would go down and talk to the teacher.  But she thought maybe that might be it, or he might miss his Valentines Party or suspension.  Although she didn't think suspension because the last time they did that it was between 2 people.  Through this whole conversation I am getting more upset, angry and irritated and I just finally say OK.  Seriously, what the heck do they want from me? Yell at him over the phone? That'll really show what an awesome parent I am...hahahaha! I did get so mad though that I called her back and told her I was coming to get him and take him out of school. She was surprised and asked if I was mad and I said yeah I was pretty mad about the whole things...she again was surprised by it.  So I yanked my kids outta school and left it until today when I talked to his teacher.
   Talked to his teacher and I heard his side of the story and it was the same as Lee had said and I let him know what I thought and what I was mad about and why I did what I did. Let him know where Frank and I were coming from and what we told Lee.  And we told Lee that what he drew was not wrong...what would have been wrong was that if he was told to NOT draw guns and he did it anyway...and then he'd be in trouble for not obeying....then he'd be in trouble.  So, drawing guns wasn't bad, however we now know we can't draw guns at school because people act like this...lack of common sense!

*Here is my thing...I know exactly where the school is coming from and it's all stemming from the horror that happened at Sandy Hook. I get it...really I do!  But we have to remember that incident was a grown man (take out the whole issue of mental illness) that did that! And yes I know that elementary age children have brought guns into schools and shot kids....mostly by accident but it's happened.  But at what point did common sense walk out of the schools and turn people and situations into what my son was in the middle of!?!?! Seriously!!! Common sense people!  It isn't like Lee was making homemade cards to his classmates depicting crude images and then handing them out. It isn't like these scenes he had drawn were giving people cause to be distressed.  And if we are going to split hairs people then lets split them.  If you are going to tell my child he can't draw guns for Valentines Day, they why do you allow other cards with Star Wars and their light sabers on them, or Transformers scenes with gun fire, or better yet your traditional depicted figure of Cupid with is bow and arrow! If this is the road you are going to walk down then I'll go with you and back you up.  That means you can't allow those things in the school and it also means you have to make rule that no back packs, school lunch boxes, clothes, etc.. can't be allowed in your schools like this!! You can't have it both ways! It's ridiculous in more ways than one!  Oh so irritated!*

So there is my ridiculously long rant...I'm not as upset about it as I was last night but I certainly don't agree with the teacher and how he chose to deal with this, nor do I agree with the teacher in charge of the solution room.  I also do get where there are coming from, but when people are asking us to not let our children watch the Sandy Hook horror so they aren't afraid to come to school and keep things normal...I am doing my job, however I think in some ways they, the schools,  have gone a tad overboard and are making things in a child's world and mind bigger than they need to be.  I'm not saying don't talk about guns and what guns do...good and bad...and horrific...because we do need to talk about it and make people aware...but to me this just wasn't the way to go about it.

So there ya have it...