I really honestly can't believe it... My son hit a whole new level of low this time and didn't think for one minute that he'd get caught in it...
He came home with his report card the other week and he had one a a couple b's, a c, and a d. He then said to me that the c got rounded up to a B because of the days he was absent for being sick. I said okay and told him we had to get that D up. Then next day, he came home with a pink invitation to the AB honor roll ceremony and said that since that C got rounded up to a B he had made the AB honor roll.
My first question was how in the hell did he make the AB honor roll when he had a D? I mean maybe AB honor roll means something different to these schools today but in my day, that D would have meant no AB honor roll, you know? So never the less he got congratulated by the whole family. Everyone bought his excuse that he got on it because the C was rounded up to a B, no one questioned anything.
Well even though I had questions, my mom and I still planned on going to the awards Ceremony. And I told my son this. To his credit, he tried very hard not to get me to go. At first he said he wasn't sure parents were allowed. Then he said he wasn't sure he was in it because of the C that was supposed to be rounded up to a B but still appeared as a C on his report card. Then for a week it was simply not mentioned.
Then he came home last Monday all mad because the honor roll kids got to go play laser tag and he hadn't gotten to go because his bus was late. His bus is always late getting to school because the woman doesn't show up here until 8:45 which is exactly one minute before she can be reported. (His actual bus arrival time is 8:36 and she has ten minutes to get there before she can be reported.) Anyway he said he was the ONLY ONE that didn't get to go because his bus was late and they had to be there at a certain time.
No those of you that are parents reading this, wouldn't common sense ring in here and say If this was a special trip for all the kids on the honor roll, don't you think the bus could have waited for him. I mean they had to have a list of kids that were going to be going and further more since this was a school trip, a permission slip should have been sent home. Right? RIGHT?? All of these occurred to me as I called the school to find out but was asked to leave my number and the principal would call me back. HE never actually called me back but then this is the man that called me by five different surnames in a ten minute conversation the last time we did talk so I'm assuming he forgot.
Skip to this morning. Jovaughn took the invitation saying that he had to have it to get into the ceremony today. Another one of those warning bells went off in my head. Then he said he really didn't think it was for parents because they told him it was just a party. Another warning bell. I told him that I would call the school. And i did and they confirmed that parents were invited to the ceremony today. So I went to pick up my mother and together we went to the school.
Now, I had decided that I was not going to sit through this thing if my son wasn't one of the kids being honored and I found the first adult I could and she confirmed that the ceremony was for perfect attendance, and AB honor roll for either the first or second quarter. I said he didn't have perfect attendance and he didn't get AB honor roll last quarter because he got an F and this quarter he'd gotten a D. The lady then directed me to a list of all the students on the honor roll and told me to go check it. I did and surprise, surprise! Jovaughn's name wasn't anywhere on the list. Around this time, the boy comes into the auditorium where the ceremony is being held and he sees my mom sitting and I can't tell if he was surprised to see her sitting there but I do know that a fearful expression and tears sprang to his eyes when he saw me. I took him up to the woman who happened to be his guidance counselor and told her that his name wasn't on the lists and that I needed to know why he received an invitation to the awards ceremony if he wasn't being honored. She replied that it seems to have been a mistake that he was given one and then she told him to just go to his elective which is the class that he would have had if he hadn't be in the ceremony.
I then went to the office and left a message for his teacher to call me because at this point, you have to understand. I dragged myself out of bed, and my mother out of her house and drove all the way to a school that I don't like overmuch anyway and now I was being told that he wasn't in it... Naw,. that's not flying with me.
So I am back home waiting for the teacher to call me. Because I have strong suspicions that Jovaughn got that invitation from another child and tried very hard to pass off that he was on the honor roll even though he wasn't. The deeper issue here is that he obviously wanted me to be proud of him for something and he thought that he wouldn't get caught. But here's the thing... even if I hadn't gone to the ceremony, I knew that there was one today and I would have wanted to see his award. Where was he going to get one with his name on it, or would he have said there was a mix up and he'd get his later? I do know that he thought through it enough to leave his trumpet at home. so he wasn't prepared to be sent to music class today. The parent in me wonders what would have happened if he had sat through the ceremony he wasn't supposed to be at. Would he have been marked as skipping music? What would he have done if the teacher emaillled me or called me.
There are too many question surrounding this and my son and I don't know which answers to believe. At this point I am waiting for the teacher to call me back. I am not going to scream. I am not going to yell. In fact, I don't know what exactly I am going to do because yelling doesn't work, threatening doesn't work, punishing doesn't work. Nothing works with him. He still lies like a rug. He's gotten on this path and he seems to be stuck. I'm afraid my son is going to end up in juvie because he's going to llie to the wrong person one day, you know.
Like I said. A whole new level...
