The school is not able to put him in the class first day of the quarter because the school can not figure out what classes the student had to have to be able to graduate. (We had to argue with them for days to get that decided.)  The student is finally placed 3 days into the quarter into the required English class.  Still you would not think this would be a big deal either, the school was responsible for it, right?

Now the fun starts. 

The teacher calls home complaining that the student had not turned in his work.  We asked him about it while she is on the phone and he tells us he had not been assigned any work.  Now, get this.  THE TEACHER ADMITTED SHE HAD NOT GIVEN HIM THE WORK.  It was class assignments from days before he was placed in the class, and she admitted she had not taken time to give them to him yet.  Also, he could not take up "HER CLASS TIME" to get this work.  He would have to come before or after school to get the assignments.   She also makes it clear she does not accept late work.  Self contradictory already in so many ways.  We should have know then this was going to be a lost cause.  BUT NO, we tried to follow through in every way with the schools counselors, administration and staff to deal with this women.

She has filed a 4 page diatribe complaint against the student claiming he physically threatened her in the library over her not allowing him to use internet resources because the school did not have reference material on the subject matter he was writing about for her class.  This complaint was found to be inaccurate and deliberately exaggerated.  No one in the library could substantiate her claims and the witnesses were adult staff as well as students.  This event and the discussion with counselors regarding it prompted them to create an arrangement for the student to do his classwork in the office and turn the work into the counselor there to avoid any more issues between the student and the teacher.  The teacher admitted she had an attitude with the student because he "corrected" her in class concerning native American culture.  The student is of native American heritage.   Heritage is not the issue here.  The issue is the school put the student in the office to do the work. They put a system in place for him to do what he had to do without further problems with the teacher for whatever reason.  WRONG!!!  Next she reports him absence everyday from her class, knowing he was in the office.  After 5 days this prompts the school to warn us they are going to drop him for repeated absences.  We made the attendance office go next door to the next office to see the student was physically RIGHT NEXT TO THEM!  Dodged another bullet. SHeesh!!

Now ready for the big one? Today we are getting ready to go to Sarasota County Technical Institute for his graduation from Culinary Arts.  Did I mention he goes to college in the morning, and high school in the afternoon?  Venice High School calls to tell us that the teacher has graded everything he has done since being placed in the office with a -0-.  Remember early on she called wanting late work, work he had no knowledge of?  Remember she said she does not accept late work?  Well, now she says that because the work was not in her hands before the end of class each day she did not have to grade it!!!  They did not give him that option.  They required him to place it with the counselor in the office to verify independently  that he was doing the work and she was giving it to the teacher.  One day this past week he was in the library doing reasearch for his assignment when the English class came in to the library.  He discussed with his teacher what was required for the days work, and then attempted to hand in the assignment to her DIRECTLY while in the library.  Did she accept it? NO.  She advised him that his work was required to be turned in to the counselor so they would both avoid troubles Now what can we do?   He did as told, and got -0- on every last bit of it, including the assignment he tried to give her in the library!!!  PURE BS FOLKS!  They are deliberately going to fail him from this class for purely subjective and personal reasons.

We asked 3 weeks ago about just letting him do the test-out program on the computer and getting him out on GED.  We were told no, would not be needed.  Now we are told we never asked and it is too late! 

He came in to this school on the Honor Rolls, he has been on the TIP Program from Duke university since he was 9 years old.  2 years ago he was nominated and accepted to join the People To People program because of his scholastic abilities.  He went to China for a month with People To People and was very highly recommended by them and invited to go on future special events.  He has been teaching computer classes at the Womens Resource Center here in Venice the last couple of years as a volunteer.  I think it is really sad how this is all turning out.  We have tried dealing with the school, the county, and we are now filing complaints with the state over all this.