Horror of horrors!

What the? There's a sophomore in my Math B class who has quite a bit of attitude. (They all have attitude. I usually have to deal with the most severe cases which vary depending on the day.) She was fine through the first marking period, and her grade showed it. Yesterday, out of the blue, she was horrible. I got her kicked out for having a sidekick in class after she refused to put it away (electronics are against the school rules) and she cursed me out. It was my worst curse out yet. (I'm not bragging). Unfortunately, I didn't get to talk to her mother about it.

Today we were taking a test in the class. She came in with yesterday's attitude and it was clearly affecting the girl sitting next to her. I asked girl of them to move. She refused so I passed out tests to everyone else in class and stood waiting for them to follow directions. She began expressing her distaste for what I was doing, which I skillfully ignored. She colorfully told me how unfair she thought I was. I told her that she could have a test when my directions were followed. During her tantrum she mentioned that she was going to call her mom on me. OOOOhhhhh, scary. Idle threats don't terrify me. (Clearly I didn't believe that she was serious, so I told her to go ahead.)

She did. And it turns out that while threats do NOT scare me, follow through kind of does. When her mother answered she loudly explained her side of the story. She then held out the phone to me so her mother could lecture me. I felt like a freshman again. How was she able to reverse the roles so that I felt like the one who was going to get in trouble? I had no idea what to do and suddenly I questioned everything I had done since the beginning of class. I had no idea what I should say to a now quite irate parent. I refused to take the phone, so she put it on speaker. Just when I thought that it couldn't get worse. I hope you're picturing this. A class full of students trying to take a test. Whatever I say to that parent in the presence of all the students will come back at me. Let's be honest, I'm outnumbered. And they always choose each other over the teacher. Furthermore, after hearing the first screetching tones of the mother on speaker phone demanding in front of the whole class that I give her daughter a test, I was no longer surprised at the student's lack of decourum. Who does that?

I asked the student to take the phone into the hall so we could have a conversation. It was an inspired move, but I did have to ask more than once. I implored the mother to get her in the hall and finally that's what happened. In the hall my gloves came off, but not really. If you don't know me, you don't know that I HATE confrontation. I used to cry when I'm confronted with any issue. (I'm getting better at it.) I told her mother what had happened yesterday. That caught her off gaurd and gave me a bit of an upper hand. Plus it kind of shut the student up for a second or two. I went on to explain that I was completely baffled at the student's behavior then and that today was more of it. I did admit some fault for lack of communication but got the student to see that I'm not the bad guy. We've had a respectful relationship up til now and I expect it to return. I told her (still on speaker phone so her mom could hear) that her attitude did nothing to solve the problem, in fact it made it worse. By that point, her mother was calmly listening to what I had to say and was a little less inclined to fully side with her daughter against me. I told her to go into the room and move her seat back so that she could take the test. She very calmly did so. We both saved face, but it totally sucked. I'm an adult now. I'm not used to having someone question me enough to try to get me in trouble. What's that about?

Several hours later I have the student's younger brother in my class. Of all the luck. Younger brother wanted to see what grade he earned in my class, so he stayed after class. I showed him. He failed. I gave him make up work to do weeks ago and he never turned it in. I was justified, but the thoughts of him calling his mother and me having to deal with her again. . . What are the odds of having a run in with the same mother for two different problems in the same day? I'm expecting that phone call when I get home and the prospect isn't exciting.