Straight-A student?s parents sue over F

[imported_Imp]

About the GPA thing. Ok, from getting knocked up and down through college, I've learned(should be common sense) that your grade reflects more than how "smart" (and quote that very much) you are. You slack off, your grade goes down. Forgetful: down. Lazy: down. Excuse prone: down. Can't follow deadlines: down. Can't hand in project on time: down. In this case, some snobby, "I pwns u in smartt" is pissed because she can't follow rules or have the courtesy to 'ask' for special treatment? If the assignment is worth more than the exam, why the hell couldn't she put the effort in to hand it in on time? Must have kissed some sweet ass to get her "l337" GPA. Someone fails at life... I wouldn't want this tard working for me.

Oh, and if you're wondering, I'm running on 4 hours of sleep after going to 4am yesterday finishing an assignment to hand in on time. Not worth much, but I guess I can follow rules instead of bitching and sueing.

Edit: Just so if anyone wants to remind me she was on a trip. So? Shouldn't have assumed she'd get treated specially, should have checked with teacher/handed it in early in the morning before trip/day before. I had trips in HS too, some teachers still made us hand stuff in on time.

 

[IEC]

Originally posted by: montanafan

Originally posted by: jagec

Originally posted by: ElFenix
after the fact, as there was nothing to sue about before the fact. obviously no one thought to discuss it before the fact. probably because the school policy was clear on what would happen. it was only when that policy was arbitrarily violated did any grounds for a law suit come up

Wait, you know the school's policy? Do you live in the area or something? Because the article does NOT say what the school's policy is, they just have the prosecution's statement that "athletes get to turn in late work all the time!", which isn't exactly the same thing.

Yeah, that's part of the problem here. The girl's lawyer is not quoting the actual policy which is a state policy. It says that a student who has ANY absence has to be given the same amount of time to complete any assignments for the days they missed. So if they missed Monday and Tuesday, you give them the assignments on Wednesday and can require that the Monday assignment must be turned in on Thursday and the Tuesday one on Friday. (And yes, I do teach in the same state.)

I guess in this particular case the girl's lawyer could argue that if the class was given say, 7 days to complete the assignment and the girl's absence caused her to only have 5 days to complete it, then she should be allowed the two more days to complete it. The school though could argue that because the assignment was not given on the days she missed, but much earlier, the rule doesn't apply here.

Technically speaking, I'd think the school has the better case when applied to the actual policy, but really everyone is being pretty ridiculous about it. The girl knew when the assignment was due, the rule about it not being accepted late, and that she would be gone when it was due. She should have planned accordingly or talked to the teacher about it ahead of time. If the parents are so involved in their child's education, why didn't they just turn the project in for her on the day it was due? Like someone else said, she wasn't going to be working on it during her trip, it should have already been done and they could have dropped it off at the school.

While I can see people thinking the teacher is being too hard-nosed here, you have to look at it from her perspective of what is most fair and what she's supposed to be teaching the kids. I can see the teacher feeling that it would be unfair to accept the girl's work late, especially if there are other students in the class who got a zero for not turning the project in on time for whatever reason. There would be a lot of students and parents saying why did she get preferential treatment? She did set a deadline and let them know the consequences ahead of time and there are deadlines that have to be met out there in college and the working world. Shouldn't she be teaching them that? If the girl wins this case then you'd just have to do away with setting deadlines for anything because that interpretation of the policy would mean that any kid who didn't have an assignment ready on the day it was due could just miss the day that it's due and however many other days they needed to get it done and then turn it in with no consequences. Is that the way it works in the world outside of high school?

If you're going to speak of fairness, please realize that missing school for extracurricular, school-sponsored events is not only time-consuming - you can't get work done on most of those trips. So basically you lose X number of days. It is only FAIR that you should receive X extra days after the trip to turn in your assignment, because this allows you to have had the adjusted 'same' amount of time other students had.

Now I'm going off the limited information available to me, but it looks like the girl is in the right, and the teacher is in the wrong.

 

[tcsenter]

I also failed my leaf collection thing in Biology due to turning it in late, but because I contracted poison ivy and am highly sensitive to it. I was covered all over the freaking place, my face, neck, chest, hands, arms, legs, even my Oscar Meyer somehow came into contact with the sap. Missed a week of school and turned the collection in when I got back.

It was complete, I had all the required specimens, but still failed because it was turned in late. I didn't know I could sue or else I sure as hell would have. I worked hard on that and endured over a week of extreme misery for my troubles. I did tell the teacher (when there were no witnesses) that if I ever saw him off school property that I would beat him within an inch of his life, then denied saying it when he tried to get me expelled. Didn't work, this was before the age of school shooting and terrorism hysteria.

Apparently, I waded through thick poison ivy when searching for my leaves and didn't know it.

 

[Clocker]

As another person pointed out and a lot of other readers have missed. There might have been a policy in existence that allowed students to turn in projects late if they were on school trips. If this is the case then the student has grounds for a lawsuit. Grades are certainly important and are an important factor colleges looks at when selecting applicants.

 

[ForumMaster]

sounds to me like the project should be accepted. collecting leaves doesn't sound like a worthy HS biology project but if she couldn't hand in the project because she was on a school sponsored trip, she should be excluded from the rule according to the school's own rules.

 

[I Saw OJ]

Originally posted by: Jeraden
Here in the real world, if I have a project due on friday and I'm not going to be in the office on friday, I make sure I have it done thursday.

QFMFT

That kind of bullcrap doesnt fly in the real world. She needs to learn how to be responsible for her actions.

 

[skace]

Originally posted by: tcsenter
Apparently, I waded through thick poison ivy when searching for my leaves and didn't know it.

I'm terribly allergic to poison ivy and I feel for you. When I was a kid I got it on my legs so bad that I had to wear soccer socks pulled up to my knees to absorb the oozing caused by poison ivy. I'll never forget that and how much I absolutely hate poison ivy and any teacher that would knowingly send you on a biological project without first making sure the entire class can properly identify poisonous plants. Talk about short sightedness.

And as for IrishScott, I get what you are saying. There is motivation in failure, it teaches people to work harder to get what they want. But the difference between you and this girl is that, from the look of things, she does not need motivation. She is already motivated beyond her own expectations, what she really needs now is a break. The only thing this girl learns from an unfair failure is that school trips are not worth the effort and loss of grade. A terrible lesson. Sure, there are people saying she could have handed it in early, but they keep referencing a day, like they can't acknowledge this trip was 4 days. She lost an entire weekend of work time. You can't judge the girls schedule, how do you know how much time per day she spends on school work, you have to at least entertain the possibility that she absolutely didn't have any time to fit this in within her schedule and needed that extra day.

 

[mwtgg]

Originally posted by: I Saw OJ

Originally posted by: Jeraden
Here in the real world, if I have a project due on friday and I'm not going to be in the office on friday, I make sure I have it done thursday.

QFMFT

That kind of bullcrap doesnt fly in the real world. She needs to learn how to be responsible for her actions.

Real World? High school? The only thing this girl is learning is the pettiness of some individuals, unfair application of rules, and blatant favoritism of athletes.

 

[Special K]

Since the school's policy was to accept late work due to school-sponsored absences, I think they have a case here. I'm guessing the girl assumed she could just turn it in when she returned, although it probably would've been best to clarify that before she left.

 

[Tiamat]

if there are rules that were broken, then fine. But don't involve money :roll:

 

[Gooberlx2]

Originally posted by: jman19
Collecting leaves in HS for a biology project?? :roll:

What's wrong with it? I suspect they collect identity and display several different species of plants by their leaves....not much different than the bug collections the classes usually do.

The law suits in this country just get stupider and stupider.

I agree...wouldn't the sensible course of action have been the teacher first, then the principle, then the district admin, then the school board?

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: mwtgg

Originally posted by: I Saw OJ

Originally posted by: Jeraden
Here in the real world, if I have a project due on friday and I'm not going to be in the office on friday, I make sure I have it done thursday.

QFMFT

That kind of bullcrap doesnt fly in the real world. She needs to learn how to be responsible for her actions.

Real World? High school? The only thing this girl is learning is the pettiness of some individuals, unfair application of rules, and blatant favoritism of athletes.

:thumbsup:

 

[deerslayer]

Project should have been accepted. Lawsuit is ridiculous.

 

[daniel1113]

Originally posted by: jiggahertz
It seems kinda odd that a student with a 4.5 GPA would ever be in this position to begin with.

If this particular school is anything like my highschool was, this doesn't surprise me. The majority of my teachers seemed to have a grudge against the high academic achievers, such as me. They loved to take advantage of any situation in which a quality student would make a mistake. It's sad, but true.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: daniel1113

Originally posted by: jiggahertz
It seems kinda odd that a student with a 4.5 GPA would ever be in this position to begin with.

If this particular school is anything like my highschool was, this doesn't surprise me. The majority of my teachers seemed to have a grudge against the high academic achievers, such as me. They loved to take advantage of any situation in which a quality student would make a mistake. It's sad, but true.

Are you asian? I think a lot of Americans resent asians because they come here and actually do well as opposed to other minorities.

And some people just resent intelligent people in general.

 

[daniel1113]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: daniel1113

Originally posted by: jiggahertz
It seems kinda odd that a student with a 4.5 GPA would ever be in this position to begin with.

If this particular school is anything like my highschool was, this doesn't surprise me. The majority of my teachers seemed to have a grudge against the high academic achievers, such as me. They loved to take advantage of any situation in which a quality student would make a mistake. It's sad, but true.

Are you asian? I think a lot of Americans resent asians because they come here and actually do well as opposed to other minorities.

And some people just resent intelligent people in general.

Nope. I am as white as they come. However, I do think what you say about asian students is generally true.

 

[theeedude]

If you never got an F in school, I think you missed something in your education.
Dealing with failure and moving on is part of what you need to learn in school.
Of course these spoiled brats go through their formative years without failing or difficulties, so when they get out into the real world, they get hit like a ton of bricks. These are the kids that kill themselves in college because they are used to being top of their class in highschool, but find out that they are completely mediocre when everyone else is as smart or smarter.

 

[PlatinumGold]

Originally posted by: montanafan

Originally posted by: jagec

Originally posted by: ElFenix
after the fact, as there was nothing to sue about before the fact. obviously no one thought to discuss it before the fact. probably because the school policy was clear on what would happen. it was only when that policy was arbitrarily violated did any grounds for a law suit come up

Wait, you know the school's policy? Do you live in the area or something? Because the article does NOT say what the school's policy is, they just have the prosecution's statement that "athletes get to turn in late work all the time!", which isn't exactly the same thing.

Yeah, that's part of the problem here. The girl's lawyer is not quoting the actual policy which is a state policy. It says that a student who has ANY absence has to be given the same amount of time to complete any assignments for the days they missed. So if they missed Monday and Tuesday, you give them the assignments on Wednesday and can require that the Monday assignment must be turned in on Thursday and the Tuesday one on Friday. (And yes, I do teach in the same state.)

I guess in this particular case the girl's lawyer could argue that if the class was given say, 7 days to complete the assignment and the girl's absence caused her to only have 5 days to complete it, then she should be allowed the two more days to complete it. The school though could argue that because the assignment was not given on the days she missed, but much earlier, the rule doesn't apply here.

Technically speaking, I'd think the school has the better case when applied to the actual policy, but really everyone is being pretty ridiculous about it. The girl knew when the assignment was due, the rule about it not being accepted late, and that she would be gone when it was due. She should have planned accordingly or talked to the teacher about it ahead of time. If the parents are so involved in their child's education, why didn't they just turn the project in for her on the day it was due? Like someone else said, she wasn't going to be working on it during her trip, it should have already been done and they could have dropped it off at the school.

While I can see people thinking the teacher is being too hard-nosed here, you have to look at it from her perspective of what is most fair and what she's supposed to be teaching the kids. I can see the teacher feeling that it would be unfair to accept the girl's work late, especially if there are other students in the class who got a zero for not turning the project in on time for whatever reason. There would be a lot of students and parents saying why did she get preferential treatment? She did set a deadline and let them know the consequences ahead of time and there are deadlines that have to be met out there in college and the working world. Shouldn't she be teaching them that? If the girl wins this case then you'd just have to do away with setting deadlines for anything because that interpretation of the policy would mean that any kid who didn't have an assignment ready on the day it was due could just miss the day that it's due and however many other days they needed to get it done and then turn it in with no consequences. Is that the way it works in the world outside of high school?

where in the article that was posted did it say that the girl and parents never talked to the teacher either before or after?

soo many here are assuming that there was no communication and there is NO evidence to that effect.

also, she was gone for 3 or 4 days i think, so, she was supposed to turn the assignment in 4 days early? some teachers actually object to getting assignments early as it is more difficult to keep track of.

was this a school activity that this particular teacher didn't like?

if you want to just assume stuff, we can assume many many things and make this look like anything the person making the assumptions wants it to look like.

at face value.

there is a district policy in place.
the girl turned her assignment in the day after she returned (she didn't take any additional days)

the teacher failed her.

that's face value, the rest of it is up to the courts to decide.


those that say the lawsuit is ridiculous, what's the point of courts if we never use them? you assume that she didn't make any attempts to communicate to the teacher, the school and the school district. that's a HUGE assumption with no basis.

 

[ShockwaveVT]

the field trip was an optional absence.

sporting events and suspensions are not optional. nor does the "policy" in the article mention field trips.

hence the difference.

The project seems to be a semester project type thing meaning there was plenty of time for the kid to finish it a few days early.

now, regardless of whether you agree with me above, there is ZERO justification for a lawsuit. The teacher and principle set the rules. If you don't like the rules, put your kid in a different school.

 

[daniel1113]

Originally posted by: senseamp
If you never got an F in school, I think you missed something in your education.
Dealing with failure and moving on is part of what you need to learn in school.
Of course these spoiled brats go through their formative years without failing or difficulties, so when they get out into the real world, they get hit like a ton of bricks. These are the kids that kill themselves in college because they are used to being top of their class in highschool, but find out that they are completely mediocre when everyone else is as smart or smarter.

I got all A's in highschool while taking the most difficult courses possible because I worked my ass off, so I think your comment about failing a course is completely unfounded. However, I do know the type of student you are describing. I knew one girl in high school that was that obsessive about grades, and perhaps three now that I am in college, and they are all pretty annoying. I'm all for working hard, but there is a limit where the payoff does not justify the effort. Grades are relatively insignificant once you get into college (assuming you maintain a decent GPA).

 

[waggy]

Originally posted by: ShockwaveVT
the field trip was optional absence.

sporting events and suspensions are not optional. nor does the "policy" mention field trips.

hence the difference.

The project seems to be a semester project type thing meaning there was plenty of time for the kid to finish it a few days early.

now, regardless of whether you agree with me above, there is ZERO justification for a lawsuit. The teacher and principle set the rules. If you don't like the rules, put your kid in a different school.

WRONG.

sporting events and suspensions are optional. NOBODY is forced to join a team and if you do not want to get a suspension don't do something stupid

 

[ShockwaveVT]

Originally posted by: waggy

Originally posted by: ShockwaveVT
the field trip was optional absence.

sporting events and suspensions are not optional. nor does the "policy" mention field trips.

hence the difference.

The project seems to be a semester project type thing meaning there was plenty of time for the kid to finish it a few days early.

now, regardless of whether you agree with me above, there is ZERO justification for a lawsuit. The teacher and principle set the rules. If you don't like the rules, put your kid in a different school.

WRONG.

sporting events and suspensions are optional. NOBODY is forced to join a team and if you do not want to get a suspension don't do something stupid

So you disagree with Point #1.

How about Point #2 - the Teacher and Principal set the rules. If you don't like it, take your kid to a different school.

 

[dyna]

She was an outstanding student all her life making it a goal to achieve perfection. Because of her track record its safe to say that on her first offense of turning something in late she should be given a little slack. This teacher obviously is some hardass that nobody would ever like to have for a teacher. Its pretty common for teachers to give mercy on the students that are failures just to get them through the system.

In college, I had a prof that said if its 1 day late its a zero. Well the computer system we used to turn in the paper went down 3 days before the due date. He said everybody would still get a zero if they didn't turn it in. They should have submitted it early. That is just idiotic just like the teacher in this article. I wasn't one of the students who didn't turn it in but I still disagree with that prof's decision.

 

[waggy]

Originally posted by: ShockwaveVT

Originally posted by: waggy

Originally posted by: ShockwaveVT
the field trip was optional absence.

sporting events and suspensions are not optional. nor does the "policy" mention field trips.

hence the difference.

The project seems to be a semester project type thing meaning there was plenty of time for the kid to finish it a few days early.

now, regardless of whether you agree with me above, there is ZERO justification for a lawsuit. The teacher and principle set the rules. If you don't like the rules, put your kid in a different school.

WRONG.

sporting events and suspensions are optional. NOBODY is forced to join a team and if you do not want to get a suspension don't do something stupid

So you disagree with Point #1.

How about Point #2 - the Teacher and Principal set the rules. If you don't like it, take your kid to a different school.

but they can not just fallow what rules they want. IF the policy says they are to accept it for school events (and a school trip is one) then she should have been able to turn it in late.

 

[DaShen]

Originally posted by: RadiclDreamer
On a side note, they have a point, you cant punish a student for not turning an assignment in on time when they are out AT A SCHOOL FUNCTION! If they had an issue with it they should have said the assignment needed to be in before the trip

Agreed.

Originally posted by: yowolabi
Looks like they have a case. Punitive damages are obviously unneeded, but I see no reason they shouldn't sue to have the paper graded correctly.

If she followed the rules, why should she get punished?

Exactly.