You'd think DS could go a week without trouble...

[Marseeya]

wouldn't you???

But no! There I was, in Walmart, 30 miles away, minding my own business when my cell phone rang. It was DS, crying. He was incoherent, telling me something about getting kicked out of his tech ed class and they're telling him to drop out of school and he didn't do it and I need to come tell them and he didn't hack into the system and and and. WHAT??? I told him to calm down, so he slowed down and told me that the teacher kicked him out of her class, even though whatever he was doing didn't happen in her class, and that the principal accused him of being on the administrative site and deleting things and changing the date, and that the principal told him he needed to drop out of school because he won't graduate anyway.

I told DS to get the principal on the phone, but they'd left him alone in the office. He ended up hanging up, so I called the school immediately to talk to the principal and I ended up catching him in lies. The best way I could piece it all together is, DS was playing a game on the computer (lemonade stand)when he wasn't supposed to be, and then apparently stumbled onto the adminstrative site. The principal started accused DS of hacking into it, but told ME that he could have hacked into it. I said, "So he didn't actually hack into it?" No, but he could have. I don't want to hear about "could haves," I want to hear what he DID.

Then I asked the principal about telling him to drop out, and he said, "I didn't say anything to him about dropping out," and DS started yelling, "That's not true! You did tell me that, don't lie to my mom! You SAID IT!" Then the principal started hemming and hawing around about him needing to take summer classes so he could graduate on time and refused to address the dropping out comment.



So the end result is, he's kicked out of his tech ed class (which he needs to graduate). They're making him stay in the classroom to sit at a table and do homework, which I said was ridiculous keeping him in a class, bored out of his mind with kids he gets in trouble with. Why can't they send him to the guidance office or something where he can stay out of trouble?

What am I going to do with this kid?

 

[happybratpack]

I'm not any help, I'm scared of the older years myself. Hope things get better.

 

[L107ANGEL]

You can't catch a break

 

[barkley]

i'de be seeing if the admin. site can actualy be 'stumbled into'. most systems are set up such that they are not accessable without a user password and established systems access (so unless a staff member with actual access is signing into the system and granting the kids access that way (which is a big no-no systems security wise) there should be safeguards in place that keep unauthorized users from even viewing the site). determining this will decide weather your son innocently accessed the site or took deliberate actions to.

since they won't let him attend the class he needs for graduation will they provide an alternative to meeting the curriculum within the course (through independant study or alternative education)? i know in our school district not all classes are offered in the summer sessions, so failing to take one timely can result in having to attend the following regular term for that one class only (and therein we end up with non grads who don't want to go for just the one class).

good luck.

 

[Tiggeroo]

The principal was wrong, but.... Sorry I don't believe he accidentally ended up on the administrative site from Lemonade Stand. I've been in hs pc classes where they were playing lemonade stand. The two places are completely unrelated. That said, I"ve seen tons of kids go to inappropriate sites and I'm sure there are plenty of tech savy kids who can get into ad. sites.
Your son is obviously bright if he can get there. I"d have to find a way to channel it. I remember you posting about your son but can't remember everything. How old is he? If he's older maybe he's just not challenged enough. Either look into a school that offers a pc centered curriculuim. Or perhaps if things are really bad pull him out and put hin into community college and let him start on a computer degree. Most cc's have programs with hs's for at risk kids.

 

[Toby'sFriend]

My guess would be that he probaby "stumbled" onto the program icon on the Start Menu or through Windows Explorer. I and most techie type computer people I know do this -- when we sit down at a new machine we immediately start clicking around to see what she's got in there, kind of the way a mechanic opens the hood of a car to view an engine.

So "accidently stumbled" really isn't an appropriate term because what we are doing is more -- snooping. Did they actually see him trying out different logins? How far did he take it?

Now my next question. I know you mentioned that he went to see a new Psychiatrist over the weekend. Has there been any mention with having your family sit down to develop a plan of discipline for these events?

 

[Marseeya]

The principal was wrong, but.... Sorry I don't believe he accidentally ended up on the administrative site from Lemonade Stand. I've been in hs pc classes where they were playing lemonade stand. The two places are completely unrelated. That said, I"ve seen tons of kids go to inappropriate sites and I'm sure there are plenty of tech savy kids who can get into ad. sites.
Your son is obviously bright if he can get there. I"d have to find a way to channel it. I remember you posting about your son but can't remember everything. How old is he? If he's older maybe he's just not challenged enough. Either look into a school that offers a pc centered curriculuim. Or perhaps if things are really bad pull him out and put hin into community college and let him start on a computer degree. Most cc's have programs with hs's for at risk kids.

See, that's just it -- he's not computer savvy at all! That's why I was so dumbfounded about this whole thing. DS knows how to turn on a computer, reboot, and chat -- that's it.

When push came to shove with the principal, he wasn't willing to take a firm stand when I questioned him about how exactly DS was on an admin site. All he would admit to was that DS was on an inappropriate game and if he "could" get on that site, he could get on anything, and he even brought up porn. When I asked if he was accusing DS of accessing porn, he said, "Oh, no no, but he could." From the sounds of it, DS just clicked on something that took him to the admin login screen, but I couldn't get an answer as to how difficult it is to get to.

Well, by that kind of logic, every student in the school should be in trouble for what they "could" do. He shouldn't have been playing a game, period, that I agree with.

When I told all this to DH, he was dumbfounded as well. I'm letting him step in and take this one since IT is what he does for a living.

 

[Marseeya]

Now my next question. I know you mentioned that he went to see a new Psychiatrist over the weekend. Has there been any mention with having your family sit down to develop a plan of discipline for these events?

This recent shrink seems to believe that a good dose of ADHD meds and extra sleep will clear everything up just fine.

We'll see.