Great. Just great.

I received a call today that Oldest Child "trashed his classroom," and that I needed to come in. It's gotten so every time I see the school department on my caller ID I start having a panic attack...I used to get excited, thinking maybe it was a job opportunity, but now I know it's going to be nothing good. I packed up Youngest Child and headed in to survey the damage.


"Trashing the classroom" is apparently defined as 5 chairs tipped over and a pencil box tossed on the floor. He was annoying other students by waving his folder in their faces, and refusing to do his work. When I got there, the I asked the vice principal what normally happens to kids like this, and she informed me that he would go to an alternative classroom environment that normally is home to emotionally/mentally disturbed kids. My knees literally almost went out from under me.


He's never hurt anyone else...well, not intentionally, he did throw a pencil that ended up sticking a little girl in the neck...and I don't consider him dangerous, but apparently they do and they're documenting everything they can to support their case for shipping him away. Never would I classify him as mentally disturbed, but at the same time I recognize that I'm too close to this whole thing to be 100% objective. The thought of him being in such a place is making me want to throw up.


So now the fight is not to get him the services he needs, but to keep him out of an alternative school where I'm terrified that he will leave worse off than when he goes in.


So much for Harvard.