Second Worst Parent Conference Ever

Yesterday was a half-day for students. Teachers stayed for parent conferences. We do this every quarter and nobody ever comes. About 30 of my old students showed up though and it was pretty great.

But in the early afternoon, the other 7th grade teacher came to get me because Keenon's mom was there.
Keenon is in my first period and he's been at our school for about a month. He's most definitely ADHD but he's not a bad kid. In my room at least, he talks ALL THE TIME. To himself, to other kids, to the wall, whatever. I do like him though. He's one of those kids where you know they don't really respond to yelling, so you just kindof have to "Keenon, sssh." "Oohmybadmissvinson". Sometimes I have to sit beside him so he'll focus.

Apparently in Language Arts and Math, he's a holy terror. I guess they don't really get down with the whole "no yelling" thing and this makes Keenon lose his mind. The Language Arts teacher is the kind of person who always has to win and assert authority. I guess it gets pretty ugly in there.

I came in and said my piece. "Keenon's a talker. He's not disrespectful, he's a nice kid, but he distracts himself and others and he really needs to focus."

Language Arts Teacher: "Well, I don't know what kind of perfume Miss Vinson is wearing to make you be so good for her..." (WTF?)

The teacher and Keenon started arguing. That lasted for about ten minutes with lots of teacher looks to the mother: "you see what I mean?" and a lot of Keenon saying, "she lying on me, ma!" The math teacher joined in (there were EIGHT adults in this meeting. I'm the only one who said anything remotely positive...hmmm, maybe it's not my perfume?)

Towards the end, Keenon's mom starts yelling, Keenon starts crying and she says,

"YOU ARE GOING TO BE NOTHING! NOTHING! YOU WILL BE NOTHING IN YOUR LIFE!" while chasing him around the room. She then said she had to go to work and was leaving him there and she hoped he had a way to get home.