Why am I repeating myself????

Had an incident today.

During Homeroom, one of my students came in listening to an IPod. School policy states that students are not to have any electronic devices (IPods, cell phones, PDA's etc.) in their possession. I'm not naive enough to know that most of these kids carry this stuff around but most teachers believe in the theory, "Out of sight, out of mind." I also believe in this theory. What I find so interesting about this particular student is that they have been a problem since the beginning of the school year. Discipline issues, not doing school work, failing all of their classes, attendance issues, etc. I have never once allowed any of my students to listen to their IPods during class. So, what makes this student think that they can get away with it today with me? I asked the student politely to put the IPod away and to not take it out for the rest of the day. I think they thought since it was homeroom that they could get away with listening to the IPod. Nope! Not on my watch! :-)

Well, guess what? I have this student later on in the day (last block) and what does the student do? Strolls into my classroom wearing the IPod! Meanwhile, one of the other teachers was in the process of following the student to confiscate the IPod. That teacher asks the student to hand over the IPod. The student refuses and walks away from the teacher. I ask the student to step out into the hallway. The student refuses. I ask again. Finally, the student steps out into the hallway to talk to the other teacher. The student told the teacher that she had no business taking the IPod away. The teacher pointed out the school policy in the student handbook. The teacher told the student to put the IPod away and that the teacher was giving the student "a gift" by not reporting the incident. My student sits down in their seat and begins to complain and rant and disrupting the rest of the class. I walk over to the student to calm them down and tell them to knock off the inappropriate comments. The student tells me to "go to hell!" I ask the student to leave my classroom and go sit in the Asst. Principal's office. They leave the room. The friend sitting next to the student starts up and I ask them if they want to go join the student that left. That student shuts their month.

All of the teachers and administrators have talked to the kids over and over again about the no IPod rule. This is not a new rule. This particular student always seems to think they are exempt from all the rules and I'm sick of it.

My team and I have a meeting on Thursday with this student and the parent. The student is on an IEP and the mother is claiming that we (the teachers) are not following the IEP. The parent has hired a lawyer to sit in on our meeting. The mother always makes up excuses for her kid. I sat in another meeting two months ago and the mother sat there and made up excuses of why thier child couldn't do anything. Trust me - her kid is perfectly capable of doing work. This kid chooses not to do the work. I have followed the IEP since the beginning of the year. No where in the IEP does it say that this student doesn't have to take notes, complete homework, or do projects. I refuse to do the work for this student. That is what the parent wants all the teachers to do - why? Because at the middle school, this is what they did for that student . . . did the work for them. The parent expects the high school to do the same thing - ain't happening sista'!

I've been documenting everything on this student - stuff like how they don't use class time to work on projects, if they bother to turn in assignments, they are usually late, cut my class, etc. I have tried over and over again to help this student and everytime I get a slap in my face. I'm done repeating myself for this student.