WWYD as a parent

[LiveWhatULove]

16 year old son is in HS musical - show goes live Thursday. He tells this story:

Middle of dress rehearsal on Tuesday, HS director/teacher yells at him to move left for lighting. My son singing, dancing, having a wardrobe malfunction with his microphone pack falling off tripping him, moves right, oops! The HS director proceeds to RUN on stage and body check/shoves my son (5’11” 170 pounds) with significant force so he flies several feet over hitting another crew member who also nearly stumbles and falls. The director, screams, “that’s where you need to be” all while the band and show moves on…

Other cast members who observed asked my son unprompted, “oh my god, are you OK?” My son is unsure if other adults saw.

Curious what you would say or do?

[Slimshandy]

Flip my shit…


Id be calling police and lawyers.

[mcginnisc]

I would take a deep breath and then go in guns blazing. I am a theater kid and theater mom so I know the angst of tech week and such ( not looking forward to May for ours). There is no time at all that behavior by an adult to a child ( almost adult, but still..) is ever ok. We would be having a meeting with the director and principal and they would understand the phrase: Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned- in other words, a mama pissed that her child was body checked by an adult in charge while at school. Nope. Hell no. My kids have always been told to self advocate. This would not be one of those times as that asshat could have injured my child and I *would* get involved as the asshat director needs to be put in their place rapidly. I don't give a rat's ass if it is dress, you do not push a student to get what you want as a director. That director would be digging my foot out of their ass because I would be pissed.

[mommy_jules]

I would take a deep breath and then go in guns blazing. I am a theater kid and theater mom so I know the angst of tech week and such ( not looking forward to May for ours). There is no time at all that behavior by an adult to a child ( almost adult, but still..) is ever ok. We would be having a meeting with the director and principal and they would understand the phrase: Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned- in other words, a mama pissed that her child was body checked by an adult in charge while at school. Nope. Hell no. My kids have always been told to self advocate. This would not be one of those times as that asshat could have injured my child and I *would* get involved as the asshat director needs to be put in their place rapidly. I don't give a rat's ass if it is dress, you do not push a student to get what you want as a director. That director would be digging my foot out of their ass because I would be pissed.

I agree with this. Though, I’d probably let my DH handle it. He’s a teacher, and well, he’s meaner and scarier (6’4 220 lbs) than I am. There is no situation where an adult body checking a student in anger like that is acceptable.

[mcginnisc]

I would take a deep breath and then go in guns blazing. I am a theater kid and theater mom so I know the angst of tech week and such ( not looking forward to May for ours). There is no time at all that behavior by an adult to a child ( almost adult, but still..) is ever ok. We would be having a meeting with the director and principal and they would understand the phrase: Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned- in other words, a mama pissed that her child was body checked by an adult in charge while at school. Nope. Hell no. My kids have always been told to self advocate. This would not be one of those times as that asshat could have injured my child and I *would* get involved as the asshat director needs to be put in their place rapidly. I don't give a rat's ass if it is dress, you do not push a student to get what you want as a director. That director would be digging my foot out of their ass because I would be pissed.

I agree with this. Though, I’d probably let my DH handle it. He’s a teacher, and well, he’s meaner and scarier (6’4 220 lbs) than I am. There is no situation where an adult body checking a student in anger like that is acceptable.

Mine is 6'2" and 200+ lbs as well, but he tells people on the phone that they want to deal with him..not me. LOL I'm 5'1" and if pushed I'm scarier than he is on his worst day. We just had an incident involving my 15 year old in November and the kidult involved is lucky I did not go to the meeting with him and his parents as all hell would have broken loose. Dh told me not to go with the other board member of the homeschool co-op as it was a conflict of interest ( I'm also on the board, but it was my kid he was messing with). He knew that nothing good would come of it if I went too. The kid was expelled from the program because the other board members knew it was between losing a non paying alumni ( kidult) or me ( board member) and a paying student ( dd) and they didn't want to lose the two of us. I was hot as he was making sexual comments about my daughter and her bestie/boyfriend. If he had touched my kid it would have been much worse for him..he's lucky we did not call the cops for the sexual comments as he was 18 and she is 15 and he was making the comments to 12-17 year olds. There's no way I'd ever allow this incident to go unnoticed by admin. The director would rue the day he touched my kid.

[Olioxenfree]

Given their age I would use it as a self advocacy learning experience. I would talk to my child about that what happened was not acceptable and that while the instructor was likely frustrated and intended on just moving them into place, an adult needs to keep in control of their level of force, especially toward minors in a school setting. They are not permitted to put their hands on another person to force them to do something. I would have them talk to the other students present to ask them to give their statement of what happened and to go to the instructors supervisor to make a complaint. Our schools have security cameras in every common room, including the auditorium, so it would be pretty easy to clear up to the administration what had happened.

[MrsDavidB]

This theater teacher is obviously crazed and out of her mind that the show is almost here and things aren't ready or going well. I would ask her for a meeting so me and my DH could talk to her about what happened and let her know that what she did was unacceptable and she is never to put her hands on our son or another student. I would ask my son if he even wants to continue in the show. I have no idea what police and lawyers would do as suggested above??

[Slimshandy]

This theater teacher is obviously crazed and out of her mind that the show is almost here and things aren't ready or going well. I would ask her for a meeting so me and my DH could talk to her about what happened and let her know that what she did was unacceptable and she is never to put her hands on our son or another student. I would ask my son if he even wants to continue in the show. I have no idea what police and lawyers would do as suggested above??

The police take down the police report, since a teacher bodychecking a student is totally against the law…

And the lawyers get involved when the lawsuits come out if that teacher isn’t fired.

[EarlGrayHot]

I would make complaints to everyone above this jerk in the chain of command. No way should this be ignored. There is NO EXCUSE for a teacher to shove a student like that. Totally unacceptable.

[Gorilla_Mama]

I would be emailing the director and asking for their side of the story first. I say email bc then I have their version in writing before I go to the principal bc that would absolutely be my next step. It’s never okay to put your hands on a student. And this is one of those times I think mama bear needs to step in.