The first thing I did when I got my very own classroom* in the bunker** was piss off a parent so much that she withdrew her child from the school. I managed to accomplish this before school even started, so that's pretty impressive.
The year I started at the bunker was its inaugural year as a science and technology magnet school. All sorts of changes were made, including a massive staff overhaul that resorted in something like 14 new teachers, out of around 32 or so. In light of the staff overhaul and the brand new computer lab and science lab, a back to school picnic was thrown one night in August.
Of course, the bunker didn't have any grass, just a black top for the kids to injure themselves on during recess. Also, you don't really want to be outside in August in Kansas if you can avoid it. So the 'picnic' was really more like a back-to-school night with food. In case you were wondering, if you want parents in a tough neighborhood to show up at school events, offer free food. Anyway, so there I am in my area, chatting with parents and students, when I get cornered by this couple.
This young couple were both (shockingly recent, considering they had a first grader) graduates of the district's one great high school*** and couldn't decide whether to let their son, who is "totally gifted", languish in our school until he can go to the great high school or whether to move to the suburbs. Now, I've lived in the area for literally 2 weeks, and I haven't yet seen any of my colleagues attempt to teach anything. But I have seen the work of my incoming students and I can compare it to the work of my former students in the 'burbs. I have also learned that there is no gifted program at the magnet school and no one has mentioned one in the rest of the district either. Though observing the "totally gifted" boy pick his nose and "read" a book upside down make me think that he's probably not going to be attending the great high school.
So I say that the suburban kids will probably move at a faster pace and they are more likely to have gifted programs there. Because it's true and I am a totally naive idiot. Then I let them tell me how awesome their kid is some more and move on. I do not think about the conversation again until the second day of school, when my principal calls me to her office.
She wants me to understand why little T. never showed up for my class and why he isn't going to. His mother works "downtown" (for the district, probably not doing anything menial) and overheard me say that suburban kids were smarter than urban kids. The mother has removed him from the magnet program and put him in his neighborhood school.
My principal - and this is probably the coolest she ever was with me, in the 3 years that I worked for her - asks me what I did say. Because she knew I wouldn't be teaching there if I thought that. As I tell her what I did say, she nods. It's not that she disagrees, she explains. It's that some people, especially people from "downtown", are very sensitive. So I need to be careful not to say anything to parents that they might misconstrue. Also, I should be careful to avoid this mother if I ever see her at a district event, because she hates my guts and would like me fired.
Then my principal asks me to help the other first grade teachers - there are 4 of us and I'm the one with the most experience because of the subbing I've done - with their reading lesson plans. I nod gratefully for the extra work and duck out her door.
*So it wasn't exactly a room. We actually called them areas in the open concept manner, but mine had the best partitions so it was the closest thing to a room, okay?
**That's what I'm going to call the school, even if it wouldn't be that hard to find out its actual name.
***It really is a great school. The district tests all the kids in middle school and sends all the brightest to it, plus pours a lot of resources into it. It's on that list of best high schools and everything.
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