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4-year-old expelled from preschool for mom's Facebook post
Author: Heather Leigh, Mobile journalist, hleigh@wjxt.com
CALLAHAN, Fla. -
A local mother is outraged after her 4-year-old son was expelled from the private Christian preschool he attended because of a Facebook post on her personal page.
Ashley Habat said she was upset the school didn't give parents more time to get ready for picture day, and so she vented about it on Facebook.
The next day, the school told Habat that her son, Will, could no longer attend.
Habat said she doesn't regret expressing her opinion, which she said was posted to her private page for only her friends to see. Regardless, she doesn't believe her son should be punished for something she wrote, she said. And she wishes the school had tried to work with her before expelling him.
Habat said she and her son ran late for school on picture day at Sonshine Christian Academy in Callahan, and she mentioned to the administrator checking Will in that she thought the school didn't give enough notice of picture day. The administrator said they put a note in Will's folder the week before.
Habat said she took to Facebook to vent her frustrations and never expected the school to see her post.
The post read, "Why is it that every single day there is something new I dislike about Will's School? Are my standards really too high or are people working in the education field really just that ignorant."
She tagged the school in the post, and the next morning, she received a call, asking her to stop by the office when she dropped her son off.
more...
http://www.news4jax.com/news/4yearold-expelled-from-preschool-for-moms-facebook-post/27740108
Crazy. Obviously that school handles criticism badly. And wrongly. Welcoming all points of view makes a system stronger, not weaker.
Quote from: IrvAdams on August 26, 2014, 08:57:15 PM
Crazy. Obviously that school handles criticism badly. And wrongly. Welcoming all points of view makes a system stronger, not weaker.
Calling out someone/something publicly on social media as opposed to going through more diplomatic channels is also a bad way to handle it.
Take the scorched earth approach and don't be upset when you get a scorched earth result.
She said it was only a private post. Wonder if someone passed it on without permission?
Quote from: IrvAdams on August 26, 2014, 09:13:06 PM
She said it was only a private post. Wonder if someone passed it on without permission?
According to the article, she also tagged the school in her post.
QuoteThe post read, "Why is it that every single day there is something new I dislike about Will's School? Are my standards really too high or are people working in the education field really just that ignorant."
She tagged the school in the post, and the next morning, she received a call, asking her to stop by the office when she dropped her son off.
The key word is "private" school, meaning they have the right and permission to handle it just the way they did. And nowadays, everyone knows the effects of social media (so much that it's now a class at high schools and colleges across the nation). She should've handled it much better, chances are she had hoped to be part of the "internet famous" everyone with a smartphone wants to be now and it backfired on her.
When she tagged the school in her post, it was the equivalent of her mailing a letter to her immediate friends and yet leaving a signed copy of it in the school principal's in-basket also. I can understand the school being concerned about her complaining in such a passive-aggressive fashion versus having a direct conversation with the school administration to voice and address her disagreement in a mature fashion. For a private school, it looks like they had a choice to either try and continue to cope with a gadfly whose immature behavior might disrupt the school, or to expend that energy focusing on educating other parent's kids. The other excuse she'd apparently have for her behavior is if she's both inattentive to her son's take-home papers and ignorant in the use of social media, which isn't exactly a beacon of parental leadership in the modern era, either.
Its hilarious this is even news worthy... ;D
Quote from: BridgeTroll on August 27, 2014, 06:48:22 AM
Its hilarious this is even news worthy... ;D
I think so too.
But I also think that a school which is so insecure to expel a kid over something mom said is not some place I'd like to send mine. Reflects badly on them.
Quote from: sheclown on August 27, 2014, 07:53:16 AM
Quote from: BridgeTroll on August 27, 2014, 06:48:22 AM
Its hilarious this is even news worthy... ;D
I think so too.
But I also think that a school which is so insecure to expel a kid over something mom said is not some place I'd like to send mine. Reflects badly on them.
Really? If you're already dealing with a lackadaisical parent that would rather take her self-created issues to a public forum rather than address them in an adult fashion, then why would it be in the school's best interest to continue down that path?
What happens during fundraisers? School plays? Field trips? I think the 'you're only as strong as your weakest link' analogy would fit nicely in this case. Cut the bad links out before they fail when you need them.