This is the message the staff of a high school in California voted unanimously to record on their school telephone answering machine, which came about because they implemented a policy requiring students and parents to be responsible for their children's absences and missing homework. The school and teachers are being sued by parents who want their children's failing grades changed to passing grades - even though those children were absent 15-30 times during the semester and did not complete enough schoolwork to pass their classes.

This is the message:

__________________________________________________
___________

Hello!

You have reached the automated answering service of your school. In order to assist you in connecting to the right staff member, please listen to all the options before making a selection:

* To lie about why your child is absent - Press 1
* To make excuses for why your child did not do his work- Press 2
* To complain about what we do - Press 3
* To swear at staff members - Press 4
* To ask why you didn't get information that was already enclosed
in your newsletter and several fliers mailed to you - Press 5
* If you want us to raise your child - Press 6
* If you want to reach out and touch, slap or hit someone -Press 7
* To request another teacher, for the third time this year -Press 8
* To complain about bus transportation - Press 9
* To complain about school lunches - Press 0
* If you realize this is the real world and your child must be
accountable and responsible for his/her own behavior, class
work, homework and that it's not the teachers' fault for your
child's lack of effort: Hang up and have a nice day!
*If you want this in Spanish, you must be in the wrong country.

__________________

This is amusing, for sure - but absolutely not true.

Have a nice day anyway. ... of course, that's why this is in 'lighten up' -

Wow, that would be really inflammatory if it were true! Here is Urban Legend info on it.

It is telling that that last line insulting Spanish speakers wasn't even in the original; apparently someone just added that on their own as it got passed around.

Yeah, there's no way that's anything but a joke, but I have to tell you there are times I've wanted to say some of those things to parents of my students! Believe me, there are PLENTY of insane parents out there who think their kids should pass a class whether they do any of the work or not. Instead of believing the kid should EARN a passing grade, they believe we should just make sure they pass no matter what. And they don't think they should have to keep up with their kid's progress through the year (which is part of being a parent, isn't it? maybe I'm confused...), but they get nice and angry about us not letting them know every little detail along the way. Why should I call them every day with details when they don't want to hear the truth about their kid?

Ok, sorry...maybe I'm still a bit bitter about some nasty parents I had last year. I'd better get positive and start thinking about the good ones before school starts again!

oh man.. But I'm sure there are tons of teachers and people that work for the schools that would LOVE to say stuff like that to parents.. I would know since my mom works in education and I hear her talk about how some parents shouldnt be parents to put it nicely!