Student: 8th grade boy. Not normally disruptive or
necessarily a "troublemaker." I had him last year for 7th
grade homeroom. Boy is deathly afraid of his dad. He will
lie and lie and lie to avoid making his dad mad. I didn't
think much about it until recently, because that in itself
isn't unusual at this age. Occasionally forgets to turn in
homework. I would usually get an email from mom or dad
giving me all kinds of reasons saying he turned it in and I
should give him credit. Things like, turned it into the
wrong turn-in box, sub must have lost it, he stayed in at
lunch and did it (not true), but never was it his fault.
Every time, I offered to meet with either parent and would
get no response from their emails. I've seen both mom and
dad at various events, but never had a conversation with them.

Student missed turning in work the last couple of weeks in 3
different classes (mine being 1) and turned in an awful
paper to his history class that was given a legitimate F.
Again, mom and dad sent an email to me and the other
teachers about how it wasn't his fault somehow. I offered
to meet, no response. We had conferences on Friday and dad
comes in to meet his 8th grade homeroom teacher who is also
the history teacher. The man apparently has a horrible
anger problem and screaming at the history teacher. The
science teacher happened to be sitting in the meeting too
and verified that the parent was out of line. When
presented with the paper that was turned in, the dad asked,
"Where's the paper he turned in? That's not it." Turns
out, the kids retyped a new paper and showed that to his dad
instead of what he really turned in. Dad just turned to the
boy and said, "I'll deal with you at home." Then continued
to yell at the teachers about other things he was mad about.

I talked to the boys 8th grade homeroom teacher today and he
told me about the encounter and how mad the boy's dad was.
I mentioned how afraid of his dad the boy was which seemed a
more fearful that normal. The other teacher said the
Spanish teacher noticed bruises on his arms which he said
happened during football. I have never seen evidence of
physical abuse myself. However, knowing this man's proven
difficulty to contain his anger and the fear the boy has for
his father, I took my concerns to my principal. My
principal didn't think he was being abused.

From your experiences, should I turn this over to the proper
authorities or just trust my principal and drop it?

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