Another fraudster?

We've all done this, at least once in our lives. Some of us have gotten away with it, and some of us have gotten caught. We've probably all done it for the same reason - because we were afraid of getting in trouble from the parents. If we got caught, we learned it wasn't worth it since we got into more trouble. But if we actually got away with it, well, I'd rather not think about that.

What am I talking about? Not underage drinking. Not sneaking out to go to a party. Although I'm sure I have *that* to look forward to as a parent, but hopefully not anytime soon. No, I'm talking about forging your parent's signature on a school note or report card or test.

And Devlin has done just that. At age 9. I'm quite sure I was a bit older, like high school, when I did it. Most of my friends who confessed to forging their parent's signature were in high school at the time. And so, to make me feel better, my friends point out that my 9 year old fraudster is smart and creative for thinking of this plan to escape our wrath.

Apparently, after a few phone calls, my dear spouse (and father to the fraud artist) managed to glean the following from the school staff:

- last  month, the kids had been given talks about respect and being respectful

- last week, during a fellow student's presentation, our first-born and a classmate were flinging an eraser off their rulers, and thus not being respectful

- the disrespecting students were given a warning to stop their rude behaviour

- my child and his pal did not

- instead of taking away the offending eraser, the teacher decided to send the two miscreants out into the hallway to think - without supervision

Well, putting two boys who've been banished for goofing off in a hallway, without supervision, and instruct them to think about their actions, will not result in two remorseful persons. Do you think?

Of course not!

My darling son and his pal got their hands on some paper, fashioned paper swords and started a duel.

Apparently, the teacher was not pleased with this result, so he sent them off to the "behaviour" teacher/aide.

Where they were told to write out, in their own words, why they had been sent to the behavioural aide, and bring the note home to be signed by their parents. 

My son, knowing full well that his parents would not be pleased about this, decided to take matters into his own hand, or handwriting. And, then had the balls to invite some friends over for a play date on the weekend.

My husband and I were in the complete dark about these events all weekend. I noticed my child was a tad more cooperative about doing the chores and practising piano, but mistakenly or naively thought my child was maturing.

Well, he got caught, and rightly so, since the "signature" was shaky, and in pencil.

He got in way more trouble than he would have for the original transgression. I would have taken the "being sent to the behavioural aide for play fighting with a sword" way more lightly, since it was the teacher's own doing for sending out two kids in the hallway without supervision for goofing off in class together! No, not a new teacher either.

We told our sorry looking child that had he brought the first note home to be signed, he would have lost xbox for 2 weeks. But the forgery earned him two more weeks of the xbox and computer game ban and no play dates for the said month. And to make sure the message sunk in about how wrong it was to forge our signature, I read him the punishment section from the Criminal Code for uttering a forged document. His eyes grew as wide as saucers when I read out ten years of imprisonment.  (Not that anyone has EVER actually gone to prison for that long but he doesn't need to know that.)

And yes, now that it's been a day since this all happened, and I've had some to reflect on it, I have to agree it was quite the cheeky move. I just didn't think I'd have to deal with this so soon. And yeah, it's part of growing up. We've all done it...admit it!

But here's my vent - why weren't we, as parents, not notified earlier? The moment the decision was made to send him to the behavioural aide, I should have been told. The school has that agenda for messages to parents, and every night, we're supposed to sign it. Every time, he gets sent out of the classroom for disrupting the class, I should have been made aware of the situation. Through a brief note or phone call. But there's nothing in his agenda. I know. I sign the blank pages everyday! How else are we parents to know anything is wrong, or work on improving the offending issues if we're kept in the dark? Clearly, the education system expects us to teach the curriculum to our kids these days, especially math (another vent topic for another blog post), but not assist in disciplining our kids? I guess they were trying to teach nine year old boys to be accountable and responsible for their actions. Well, my job revolves around grown men and women who can't take responsibility for their actions, so I don't know how these "educators" think children will do so.