Being a teacher can definitely be frustrating and draining, and when one woman's son got punished at school for being startled by a loud noise, she assumed that he was lying about the reason and spoke to the teacher to get the full story.
It turned out that her son's story matched the teacher's: He got detention because he was startled when his teacher yelled at some other students. The mom thought this was ridiculous. She decided to ask the Reddit community if she was wrong for not agreeing with the teacher's decision to give her son detention.
The mom explains that her son gets startled pretty easily.
The mom explained that her son, who she referred to as Preston, is 11 years old and in sixth grade. He is also "pretty skittish and jumpy," his mom said. If a noise is loud or unexpected, it can startle him pretty easily, she shared.
His teacher's voice is pretty loud.
Preston's teacher, who the mom referred to as Susan, has a loud voice. The mom has noticed that Susan has a "thunderous voice," which can be useful for a middle school teacher, but it often startles Preston. Other students and parents also think the teacher is loud, so it's not surprising her voice would cause Preston to jump sometimes when he's not expecting it.
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Preston gets detention at school.
The mom learned that her son got detention via a voicemail from her son. In his message, he explained that he got detention because his teacher was yelling at other students, which startled him. Because he was visibly startled, his teacher gave him detention.
His mom doesn't believe that's the reason.
The reason sounded ridiculous to the mom, so she assumed that his side of the story was not exactly accurate. She decided to call Susan to find out what really happened.
"I was completely caught off guard when what she said lined up with everything Preston said to a T. I wasn't sure what to say at first, but I ended up just laughing on the phone before any words could come out," she wrote in her post.
Susan was not happy that she was laughing, and the mom explained that she had assumed Preston was lying because being startled is not a good reason to get detention.
The mom argues with the teacher.
"I stood firm and asked her if she'd think it appropriate if her boss yelled loudly at some fellow teachers, you were startled and then he proceeded to dock HER pay or some other form of punishment," the mom continued in her post.
She thought maybe the teacher would understand where she was coming from, but instead the teacher insisted that her son needed to go to detention, and if he didn't he could get suspended or worse.
The mom's friend does not agree with her.
The mom was firm and she believes that Preston should not be punished for getting startled. It could happen to anyone and is not a real issue, she said.
But one of her friends did not agree with her. Her friend thought she crossed the line by laughing at the teacher and arguing with her, and the friend told her that teachers don't make enough to deal with that kind of behavior from parents.
Being startled by a loud noise is a normal human reaction, many people agreed.
Many Redditors shared that they're also easily startled by loud noises, and they don't believe it's fair to punish someone for that very natural, human reaction.
"I startle easily, If I got in trouble everytime I had a reflex response from a loud noise in the classroom I would have been expelled several times over. That is easily the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard someone get put in detention for," one person wrote.
Many Redditors agree that teachers aren't paid enough.
Redditors also agreed with the woman's friend: Teachers aren't paid enough to deal with a lot of the things they deal with. However, this mom's complaints still seemed reasonable to them.
"I work in education too, I understand not getting paid enough and I’ve seen some entitled parents…but you don’t sound entitled," one person responded.
Another wrote, "I'm a teacher. I don't get paid a ton, but I certainly get paid enough to not take offence if an 11 yr old gets startled. I'm honestly just confused."
Redditors generally agree that this mom's response makes sense.
Many Redditors were glad that this mom stuck up for her kid.
"You were willing and did listen to the teacher. You were willing to believe your kid was lying," one person pointed out.
Someone else added that it's possible Susan was angry and directed that anger at Preston even though he didn't do anything wrong. "Just guessing but it sounds like the teacher was frustrated with the other kids and in the moment took it out unfairly on your son," the Redditor wrote.
These stories are based on posts found on Reddit. Reddit is a user-generated social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website where registered members submit content to the site and can up- or down-vote the content. The accuracy and authenticity of each story cannot be confirmed by our staff.
