Teacher Tells Mother That She Cannot Give Her Daughter 'Special Treatment' While She's Going Through Chemo
The teacher refused to make an exception for the sick little girl.
Pixel-Shot / Shutterstock After a mother was forced to pull her daughter out of school due to serious health conditions, her teacher made it clear that she would not make any exceptions for the little girl despite her ailing health.
When the frustrated mother took to social media to vent about the teacher, she was told that the teacher was “just doing her job.”
Now, the mother is wondering if she acted too harshly.
The mother had to pull her daughter out of school while she underwent chemotherapy.
Sharing her story to Reddit, the woman revealed that her 11-year-old daughter is undergoing chemotherapy in a different state. “We've been here for one month now and will likely stay for three more,” the woman wrote.
Photo: FatCamera / Canva Pro
Before leaving the state, the mother alerted her daughter’s school of the situation and warned them she would be absent for an extended period of time.
The school still expected the sick girl to attend class online to keep up with her assignments.
“I told the principal and my daughter's teacher that she would do work/sign onto the class when she felt well enough, but school is not our main priority right now,” the woman wrote.
Unfortunately, the woman’s daughter has been struggling with her chemo symptoms and is barely able to get out of bed most days, making schoolwork next to impossible.
Photo: Gorodenkoff / Shutterstock
One day, when the mother happened to look at her daughter’s grades and report card online, she noticed that her teacher had marked each one of her absences as “unexcused.”
“I immediately called the school, and they said there was nothing they could do, and I had to talk to her teacher directly,” the woman shared.
The girl's teacher claimed no exceptions could be made over her missing assignments.
“So I called the teacher, and she told me all about how she couldn't cater to every individual child’s needs and lockdown has made her life so hard we shouldn't expect 'special treatment.’”
However, the woman was adamant an exception should be made for her child, considering all she was going through.
“I asked that she please change the absences to excused. She said no and then started telling me about all the missing work my daughter has to keep up on,” the woman wrote.
The mother learned that if her daughter does not make up all the work, she will have to repeat the grade.
After reaching out to the school principal and counselor, the mother was directed to speak with the teacher, who stood by her original statement. She claimed how difficult it was for her to offer virtual lessons and repeated that she could not make any exceptions for the woman’s daughter.
The mother decided to pull her daughter out of that school and enroll her in a new public school.
Still, she was outraged on her daughter’s behalf. “I wrote a post on the county Facebook page ranting about it,” she revealed. “I didn't include the teacher's name, but I did include the school, and there are only two teachers per grade, and the other teacher in her grade is a man, so it was pretty easy to guess which one I was talking about.”
Many parents in the community who had their children enrolled in the same class as the woman’s daughter publicly stated that they would consider pulling their children out of the class in response to her social media post.
Photo: FatCamera / Canva Pro
However, after the school principal saw the post, she sent an email to the mother. “I got an email from the principal saying this is harassment, and the teacher did nothing wrong and is just going through a hard time, and that I need to cut her some slack,” the woman wrote.
Now, the woman is asking others if she crossed a line.
Many people believed the mother’s frustrations were valid, considering her daughter's current condition.
“Maybe the teacher is having a hard time, but it’s not a reason or excuse to be unreasonable about the difficult time that your daughter is going through,” one Redditor commented.
“That’s ridiculous. She’s hospitalized. While it’s great to do school work, both for her education and normal activity, it is absolutely not the priority,” another user noted. “Chemo is [expletive] and this teacher sounds like Satan.”
“You did the right thing by pulling your kid and letting other parents know about the situation. The principal is 100% wrong to not intervene and leave the decision ultimately up to the teacher when there is an extenuating circumstance such as your child's,” another user wrote.
Luckily, the mother shared in the comments section that she is working on her daughter’s IEP (Individualized Learning Plan) with her new teachers, and they have been much more accommodating.
Photo: Pixel-Shot / Shutterstock
Still, her daughter’s story raises the question of whether education is really worth risking one's health and even one's life for.
For most sensible people, the answer is an easy no.
Health should always come first. School is important, but not at the expense of your well-being.
Without health, academic achievements lose their significance.
It is important to note that chemotherapy comes with extremely difficult-to-manage side effects, including constant nausea and vomiting, hair loss, rashes, mouth sores, fatigue, and migraines.
Anyone would struggle to focus on their schoolwork while dealing with these symptoms, let alone an 11-year-old child.
Being a teacher requires you not only to educate but to have compassion for your students.
You have no idea what kind of battles they are enduring outside the classroom.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.