"Huh?!"

[tuck319]

Would it be wrong to red-pen the letter and send it back to him with an F minus??

Yes, it would be very wrong to grade his first draft. Just mark it up and send it back for corrections...

[blas]

I sincerely hope this man was drunk or on angel dust when he wrote that.

[mariamousie1]

I don't know, but I think the threat of home schooling was in there somewhere, which makes me extremely frightened.

[Argabarga]

He's no pushover.....

He'd have to have the mental capacity to stand up first

[Andara Bledin]

While I totally understand the issues, there is also a very sad component to this whole thing about a grown adult who doesn't have the information necessary to be taken seriously.

I agree that there needs to be some sort of face to face with this guy so that everyone can have all the facts to hand; written communication just won't cut it, obviously.

^-.-^

[lineswine]

"I'm sorry but we don't speak chav here."

Are you sure that the letter originated from the U.K.?
Home-schooling in the U.K. is VERY rare & far more common in the U.S.A.

It sounded more to me that it was from a trailer-park dwelling, inbred mouth-breather.

[Draco]

Considering the OP is from the UK and works at a school (or "skool") in the UK, then yes, we're quite aware of where it originated. :P

And think... Some Brits have the nerve to criticize American English! =P

[ZedOmega]

Why did reading that letter suddenly remind me of the phrase 'I HAVE FURY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'?

[Captain Trips]

Key point: it was typed. This is a good way to hide one's handwriting.

My guess is that no adult wrote this. In fact, it reads like something that should have ended with:

"(signed),
My Father"

(Remember the old joke: "Johnny cant kum two skul twoday, he iz sik. (signed) my father.")

[EvilEmpryss]

Excellent point, Captain. Unfortunately, I don't think the authorship of the letter is in question.

But if it is CustomersRuinMyLife, please let us know what happens when the real father finds out.

[Seshat]

I strongly suggest a talk with the parents. Either it's from the boy, or it's from the father and the family desperately needs support.

Whether that support be from the school, from the medical community (child behaviouralists, family therapists, etc), or from Child Services - it doesn't matter. SOMEONE needs to help the family.

I hate the idea that schools have to take on all the problem children and funnel them to the appropriate sources of help; I think schools should be focussed on educating. But in so many cases, including this one, schools are where the problems are most clearly seen.

So yeah. IMO, talk with the parents, and then directing support services to the family.

[draco664]

Can anyone translate? There was a post-it note on top of the letter that simply said "Huh?!" on it.

"I am furious that you are not prepared to cope with the behavioural problems my child displays, caused by a combination of my overbearing and controlling personality (a defense mechanism developed to cover my many and varied inadequacies that I have no wish to acknowledge, let alone confront) and his mother's manager-like jelly spine.

I feel that separating him from his friends is not an ideal solution, and will remove him from your school in retaliation. How do you like that? That will teach you!

Don't think that I am not intimidating and tough -- because I am writing you a letter explaining exactly how angry I am rather than actually taking the time to appear in person and potentially be ridiculed. Don't make me threaten to come down to the school again, or... or... Or I'll threaten to come down to the school again for REAL. There! How do you like that?"


HTH.

[Solumina]

I also had the thought that the father may not have actually written the letter. Either way the kid, and really the family, need some help and intervention. I think a face to face with the parents would be a good idea.

[Becks]

No matter who wrote that, I am incredibly saddened.

[Jester]

L will home skool him.

Finally a parent taking an interest in their child's education! I predict that this child has great things in store for him in the future. Yale? Harvard? Oxford? Stanford? Dartmouth? Who knows? But I feel confident that one of these fine institutions of higher learning will one day reap the rewards of this wunderkind attending their hallowed grounds.

A letter to the parents won't work as there is too much room for interpretation and it won't necessarily address the issues

Situations like this call for Jester's No-Nonsense Letters of Bluntness, available at a fine weapons dealer near you.

"Dear Sir,

We removed your son from his classes because he's an obnoxious little shit who disrupts the class and makes it impossible for the other students to learn a damn thing. Until he stops being a total dickwad, we will continue to keep him out of his classes. If you have a problem with this, feel free to go fuck yourself.

We look forward to seeing you on Parent-Teacher Day!

Yours truly,

The School."