What a week! And it's not even Friday yet.

I wish it was Friday. Because it's been an exhausting week.

Tuesday was back to school/work for everybody. Tuesday, Otter comes home with a note from the assistant principal informing her that she had skipped 2nd hour class Wednesday of last week and would have to go to an in-school detention called Intervention on Friday. Only problem is that she did NOT skip! I left a "nice" message for the teacher, I told her that Otter did not skip class and would not be going to the intervention, that I wanted her to be very clear on that fact and that I had better get a call back from her - I left my name & number numerous times in that voice mail. Wednesday, no call from the teacher. There was a form that Otter was given, I put my own comment on it - that she did not skip class and would not be going to intervention and that she was not to be punished for the teacher's mistake. (Can you tell that the gloves are off or what!) She tried to turn it in yesterday, but there was a sub and the office was closed before school. So I walked her in today, and we went straight to the assistant principal's office. I was polite, I never raised my voice or lost my temper - but I put the fear of Mom into the secretary. Then the assistant principal called me after I got to work, he explained the roll call system and the discipline system to me and then he made a mistake. He probably never realized that he told me what he did. Basically, the roll is taken and then turned in to the attendance office. At that point, if a student is not there and has not already been reported as sick or out for a legitimate reason then the report is sent to the assistant principal. And then there is apparently supposed to be a phone call to the teacher in question - BUT HE TOLD ME THAT THEY NEVER CALL THE TEACHER. That's the part I don't think he realized. However, he did tell me that FOR THAT ONE CLASS ON THAT DAY AND ONLY THAT DAY AND ONLY FOR OTTER'S ABSENCE, that a call was placed to the teacher and she said that Otter wasn't there. But then the next sentence out of his mouth convinced me that he was either fibbed to by the attendance office or he was fibbing to me to cover his own behind. I told him again that she was not going to be punished for the teacher's mistake, that we were convinced she was telling the truth and he said that when he confronted Otter about it she never stammered or changed her story. Then he said he'd have to call me back.

He called me back in just a few minutes, to tell me that he had checked with a couple of her other teachers (not the one in question for some reason!) and they told him that she is honest, smart and a good girl, and that they couldn't see her doing anything like that. So he decided that she doesn't have to go to intervention and this will be taken off of her record. Which is a good thing, because my next question to him would have been to ask him what would happen when we did not send her to school on Friday. And then I would have informed him that our next stop was the school board, and we would take it all the way to the superintendent. And then if we had to, we would pull her out and put her back in private school. Seriously.

But I did want to ask him, if she skipped class for one 50 minute period - just where did he think she was at? There is nothing by the school, not even a convenience store closer than about 2 miles! If she'd been in a class that wasn't hers, it would have been reported. If she'd been in the library, it would have been reported. If she actually had managed to get out of the school without being seen, anywhere she went it would have been obvious that she was a truant and I'm sure someone would have called the school! Geesh. And she obviously made it back from wherever he thinks she went to get to her next class, which is actually at another school and they have to be taken by bus - about 10 minutes before the end of the actual class so she would have had even less time for an adventure!

And since we just came from Parent's Night at the school, I can tell exactly what happened in that class. The newest trend (expiriment) is to have co-teachers. Each one does something different in each class. The main teacher has been sick quite a bit the last couple of weeks and the co-teacher DOESN'T SEEM TO KNOW HER HEAD FROM A HOLE IN THE GROUND! She did not say a word to me about the situation, which was probably good for her because Redhead/Texas Woman/Mad Mom is not a good combination! She did look kind of scared when she saw Otter, her eyes went from Otter directly to me and she didn't look very confident. I would have chewed her up and spit her out.

Rent House Update: Bill informed me that when he went over there Tuesday after work, he could tell that I'd missed a few spots on the kitchen floor when I was waxing. So I went over there yesterday after work and he was right - I missed a bunch! So I fixed that and helped him get the remainder of the tools out of the garage. As far as I know, there haven't been any calls or at least I don't think that it's been shown yet. But it's ready. Now I just hope it gets rented fast, two mortgage payments and a double set of utility bills are for the birds!