I’m 17 have a little sister who’s 12. Our family just moved about a month ago so we both had to change schools, cause my parents could not really send us that far and they are always overly worried.
It’s been alright for me so far but my sister’s been struggling to make new friends as she tends to be shy and quiet around new people. To make matters worse, my sister’s teacher decided the other day to point this out in front of their whole class.
He made her and another girl who was also on the shy side stand up and come to the front of the class to announce that they would be receiving special “mentors”, who were just older students from the school, to help them come out of their shells and deal with their “home and family problems”.
He did this without talking to my parents first. My sister was mortified and came home in tears that day, she said the whole day she could hear people whispering and staring at her.
My parents were a little pissed that he didn’t talk to them first but said it wasn’t a big deal and just emailed the teacher saying that she wouldn’t be needing a “special mentor”.
I however was incensed, so the other day when I went to pick up my sister after school, I marched right into her classroom after everyone had left and it was just him and another teacher in the room and really gave him a piece of my mind.
He got really quiet and apologized and left. Later, he emailed my parents and said he didn’t appreciate being yelled at by a teenager in front of his colleague and that he wanted to address any miscommunications in a civil manner.
My parents were furious at me but honestly, it was worth it to me, if even just to show my sister an example of how to stand up for herself.