Me about two weeks ago to a parent: “I wish I could tell you how much R’s writing has improved, but, unfortunately he hasn’t submitted any writing assignments over the past 2 months”

Parent: “He’s lazy and quits when he finds something hard.”

Me: “I’ve noticed that in class too. He’s actually pretty smart. At least in class, there’s times where he knows the answer, but, because it would take more than 2 seconds to come up with the answer, he refuses to do the work or asks me what the answer is. So, I usually ask him questions that he gives me the answer to, which ultimately leads to him answering the question he was stuck on. This process usually takes no more than 30 seconds.”

Parent: “Please be on R the next time he has a writing assignment. Let me know if he doesn’t do the assignment.”

Me, ready to do backflips:”Great!”

Fast forward to yesterday, in that time, R got assigned to detention hall for two days because I gave him a detention for not doing his writing assignment. In reaction to this, he threw his binder into the garbage can with a lot of force. Said can was 2 feet to my left. I suspect he may have thrown it at me. He then slam dunked two of the school novels he signed out in the garbage can. I reported this to admin (with the garbage can with the two books in them).

VP: “R’s parent called and complained. She thinks you’re being too hard on the students.”

Me: “No. All my other students hand in their homework on a regular basis. I have deliberately lighten their load lately. This kid just doesn’t care and is a handful.” . . . VP has known R rather well for a couple of years because R is a terrible kid.

To paraphrase VP: ‘Well, his parents pay a lot of money to be here and we think it would be best if R doesn’t show up for the last 8 days of school.”

TL/DR: How me and plenty of teachers feel right now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJ-jvEd0pDw