Privacy Invasion

Yesterday my daughter was involved in an incident at school. My daughter, her friend H. and her friend C. (no names as they are under 18) went to their teacher, Mrs. V., to get their math equation assignments for the day. 

Mrs. V. was writing in a journal that she keeps for an education class she is currently taking. She has told the children about this, and they know she writes about her teaching day. The journal is read by her professor. 

When the girls came to her to get their math equations, Mrs. V. put down her journal, where C. casually read what Mrs. V. had written.

When the three girls returned to their workplace, C. told the other two what she had read. My daughter said, "Let's write it down." C. and H. loved that idea, and C. transferred what she had read on to a piece of paper. ( When questioned later, my daughter did not know why this idea popped into her head. She doesn't know what she was thinking. When asked what they were going to do with the paper, all three answered, "Nothing. Just throw it away.")

Unfortunately, it didn't end there. C. instead went back up to Mrs. V. with bogus questions so that she could read some more of the journal. Which she then documented on to the piece of paper. When the girls tired of that, C. put the paper into my daughter's reading book, and they went back to their school work.

Later that afternoon, during reading time, my daughter opened her reading book, and the paper fluttered unnoticed to the floor. Unseen because this is the daughter who never knows when or how she spilled something onto her clothes. Of course, the paper was discovered, and when Mrs. V., who found it and read it, realized what it was, she claimed that "HER PRIVACY HAD BEEN INVADED." 

Questions were asked about who had written the paper, and eventually, the three girls were taken out of the classroom, given a stern talk regarding privacy. They were made to write notes to their parents, as well as an apology note to Mrs. V. I was alerted to the incident and was informed we would go over it at our regular scheduled teacher conference appointment the next afternoon.

When I arrived today, I admit I came in as the Mama Bear ready to defend my cub. Not that I didn't condone what had happened but having spoken with my daughter and the other mothers, I didn't agree with the teachers. Invasion of privacy? 

Let's discuss that.

My husband and I were seated next to the two teachers for our conference. One was grading papers and continued to do so while we talked. I was right next to her, where I could read each name and see each child's grade. Should I have looked at the ceiling? Kept my eyes trained on the teacher's bent head while she talked to me? It was hard not to see those papers. Invasion of privacy?

The second teacher, Mrs. V., got up and went over to my daughter's desk and proceeded to go through it, and then she did the same to C.'s desk. Invasion of privacy?

She told me she was looking for my daughter's planner so that I could see this new assignment, which included the child writing down his/her tasks and chores. Unable to find my daughter's planner or C.'s planner, she rifled through another student's desk and gave me that child's planner to read. Invasion of privacy?

We eventually came to the "incident," and during the discussion, Mrs. V. told me what C. had written in her apology letter. Invasion of privacy?

Mrs. V. explained to me about the journal, how someone else reads what she has written about her students, and then she proceeded word for word to tell me what she had written and what the girls had read, including the child's name and what had been written. Invasion of privacy?

I don't know how I kept the above to myself. So many incidents in just a 45-minute meeting, and I truly wanted to go through each episode one by one to point out how often privacy is invaded. 

Sure, going through the students' desk might be school policy but discussing other students with adults who are not their parents? Grading papers in front of parents? Writing students' names in a journal that is read by someone else without the parents' permission? All a bit iffy, I'd say if you want to get technical. Which I did, but didn't do because well, these two rule my child's world from 8:30 to 3:30.

Both teachers kept commenting on the teacher's "invasion of privacy" with Mrs. V. indignant over this as if the girls writing this information down was the absolute worst INVASION of her life. I gently commented on how the invasion of privacy is tricky. I used the example by asking, "Do you read the student's journals? The ones that belong to them, where they are told to write down their inner thoughts?" My husband piped in with a question of why when Mrs. V. picked up the folded paper that clearly wasn't hers had she read it? Invasion of privacy?

My point was that the girls didn't do it maliciously. They weren't going to sell it out on the playground or even discuss it with the other students. To them, it was harmless fun. Curiosity about what Mrs. V. was writing about them in a journal they'd been told about. A journal that was open and lying where they could read it. Should they have done what they did? No. But an invasion of privacy repeated in capital letters in all discussions with the students and parents? Whoa. Let's just take a step back and tone down the craziness.

For the most part, I held my tongue. We let the teachers know that we had discussed the situation with our daughter and that any further steps we left for them to handle. But we also let the teachers know that our primary concern in the incident wasn't an INVASION OF PRIVACY but fear the girls were not doing what we send them to school to do...their school work.

I did not suggest that overseeing the students to make sure work was progressing might be a better form of activity instead of jotting down PRIVATE information about said students in a journal, but you can bet that thought was racing through my brain.

Invasion of privacy? Ha. How sure are those two that their classroom isn't bugged by administrators?