Venting about Balance in Education

First of all, I teach high school. That should tell you something about my sanity level. Add to that the fact that my son attend high school in a neighboring district. And that he's dyslexic and just coming out of Resource English. Add to that yet another in a long long series of self-righteous teachers who is "doing this for his own good" despite the fact that the kid has turned in all assignment, asked for help and is STILL FAILING. The CM teachers have no idea what this woman wants. And now, the day that grades are due, and three days after she had assured my son that if he "relaxed and turned in everything, it'll be okay...." we find out he's failing. And this when three weeks ago he had a 78. And we found out not from a progress report or the teacher in question, but from his choir director who is panicking because now he can't go to competition. Add to that, we now will lose over $300 because when he asked if he could do anything to help his grade-the teacher flat out blew him off. Now I teach the same age group. And since my class is an elective, I have far more IEP's and 504's to address on a daily basis, but I do it because IT IS MY PROFESSIONAL OBLIGATION TO DO SO.....

So,
Why doesn't this teacher have any responsibiltiy to contact my son, or me or let us know what is going on? Because the teacher in question is pregnant. So she's "tired" and "cranky" and "had to rest" rather than grading the papers on a timely basis and keeping students and parents informed.

Sorry, but this is BS.

This is the same kind of lame complaint that has kept women out of corporate offices for decades. And yet the administration is oozing an collective "awwwww" and giving her a pass on this. If this had been the first time, or even the fourth or fifth time, I would let it slide. But every year since second grade, there has been one or another uninformed, steel minded, self-serving person who doesn't apply the IEP unless I raise seven kinds of hell and call ARD's every week. I am not asking for the moon. I expect him to do his work, but what I don't expect is to come home after a day of teaching and having to virtually reteach every single lesson. When I ask him to go to tutorials, he says that every time he has gone her AP students take first aim and the students in her one regular class are ignored. I requested a class change in January, but it was denied. I requested monitoring of the situation, and that obviously hasn't been done. She only modifies if she think an administrator will look. And she lies to me and to the ARD committee to our faces. I know this sounds like a vendetta, and I don't mean to sound that way because I have been on the other side of an ARD and I have called parents with bad news, but BY GOD, I do everything within my power to help kids to learn. Even the scruffy ones and the ones who sass back. Because I thought that is what I was supposed to do. I guess not every school adheres to that belief. In the meantime, although I still support public education I ache for those kids whose parents don't question the status quo, who don't ask why they failed and who always blame the kid even when it might not be his or her fault.