Last night when I was calling my no-show kids’ parents I talked to one father about his kid not being here. I mentioned that I knew he had been upset lately about the court case he was involved in and I didn’t want to pressure him and… Yeah. The dad got really upset and said he knew nothing about it. The kid had told me that it was something he was worried about talking about and I thought, “Oh shit… his dad doesn’t know?!” So I freaked out thinking I had violated his trust, I have gotten him in trouble, OH GOD this is going to be bad. I fretted all night long.

Today he tells me in class that he needs to talk to me after school about the situation. I felt like shit for the rest of the day. After school I took him outside and started apologizing profusely. Then he very stiltingly and haltingly let me know that when he gets really stressed out and uncomfortable sometimes he has trouble admitting what is really going on and sometimes he tells lies and… I interrupted him and said, “Wait… you were lying about the court case?” “Uhm…. yeah” He turned bright red and was visibly shaking. I started laughing hysterically and fell over backwards. I thanked him for relieving my guilt and explained that I have been feeling awful for a while. He said this is the first time anyone has ever thanked him for lying. I told him that him lying about this was better than me betraying a major confidence.

He came back in and settled in to work in a good mood and made a lot of progress. 🙂

I have had about a dozen parents tell me that they are deeply grateful that I am holding their kids after school so they can raise their grades. I’m feeling really good about the effort.