My Mom Humbled My Teacher for Accusing Me of Forgery
Hi Charlotte! I was watching an Am I the Devil with you and Mike and thought of this story and had to share.
I (34 nb) was 9 at the time and in third grade. I was an A/B student, followed rules like crazy, but this teacher seemed to not like me. We will call her Mrs. R. Mrs. R had a weekly conduct grade where she kept a wall of letter grades for everyone and if she considered you misbehaving, she would tell you to "flip a card" where you had to get up, go to the wall, and move your laminated letter card to the back and lower your conduct grade by half a letter. As I previously mentioned, I was an A/B student, so my conduct never got that low, but I think the week this happened, I was at a B/B-. Not great, but obviously I could be worse.
For context, my mom (66 f now, 41 then), we'll call her D, is the "boss" of the family for lack of a better term. She is an accountant, is the main breadwinner, and was the one who handled discipline. I always found it funny when people would say they would have to ask their dads for permission because for me and my sister, that was Mom. She also has been a firm believer in following up authority figures punishments with ones at home to show she agreed with that if I did something wrong. As such, each week when the weekly conduct forms came home, she would be the one I had to get sign it so she could discuss my behavior if it was bad or commend me if it was good. However, she had annual business trips she would need to go on and they could be a few days or up to a week. That week, she was out of town on her business trip.
Now for my dad. Dad (66m now, 41 then again), we'll call him P, has terrible handwriting. He's an electrician, but would give a doctor a run for his money. I *also* have not great penmanship. D's is very elegant and pretty. So I bring my conduct paper to him Sunday night as I always do. He looks at it, tells me I will have to talk to my mom about it during our nightly call we were about to have with her, and signs in his normal chicken scratch. We call my mom, she admonishes me, but we move on and she says she will be home the next day and we will discuss it further then.
So I go into school the next day, go about my normal routine, and as we are going out to recess, Mrs. R pulls me aside.
"OP, I know you forged that signature on your conduct sheet," she tells me. No asking. No debate. Instant accusation. She has the most serious voice and is staring me down like the criminal she thinks I am. "What does 'forged' mean?" I ask, terrified of this accusation and not even knowing what crimes I am being accused of at this moment. "It means you wrote your dad's name. I know you did that. Don't lie to me," she responds. I am gutted. I immediately tell her that no, I didn't and that my dad did indeed sign that and why would she not believe me? "No one writes that poorly as an adult and if you don't stop lying to me, I am going to have you flip a whole letter grade and you won't get to have recess." I am floored. I also have always been a crier. I hate it, but I get stressed, I cry. So I am openly sobbing in the hallway trying to convince my teacher I am not lying. She calls me on my "bluff" and makes me do as she says. So I go and flip my cards and sit at my desk, crying because I did nothing wrong and knowing I will also get in trouble when I get home cause Mrs. R said she is sending me home with a note about my "forgery."
When I get picked up by my parents, D is concerned by the fact I am instantly crying as I see her. She and P get me in the car and I attempt to tell them what happened through sobs. I am getting ready to get told I am grounded or whatever Mom is going to do as she normally did when I was bad at school, but she is comforting me and telling me how sorry she is that I went through that. P is also agreeing that I was not wrong but that Mrs. R is and that it is not fair what she did to me. I was shocked for the second time that day! D promised me she was going to call Mrs. R AND the Principal about this because I didn't even know what forgery was that day, let alone thought to try it. My punishment for the last week was also forgotten because clearly this woman had already punished me enough. D was in Mama Bear mode now.
The next day, she did as promised. She called the principal first and asked her why a teacher was accusing third graders of forgery instead of calling a parent and asking about the issue first. She then demanded a written apology for me AND P as we were both insulted from Mrs. R. The principal agreed and said she would get to the bottom of the situation.
Principal caught Mrs. R as we were going to PE and was told to follow her to her office where D was still on the phone. D apparently told her off for not only accusing me of forgery but for saying no adult should have that bad of handwriting for P. That was none of her business and frankly a bad attempt at evidence. She also once again asked why she didn't call her or P to ask what happened instead of just jumping to forgery. The woman stuttered about how she had always seen D signing things and thought it was strange that all of a sudden P did. D said that while it was NONE of Mrs. R's business, but she had been out of town and couldn't sign. Again, still not a good enough reason to accuse a 9 year old of forgery to the point of crying and punishing when told that they did not do the crime. She said I needed my conduct grade fixed, I needed a formal apology letter, and so did P. Mrs. R agreed.
I came back from PE to find my grade was fixed, there was a note on my desk and at the end of the day, I was given a second note for P. It was a very wild 2 days, but I never felt so vindicated.