The PE teacher in Sage's school thinks he's in the army and the school is boot camp. He is a militant, arrogant, SOB. He doesn't talk to the kids, he yells at them and humiliates them. He stands around constantly blowing his whistle. He is very old-school and a total redneck. I picture him slugging down beer and chewing tobacco all weekend while sitting on his porch playing with his whistle and imagining new ways of torturing the kids.
Sage missed her first week of school due to the tonsillectomy. She had PE on her first day of school but her class already had it the week before. Her school combined three Kindergarten classes together for PE - I guess because of budget cuts. (Eventually, they were able to add on Art as a Special so now they only combine two classes.) At the beginning he had approximately 55 kids in one class with his two assistants. Since Sage missed the first class, she was put with one of the other classes to learn the rules of PE. This involved a lot of whistle blowing while the kids practiced walking in a straight line and stopping when told. She was really upset because he yelled the entire time and he never explained to her why she wasn't with her own class. The next day I asked him about it and he rudely told me that all the kids have to learn the rules. He talked to me as if I was one of the kids. You had to hear him to see how rude he was to me. I already pegged him as a moron.
As the year progressed, Sage started refusing to go to school on PE days. She would cry hysterically in the morning only on PE days. She even had nightmares about it. In early October, Coach Henry sent home a letter inviting the parents to participate in his class. I took him up on his offer three times. The first time, he didn't seem too happy I was there. The kids had to do a sprinting test. He sat on his rear blowing his whistle the whole time. He totally humiliated and made fun of the kids who forgot his instructions. Remember, these kids are only 5 or 6 years old and never had PE before. I wasn't too impressed.
On the next visit, Scott came with me. Sage just got over having bronchitis and missed her long distance running test. The kids had to run a 1/4 mile. That bastard had the three classes of kids, around 50 kids, watch Sage and two boys run their test. It was hot as hell outside and Sage isn't exactly in great shape. She was so embarrassed. She finished way after the other two kids and everyone was watching her and shouting.
The running had ended and bowling began. Sage actually enjoyed it so I decided not to complain to the administrators.
After Winter break, the running started up again and so did Sage's hysterics each day she had PE. One day I bribed her to go to school by telling her I'd pick her up before PE. I talked to the guidance counselor about this and she was supposed to talk to Sage. She really didn't do anything to help. That week she had PE twice. Once again Sage wouldn't go to school so I told her I would go to her PE class.
When I showed up, I signed in at the office like I'm supposed to. I then went outside to the PE field. When I arrived, the coach was totally pissed off that I was there. He radioed to the office and the assistant principal, Mrs. Pegram showed up. Nobody says anything to me. I continued to participate in his class which really sucked. At the beginning of each class, he has the kids do old fashioned calisthenics. Very military-like. He does not let the kids modify the push-ups. They have to do full body, knees cannot be on the ground. He does some idiotic stomach strengthening exercise that is so bad for their backs. The other stuff he has them do isn't harmful, just senseless, like windmills, jumping jacks, skiing etc. He wastes half the class with this and then makes them run the 1/4 mile. They only had about 20 minutes to spend on the actual lesson of the day.
After the class, I went back to the office to sign-out. The AP was waiting for me. She brought me to the other assistant Principal's office, Mr. Mabry. The two of them chewed me out for being there. They claim that I can't visit the school without a 24 hour notice and they never heard of the letter sent out by coach Henry inviting us to his class. The word had gotten out by the guidance counselor and by the crossing guard (my mistake for talking to her) so they were on alert that I was having problems with coach henry. They had this 24 hour notice idea already set up in their minds to use as a way of getting rid of me. At the meeting I let them know how I felt about coach henry. They, of course, didn't care. They were insisting on having a meeting with Sage, Coach Henry and the two of them without me. They didn't like the fact that Sage was causing problems coming to school. (Like this is all her fault!) I agreed to it at that point because I needed to leave. I was so furious. When I told Scott and my parents, they were all outraged. I wrote a note to them and the principal refusing to allow them to meet with Sage and I wanted a meeting with the principal. Scott and I had our meeting but nothing really came out of it. The principal was going to have one of the PE assistants work with Sage instead of the coach and the guidance counselor was supposed to meet with Sage before PE. She was going to see if the Coach would modify some of the exercises. Of course, Sage will still be in Coach Henry's class so working with the assistant is a bunch of crock. The guidance counselor didn't meet with Sage until 10 minutes before PE. That didn't help us one bit since Sage has her hysterics in the morning before PE. I'll never know if he allowed the modifications since I'm not allowed back in his class.
Thus the problem is unresolved.
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