Other People's Kids

Defect Detected

"Jake" does have a defect that is becoming apparent...he's kind of a jerk to some of the other kids at school. I don't mean a normal jerk...but it sounds like he's something extra special at times.

There is one girl who is also a foster kid that goes to that school. We have done respite for her a couple of times, and aside from the fact that even death will not shut that girl up, she was pretty pleasant to have around. "Jake" told her that she would never get a date because she was ugly. He told her this twice. When confronted by school staff, he claimed freedom of speech and said he wouldn't have said it if it wasn't true.

Chivalry is not dead, but it's on life support and I'm looking for the defibrillator.

We are to apply some sort of consequences at home to go with the in-school suspension he earned himself. Problem is, there isn't much he really wants to do, so we can't prevent him from doing it. As a first step, we've banned him from watching TV in the basement for the amount of time he's in ISS, and limited his use of his game console. He'll probably have to help me finish the tiling in the basement tomorrow.

Next step will be to eliminate the game console entirely. Next after that...heck if I know. Maybe make him make supper every day 'til he's out of ISS. He actually cooks pretty well...but he also seems to enjoy it usually. How do you "punish" a kid who's either apathetic toward or appreciative of your punishments?

I can honestly say I've not run across this problem before.

Labels: "Jake"

posted by Dan @ 7:47 PM