This was for my CHS history class that I have now transferred out of. I'm in regular history now and the teacher seemed a bit stern but most DEFINITELY reasonable and fair, unlike this teacher. I don't care if he's teaching a college level course, he's still teaching in a high school and employed by my high school and thus he is required by US law to be forgiving to students who physically can't come to the classroom.

Also, in this conversation I tell the teacher I have no Wi-Fi at home. I obviously do have internet at home, but I've gone over in my COVID schooling rant why I can't use it for school. Whenever I tell teachers I have 10 KBPS internet speed they suddenly expect me to be able to fucking stream shit like nobody's business at home and that's just not possible, so I just say I have no Wi-Fi because it's pretty much that way when it comes to school and I don't feel like explaining 5000 times why 10 KBPS is not a sufficient Wi-Fi speed for fucking anything.

Anyways...

I'm just gonna... copy/paste exactly what each side said, of course without identifying info.

~~~

Me:

Hello. I was able to reach your Google classroom because I spoke with the counseling office and they gave me your class code as well as your email. They told me that you claimed to have made attempts at contacting me, but I have not received those attempts. I'm not sure exactly what methods you attempted to reach out to me, but I have not heard or seen anything. It may have just been a glitch or technical error, though. However, for future reference, if you were not already doing so then my school email or my father's phone number {[phone number], which you should be able to access through [database my school tracks data]} are the only ways you can relay any information to me. I would've attempted to reach out to you sooner to try to ask about the disconnect, but this is my first day back to school after the semester for reasons I will explain later.

I haven't had the opportunity to check Google Classroom yet because I'm typing this as soon as I've left the counseling office, but is there anything that I've missed {such as assignments or important announcements}? If there are any missing assignments, will I be able to make those up? Also, if the Zoom information is not listed in the Google Classroom, can you please provide it for me?

Also, for the next month or so, I unfortunately cannot guarantee my attendance will be stable. I have to be in the building in order to attend Zoom classes, and I may be unable to do that on some days. My wisdom teeth have been coming in, and it's planned for me to see an oral surgeon ASAP to get them removed because they've been causing several issues. Among them, the most obvious problem is that they've been causing so much pain I often cannot attend school {which is the same reason today is my first day back}. Just to be here today, I'm on a lot of painkillers, but I can't do that on a regular basis because it's harsh for my stomach. I will still try to be here as much as possible, though. As I stated earlier, it should be an issue for around the next month assuming everything goes well.

I hope we will be able to work something out and that this will be a productive semester for me, thanks!

...

Teacher:

Shaun-

This is a College in the High School course. Do you think this is a good placement being that it took you over a week to track down a Google Classroom code that was made available over a week ago? Where was your attempt to track this down prior to that week? Did you think that nothing was going on?

Because of your performance last semester, I think that taking a regular US History class may be more appropriate. I have a class full of self starters who are willing to track down information on their own and hold themselves accountable.

...

Me:

As I have stated earlier, I was unable to attend school until today. If you cannot understand the fact that I do not have Wi-Fi at home and was unable to be in the building until today, meaning that it was physically impossible for me to contact you or make any attempts to get sorted out because I did not have a phone number to contact you, then please reassess your thinking.

Also, you are partially to blame because you obviously did not make an adequate attempt to contact me with the Google Classroom and/or Zoom information because I did not receive it. Do not blame technical errors or your own human errors on me because I will not accept being blamed for something out of my control. You should have attempted to phone call my father because you have access to his phone number via [database my school tracks data] while I do not have any access to your contact information whatsoever. Even if it was listed online, again, I have no Wi-Fi access at home. If you attempted to phone call my father, I have not heard about it and there are zero emails from you in my inbox.

Yes, I am aware I was technically able to attend school because the issue was with my mouth. However, if I'm literally screaming in pain and mostly unable to eat whatsoever even after taking painkillers, I'm sorry but your class and all of school is irrelevant to me. My physical and mental wellbeing is above all and I will not accept being told otherwise.

Yes, I am aware that my performance last semester was not good. If you think that I would do better in a regular classroom, then by all means please tell me how to switch out of your class. I signed up before the pandemic, and because of the fact that I live in a rural area in poverty I do not have the same ability to access materials and interact with class as I would under normal circumstances. It's not my fault and it's not your fault, it just is. If it's purely due to my inability to access the classroom from home that you think I should switch out, then I will. I'm aware that my situation does prevent me from doing things I'd otherwise be able to do.

Thanks.

...

Teacher:

Yes, I think that switching out of my class would be best for you. I'll let your counselor know. Good luck this semester.

...

Counselor:

All taken care of.

...

~~~

That was the email conversation that happened today.

Honestly, when I read my teacher's first email this shock feeling of, "Oh shit, he's an ass!!" ran through me and I was gonna panic and melt down, but I forced myself to stand up for myself because he had no right to treat me like that. Authority figure or not, I'm not gonna stand to be treated in a nearly unlawful way.

My hands and arms were shaking so badly when I wrote my second email and I honestly felt like crying because y'know, WHO THE HELL WANTS TO CONFRONT AUTHORITY???

But I STOOD UP FOR MYSELF AND I FEEL PROUD OF MYSELF FOR BEING BRAVE!!!

Hopefully that teacher will treat his students much better because he treated me like fucking garbage and I REALLY hope his students don't have to take that shit from him.

Welp... that's all I wanted to say today.