I am positively livid!
By patgalca
@patgalca (18425)
Orangeville, Ontario
November 25, 2008 3:16pm CST
The first time this incident happened my husband told me not to get involved. The second time, today, I could not ignore it.
Apparently the rules of the school (elementary Catholic) are that the students are not to wear hats INSIDE the school. I can see the reasoning behind this as their are kids who would be inclined to keep their hats on at all times. But please, when a student is entering the school (possibly with hands full of books and stuff) they should be allowed to wear their hat until they get to their classroom and then remove it when they remove the rest of their outdoor wear.
The first time the teacher took my daughter's hat away from her it was after lunchtime recess, I believe. She was told to pick up the hat at the end of the day before she left for home. So that means she did not wear a hat at afternoon recess. Today, my daughter had her hat on as she was putting on her boots and coat. The same teacher took the hat away from her and told her she could pick it up in the morning. DD said it was cold outside and she had to walk home. The teacher told her to use her hood.
I phoned the school and ranted into their answering machine. First of all, that hat cost something like $25. Second of all, we are constantly getting reminders from the school that our children dress appropriately for the weather - dress warmly for the winter (and it IS winter here - a foot of snow on the ground). I have never seen in any newsletter that they are not permitted to wear their hats in school. And third, women are permitted to wear hats IN CHURCH!!!! The priest told me so himself. It doesn't matter what kind of hat they are wearing, females do not have to take their hats off in church (though I insist that my daughters do).
What do you think? Should I have kept out of it or did I have a right to jump all over the school for this stupid rule. When people get dressed they have a routine. When my daughter gets dressed to go outside she puts her hat on first, then her coat, then her boots. Not everyone works this way but thank God she wears a hat! My older daughter refused to dress warmly when she was that age (12).
Guys, any support you can offer me would be great cuz I'm practically shaking I'm so mad.
4 people like this
14 responses
@tlb0822 (1410)
• United States
26 Nov 08
That is really ubsurd that the teacher would take away a hat because she was putting it on to go outside. How petty and ridiculous. Kind of sounds like that teacher doesn't have anything better to do then to be on hat patrol. I would defiantly said something about it when your child had to go out without a hat in the freezing cold weather. I think that if a student is getting dressed to go out side or just comes in from outside there should be some kind of lenancy that allows them to have their hat on for that certain period of time. It's not like the child is trying to be disrespectful or intentionally disobeying rules. Which that hat rule is quite stupid. In this case I probably would have done the same thing you did.
2 people like this
@patgalca (18425)
• Orangeville, Ontario
26 Nov 08
Thanks, I feel like I might have gone over the top by leaving that angry message on the answering machine, but the response voice mail was cheerful. I am hesitant to call back but I do want this issue dealt with. It's going to be a long cold winter. By the way, my daughter is in grade 6. This is the very first year I have ever heard of this happening. Must be a new rule. It's going to be quashed if I have anything to say about it.
@scarletwitch12 (562)
• Philippines
26 Nov 08
If it is really cold and the stupid rule caused your daughter to go out in the cold with just her hood protecting her head, I think you have every right to be furious!
Regulations are supposed to protect kids not put them in danger!
2 people like this
@coolcatzz (1587)
• Canada
25 Nov 08
I'd be mad too so I agree with you. I find some of their rules are way overboard.
My daughter had to miss several gym classes because her class wouldn't be quiet.
Now how fair is that? So if 3 people are acting up why is the whole class punished?? Then the last two days when I go to pick her up (I meet her at the catwalk) she has been late. She said her teacher kept them in after school for a few extra minutes cause people were talking. I said then you tell her parents are waiting, wasting gas trying to keep a car warm and damaging our ozone layer. I mean really though why do they have to do stupid things like this???? But I don't blame you for being mad at all. If they took my child's hat till recess or whatever then fine but to make her
go home without it I would be livid too.
@patgalca (18425)
• Orangeville, Ontario
25 Nov 08
I remember when I was a kid the snow plow would shovel the snow into huge piles of snow in our school yard. We would climb these snow hills and slide down them. Nowadays the kids are only allowed to play ON THE PAVEMENT. Well, they have been known to make snow forts but that causes conflict when other kids knock them down. Kids aren't allowed to have fun anymore. And here is another thought, a teacher may have been over-ruling a mother's rule. That's not right!
1 person likes this
@cher913 (25781)
• Canada
26 Nov 08
i know at my daughters school, hats are not allowed in the school either (its a gang thing apparently) but this is crazy! the teacher had no right to keep the hat over night. you need to go to the teacher and complain, if you dont get a satisfactory answer from the teacher, talk to the principal, if not the principal, talk to your local school board. that is not right.
2 people like this
@JanetBRudman (158)
• United States
28 Nov 08
Hats are made to keep the head warm in cold weather. Children are susceptible to head colds, therefore they should wear hats outside. The teacher should know that before going outside, the child has to put on outdoor gear. She should put on booties, scarf, coat and hat in that order. Anyway, for the teacher to take it away is just deplorable, Catholic school or public school.
2 people like this
@Opal26 (17679)
• United States
26 Nov 08
Hi pat~I don't really think that they should have made such
a big deal about this. After all your daughter wasn't wearing
it during school hours. She was getting ready to go outside
so I don't think that it was necessary for them to take the
hat away from her and not give it back until the next day.
I feel they reacted inappropriately. I feel that you had
every right to be angry in this particular instance.
2 people like this
@sedel1027 (17846)
• Cupertino, California
26 Nov 08
I don't understand why they took the hat away from her. I could see if she was goofing off with it or was wearing it during class and distracting someone, but she wasn't. I would have done the same thing!
1 person likes this
@deebomb (15304)
• United States
26 Nov 08
This is what happens when a school has a zero tolerance rule. People get stupid. Here where I live a student was expelled because hiw mother put a butter knife in his lunch to cut up a banana when he first got his braces and she thought it would be easier for him. I could see the teacher taking your daughters hat if she was wearing it in class. I would be livid too and the school would be getting a call from me too. Sometime when some rules are put in place some people just get stupid apparently this teacher is one of them.
2 people like this
@BarBaraPrz (49956)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
26 Nov 08
That is the stupidest rule I've ever heard of. You have every right to get upset. Maybe you should charge the teacher with theft? (Or, at least threaten to...) That would get them rethinking their idiocy.
@patgalca (18425)
• Orangeville, Ontario
26 Nov 08
The theft idea wouldn't work as those kids who bring electronic devices to school are to hand them in at the office at the beginning of the day and get them back at the end of the day. Some could consider that a form of thievery.
I really left a nasty message on the school answering machine. I'll be quaking in my boots tomorrow, especially since DH had told me to stay out of it the first time around and he will be home tomorrow. 
1 person likes this
@BarBaraPrz (49956)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
26 Nov 08
And another thing! What if the hat-wearing child was a cancer patient? Would they have to sit all day with a bald head?
@barehugs (8973)
• Canada
26 Nov 08
If the School persists with this rule it seems to me they are leaving themselves open to being sued by parents who's children get sick from colds, ear infections, or chest colds. It might be a good idea to notify the school board to this affect. Its a rather unfortunate rule to enforce in cold inclement weather. The Catholic School Boards in Ontario seem to be playing God quite regularily as well. Perhaps they too need to be taken down a peg!
1 person likes this
@nicholejade (2430)
• Canada
25 Nov 08
This teacher is being unreasonable that's for sure. I would be going to the school and talking not only with this teacher but the principal as well. Sitting them both down and talking about this will be best if you take care of it right away. I do not agree with this teacher at all. Why couldn't the teacher wait till your daughter got to her classroom to take it off not by entertaining the school and taking it away right away. I know that all schools don't like the students to be wearing hats around the school which I understand but in your daughters case she wasn't harming anyone and was just waiting to get to her classroom to take it off. I give her credit that she tried to stick up for herself and get her hat back and I think this is another point that you should bring up. It's cold out and every child should have their hat. Not fair to her to say the least.
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
• United States
4 Dec 08
I probably would have walked her to school the next day and retrieved the hat myself from this teacher, and told her in person what I thought about her taking my child's personal belongings. It's not like it was a baseball cap or something silly, it was a necessary winter hat!
@patgalca (18425)
• Orangeville, Ontario
5 Dec 08
After speaking with the principal, my daughter tells me the events of that teacher taking hats from the kids has toned down considerably. She takes them when they are throwing them at each other but was taking them for no reason before. Seems the principal got through to her. We had parent-teacher interviews tonight and I had to try and avoid that particular teacher. 
Thanks for your response.
Thanks for your response.@katsmeow1213 (28716)
• United States
5 Dec 08
That's good to know. Not sure it would have been good enough for me, but I tend to over react quite a bit to things like this, lol.
@jordan04n (463)
• United States
26 Nov 08
That teacher is not using common sense and is watching your child too much. Do not talk in front of your child. Take this up with teacher at school...no resolution talk to head master. Kids are kids..
@patgalca (18425)
• Orangeville, Ontario
26 Nov 08
I am sure I will get a call back after the message I left on the answering machine. I finished with, "I don't want to hear of this happening again!" Enough is enough. I think my bigger issue is that females are allowed to wear hats in a church so why do they have to remove them before they walk inside the school doors?
1 person likes this
@savak03 (6684)
• United States
4 Dec 08
In my area the schools had a 'no hat' policy because certain hats were used in ways to signify membership in a gang. With that in view it makes the reason for the rule seem reasonable. However, anything can be taken to an extreme and that seems to be what this teacher is doing.
Since your daughter was made to go outside in the cold without her hat you have cause for complaint. I would have been angry, too. Personally though I would have gone to the school rather than trying to handle it on the phone. I like to look in peoples eyes when I am having a difference of opinion with them. Especially if it concerns my child.
1 person likes this
