Mom, my teacher was spanking kids today...

Christian got in the car the other day after school and when asked how his day was he responded, "My teacher was tired and grumpy today."

No surprise there. I have bad days too and I can only imagine that the first week of school with a bunch of first graders could be a bit trying. It would be for me. :) However this is not where he stopped.

He went on, "Kids were not being good today and she got mad and started to spank them. She got really close to me but I got lucky, she didn't spank me."

I was thinking, there is no way this could happen. He didn't seem horribly upset about it. Usually if he even gets a (verbal) warning for talking in class he dissolves into tears when he gets into the car. So, spanking? And talking so nonchalantly about it? So, I questioned him about it and he became more detailed. He started using kids names from class. I was a little worried, but something deep inside of me didn't panic. I mean, really, mass spanking? She would be fired the next day if kids went home telling their parents about this. If she really were that off her rocker, wouldn't they have figured that out by now?

At this point, I did what any good parent would do...a little research. I called a friend that has one of her daughters in the class and her daughter said that kids got magnets taken off of their desk (a method of keeping track of the kids that get warnings a missed recesses for behavior) but that she didn't see anyone get spanked. Then as I was finishing the conversation with my friend, to my surprise, on the caller ID it showed the kids school was calling. Lo and behold, it was his teacher.

She called to let me know how great my child was doing, what his struggles were that I could work on, and how glad she was to have him in her class. Sure, she sounds like the devil in disguise...NOT. So after a healthy discussion about my cute little Christian, I casually add in that Christian said he saw some spanking at school that day. Without the slightest fear in her voice she puzzlingly said, "Maybe there were kids spanking each other in line that I had not seen." Her biggest worry, that he could be having a hard time understanding what was really taking place in the class. Like a complete break with reality (okay, she didn't insinuate that far).

After I got off of the phone I called Christian into the room to talk about my phone call. I started, "I just got off of the phone with your teacher and your friends mom and they both said there was no spanking at school that they know of."

His eyes were held wide in disbelief and he was blubbering before I could finish, "I was just joking mom."

Yes, we had a little discussion as to how NOT funny it was and he made a nice "I'm sorry for lying" card to his teacher.

Great way to make a good impression the first week of school. :) Time to read the story about the boy who cried wolf....