I Heart My Principal

I had my first-ever parent conference with her yesterday. When I left the classroom, I pretty much left parent/teacher conferences behind. In all my years as librarian, it was the first time a parent wanted the principal present for our discussion. I had been dreading it all week. Background: Before Christmas, a second grader returned books that were caked in banana (from an unfortunate meeting in his backpack). He didn't even bring them to me, but instead just put them in the bookdrop. Fortunately, my eagle-eyed assistant noticed the books and brought them to me. I kept them in my office and talked to the student about the damage, giving him a copy of his account so he could take it to his parents. A week or so after Christmas, I gave the books back to the student, explaining that they were still checked out to him and that I couldn't take them off his record because I couldn't put them back on the shelves in that condition. A few days later, the account summary was returned to the classroom teacher with a note from the boy's mother stating that there was nothing wrong with the books and that she wouldn't be paying for them. She included her phone number, so I called her to explain the school's position. Our discussion, which was quite tense and at times, heated, would have to continue in the presence of my principal, at the mother's request. The meeting was yesterday after school. My principal was SO SO SO awesome. I purposely didn't tell her very much about the situation, only the very basics. She hadn't even seen the books before the conference. She was behind me 100 %. It was so awesome. She looked through the books incredulously as the parent was telling her that there was nothing wrong with the books. She point blank asked the parent, "You don't see that there is damage to this book?" The principal got nowhere with the parent, either, and explained to her that while we could not legally make her pay for the books, paying for them was the right thing to do. The parent refused, and the principal said, "I am concerned about the message that this is is sending to your son." It was so great--it was exactly what I was thinking but knew I couldn't say. The principal was so strong. She didn't back down. She let the parent know that we (the school) didn't agree with her decision, and that it was the wrong decision. I cried when it was over--it was just the stress of the situation. I always cry when I am stressed. My principal thought I was crying for the child--which I guess I was, partly. I was more crying because this parent was SO STUPID. People should have to take some kind of test to be a parent. Ugh. My principal decided that we will allow the student to check out just one book at a time. If he returns it in good condition, then he can borrow another one. Since we have an open library, he can come in everyday if he wants a new book, so we aren't punishing him for his parents' stupidity. We did the best thing for the child. That's what matters. Even if his parents didn't.