When Parents Get Angry...

My most common theme for this blog has been youth freedom and access to services or forms of media in public libraries. My version of Assignment 2 focused on a teen's internet use and the role parents play in policing their child's activities in the Library. I chose to focus on youth issues because I'd love to work in a public library setting with both youth and adults.

This past Friday, the 19th, many of these challenges burst onto the scene of my work as a community college Learning Resources staff member. Our college offers many classes from ESL and GED to college-level; prerequsites for university transfer.
Fresh Start is a high-school completion program for kids between 16-21 who dropped out before graduating and wish to complete high school in a community college setting. Those classes are offered in a cohort style classroom and most of the students are required to use our campus support resources like my office, the Writing and Tutoring Center.

On Friday afternoon, two male Fresh Start students were interviewing me about our servces and how our Center collaborates with campus instructors when... AN IRATE MOTHER BURST IN! I do mean IRATE; and she literally ran inside our large, open, "learning commons " style Tutoring Center. The woman babbled her name too fast for me to comprehend and demanded that her daughter be included in the interview I'd been giving the two male Fresh Start students. (It turns out that the absent daughter was also a Fresh Start 17-year-old girl who was not faring well in class.)
Somehow the girl had convinced her mother to convince/demand that she be part of the group..." The guys held their ground and calmly, politely explained that this angry woman's daughter had not shown up for any group meetings or assisted with any of the project. The guys were willing to let the daughter participate -- IF she'd do so!

The whole episode escalated very fast and I felt really unprepared for all of it... First of all, I don't have any authority to speak to a parent of any student because we deal with the registered student rather than a parent, even if the student is under 18. Yelling, angry, defensive parties don't make any progress. The woman thankfully managed to calm herself enough to listen begrudgingly as I told her her that the daughter and classmates needed to work through this dilemma (with the Counseling Center's aid perhaps??) They agreed! I have no idea how the confrontation resolved itself, but all parties trooped off to the Counseling Center.

As I thought through these events, I realized that no environment is free from strife. Even though the College offers resources like Tutoring, students must take the initiative to benefit from the resources they're being offered. So much for a college environment being more mature, or adults handling themselves acceptably in public!!