Media frenzy

Last week, something pretty crazy happened at the kids's school...it was on Friday when I ( and nearly half of the school's parents) went to a meeting. The day before, we received a rather cryptic email from the school asking the parents of 4th and 5th graders to attend the meeting. But no other information was given. I was really clueless of what was going on but decided to go and find out. Upon entering the school, a mom asked me whether my daughter got the homework yesterday. I said of course she got homework, they have homework all the time. Weird question, I thought. And then she said that this thing has been blown out of proportion. Ok, me, still being clueless, just agreed with her..duh!!! Maybe parents complaining too much homework? Because sometimes they do get waaayyy too much homework, even on weekends and holidays. Anyway, met another friend and she explained to me what happened. Ok, this is the story..it was about homework but it was a much bigger issue than having too much of it. Apparently, one teacher asked some of her students to make up some math questions based on what they have learned in social studies and the subject matter was slavery. So some kids came up with questions that included the words like whipped and killed. The questions went back in the kids' backpacks and none of the parents complained. Why? Because they knew that their kids ( my kids are not in the class involved, hence explaining my cluelessness) have been learning in depth about slavery and the children understood the subject matter. A few weeks later, another teacher wanted to use the same questions and asked her assistant, a student teacher we call it, to make photocopy. Now, that was when the whole trouble started. The student teacher, whom I will call A, was shocked by the questions and decided to show them to her mentor. And then, this mentor decided to go to the press!!! Not to the principal (which I think what A should have done in the first place) but straight to the press. So, the media frenzy began! A tv crew came to the school on Thursday, tried to interview parents, managed to get one parent and one caregiver to say something and they were against the teacher, saying that it was wrong. That was on tv Friday morning and on the same morning, as we were sending off the kids, more tv crews were there, with cameras and these tall poles for transmission or something like that. So, during the meeting, the principal explained what happened (and apparently, I wasn't the only one who was clueless so takder la rasa blur sangat kan?). The parents (I would say 99% of us) were in support of the teacher. later that day, during pick up, there were more reporters asking parents for comments. And it was all over the news that night and kat internet, tak payah cakap lah, macam macam cerita and yang ditokok tambah and twisted version pun banyak. Anyway, things seemed to have mellowed down over the weekend so things were back to normal and the teacher so far doesn't face any disciplinary actions, so far so good. Saw the teacher a few days after that, she seemed ok, knew from a friend that she wasnt in such good shape on the day that happened. Pity her.Imagine you are being in the middle of this craziness and your intention was just to teach the kids about history and math but your intention got twisted and misjudged and questioned. And it was all because one not very smart person decided not to investigate or ask somebody else but rather assumed the worst and reported it to the wrong party. Not sure what is happening to A now but she better be smart and not show her face at our school again, ada yang kena pelangkung nanti.