What to do about a lunch room monitor?

I found out just a few days ago that my 7 year old son was being unfairly and poorly treated in the lunch room this past school year. An adult I met through a friend is a sub it the lunch room and on three separate occasions this adult witnessed my 1st grade son in isolation, seated to stare at the wall and speak to no one. The first time she found him in isolation she went over to ask him why he was there. Once she walked away the head monitor went over to my son, got down in his face and screamed at him for talking to the adult. The adult did make a report about the monitors behavior to the principal. I was never notified about any of this. I am extremely angry in finding out how my son was treated. Nothing he could have done deserves this type of action against him. I have witnessed myself this monitor being mean unjustly to children in the lunch room but never saw it get our of hand like what was described to me about my own son. What action should I take to resolve this issue?

Parent Answers to "What to do about a lunch room monitor?"

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I want the monitor to loose her job, or at the very least she need never come in contact with any of my children again after she apologies to my son for her inappropriate behavior. I will be contacting the principal, right now we are on summer break and I just found out about what happened so it will be hard to get a hold of the principal but I will be calling every day until I do speak with him. I'm not just angry over how my son was treated but also over the fact that no one has contacted me to even let me know my son was not doing as instructed in the lunch room. I also found out from the same adult that the second time my son was in isolation it was because the prior day he had gotten up to throw his trash away before he was told to. I do not want my child being isolated again. I feel like that is inappropriate discipline in a school. All it does is embarrass a child and there is no need to do that in a school. I do volunteer at the school and I eat lunch from time to time with both of my children (they are twins) who attend school there. I knew I didn't like this monitor and now I'd like to get in her face and she how she likes being screamed at in front of a bunch of people. I have a family member who is also a lunch monitor in another school district and she said she would loose her job in a heart beat if she treated a child the way my son was treated.

Make an appointment to speak with the principal and also, have a discussion with your son. I know, some young children do not take adults' behavior seriously.

I think the adult who witnessed this event
was in the a position to discuss the incident with your son and follow it up with you within a week.

I do visit my children's school once month to see what is going on with them. Most of the time, adults in school refuse to tell parents at home or work the truth, until a problem involves police or death.

All the best!

Lunch room monitors and recess monitors can often be part-timers who come in only for that short part of the day. They most often have no training as teachers and know little about how to manage groups of children - and they're given no training when hired.
And then thrown into difficult situations and left there to manage on their own. Not infrequently they fall to screaming at children out of frustration and - because no one is watching. Building teachers will look the other way because they don't want to do lunchroom duty themselves and principals look the other way because they often have training themselves on how to mentor employees. And usually it's difficult to find people who do this job.

None of that excuses what happened to your son - such things should not happen to children in school. You look to school to be a safe place for your child. Having children stare at the wall is an old punishment that humiliates a child and no decent school should allow any child to be treated that way.

As yours seems to, I'd make a pleasant appointment with the principal and ask what the school's policy is in regard to the lunchroom. Always be pleasant - hide your anger - act as if you couldn't believe what you've heard.

But next year you'd do well to 'pop in' at lunchtime when you can - if you can, offer to volunteer as a lunchroom monitor. The monitor who did this to your son is a bully and bullies only bully when our backs are turned.
Good luck with this - I hope you'll let us know what happens.

I wouldn't only mention it to the principal but also have my kid stand up to the monitor.

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