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Entitled high schooler hands his teacher an invoice demanding a higher grade as payment for his emotional labor in a project he didn’t submit: ‘I know teens can be dramatic, but this one still makes my eye twitch’

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    Teacher siitng in front of a white board in a classroom. looking frustrated and upset while go over papers
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    Entitled student tried to "invoice" me for his own missing work

    I'm a high school teacher and I know teens can be dramatic, but this one still makes my eye twitch when I think about it. I had a student this semester, I'll
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    call him D, who treated deadlines like a cute suggestion. Nice enough kid when he wanted to be, but every assignment was a
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    negotiation. "Can I turn it in next week?" "Can I just do half?" "Can you reopen it, I was busy." The thing is, I do offer extensions when
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    theres an actual reason, I dont enjoy failing anyone. D just didnt do the work, then acted shocked that the gradebook reflected
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    Teacher wearing glasses sitting at a classroom desk with textbooks and math equations on a whiteboard behind her, looking upset, tired or frustrated
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    reality. We had a big project with a rubric, checkpoints, the whole handholding package. I reminded them in class,
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    posted it online, emailed the class. D skipped the checkpoint day, then showed up the final day empty handed and asked if
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    he could "present next period" because he "needed to get in the right headspace." I said no, because everyone else had presented and I was
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    moving on. He sighed super loud like I was being unreasonable and goes, "So you're gonna tank my grade over one assignment." I told him its
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    not one assignment, it's a pattern, and he can still pass if he does the remaining work. He nods like he gets it, then the next morning he walks in and
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    drops a folded piece of paper on my desk like he's serving court papers. It's an actual printed invoice template. At the top it says "Consulting Services" with
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    his name and a fake business logo (it was a dragon in sunglasses). Under that, line items like:
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    "Emotional labor during class: 2 hours" "Time spent thinking about project: 5 hours" "Transportation to school: 1 trip" and then at
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    the bottom, total due: "Grade changed from 62 to 85." I thought it was a joke at first and I did that awkward teacher laugh, but he goes, dead serious,
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    "Since you wasted my time by not letting me present, you owe me a passing grade. My mom said teachers get paid to work with us, so do your job." I
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    just stared at him because what do you even say to that without losing your license. I told him I wasnt changing anything and he can throw the paper away.
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    He refused, said it was "documentation," and tried. to take a picture of it on my desk for "proof." I moved it into my drawer and he got mad and said I was
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    "destroying evidence." Later he emailed asking when I'd "process the invoice." I replied with the rubric attached and a
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    sentence that probably sounded colder than I meant, but my patience was on life support. He ended the semester with
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    the exact grade he earned, and I still have his little dragon logo burned into my brain.
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    ossodog XD the mental gymnastics these days
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    Ruby Red8787 I love his creativity. It's a shame he didn't put that to work on his presentation.
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    Sad-Engineer-4744 no work no reward
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    HumaDracobane I dont know where you're from but if I do that my grades would go to whatever points I had to zero, and that would happen in highschool and college. I'm from Spain and in highschol there was always a minimal amount of the grade, maybe a 5%, that went to how you participate in the subject and your general attitude towards the subject and students/teacher (respect other students and the teacher, show up on time, in projects participate with your team, present asigments on schedule, d
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    Remote_Clue_4272 This will work for him in the future. What every boss loves in an employee. Oh... I forgot... maybe if he claims some sort of religious discrimination thing is going on here he can skate by while you lose your job. This world has turned crazy.
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    greyhounds4life1969 'D' is going to find it very different in the real world where people are allowed to tell him to shut the fuck up and get on with it or just fuck off.
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    Ximinipot Use paragraphs man. For fucks sake.
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    daydreamer19861986 I'd tell him that he needs to research employment and laws around that, you are not employed by him neither is he employed by you therefore you don't owe him any money. The kid is trying to be smart whist showcasing how little he actually understands about life. Also I seriously think this warrants talking to his parents and head of school at this point. This little dude is trying to bully and intimidate a teacher, being very disrespectful.
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    Prometheus_DownUnder As a former university lecturer, I was amazed at the attitude of some students during the last few years of my teaching career. Some would put more energy into justifying a lack of effort or appealing their laziness than it would have taken to get a passing grade. The level of entitlement was staggering and eventually robbed me of the joy of teaching.
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    Dubiousgoober Kids need to be held accountable. He wasn't accountable for his lack of action on a deadline and grades reflected that lack of action. Parents who allow this can fuck off. Those parents are raising and delivering bad behaviors and bad people to society that will cause later problems for everyone. The disrespect here in this child's behavior is immensely disturbing.

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