How do I challenge a grade give to my son by a band teacher he turned in for violating school policy?

PART 1: I'd like first to say that I am sorry your son had to witness a 23 year-old pervert take advantage of a classmate! This is an illegal, criminal act, and I hope the police arrested this man. I am glad that you called the police. Everyone has a right to his or her own body, and the school has a responsibility to ensure that predators aren't allowed access to our children. Simply outrageous!

PART II: I will help you to try and get to the bottom of this problem regarding the grade-change.

A) Do not give the principal or the Board of Education a letter. The District has a strong legal team and it's conceivable that you might find yourself in a costly legal battle. Ordinarily, a principal is not allowed to alter grades; however, the teacher (and the principal) must provide evidence as to why your son received an F. Make an appointment to meet with the principal and let this be the focus of you meeting: "What methods were used to determine the grade my son received in jazz band?"

B) Request copies of the progress reports that were sent to you every six weeks over the school year. If the progress reports showed that he was getting an "A" (and not a "D" or an "F"), and then suddenly plummeted to an "F", ask why you were never contacted and how it is possible have so much of the grade weighted on the last six weeks of class.

C) Be friendly and polite, but ask to see a copy of the grade book. The principal can black-out the other students' names to retain anonymity. Check the numbers and see if they add up and match the F.

D) Even in jazz band, "best practices" require an instructor to use clearly defined and achievable grading assessments. Ask to see the rubrics, portfolios, team project guidelines, sample tests and quizzes, etc.. Ask what method was used to determine your son's grade. If the principal doesn't know, then ask how he doesn't know whether the grade entered was mistake. Ask him if he's ever seen a case where the teacher has accidentally entered the wrong grade. (This will give him an out.)

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ADDITIONAL NOTES: If the principal refused to provide you with information, allude to the principal that you may be calling the police again to file a "supplemental report" in which you claim your son is a victim of retaliation for going to the police in the first place.

Let the principal think you might sue. A school district--and the district Board of Education--hates the media, and they certainly wouldn't want to see the following headline: "School District Retaliates Against Student for Informing Police about Child-Endangerment." BE CAREFUL HERE: The district has a team of lawyers. You probably don't have the money to expend on a trial jury (who does?); however, he doesn't know if you're serious or not, especially if you're vague on this matter.

Tell the principal you plan on reporting the incident to Child Protective Services as a follow up to make sure that an original report was made. If he or nobody from the school made a report, people could end up doing jail time.

Remind him that all you want is a fair grade for your son. If the principal can prove the "F" is deserving, you will accept it (though you wish the school would have made contact earlier). If there was a "mistake," you want to be sure that the mistake is corrected.

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Final Reminder: Don't write this down in a letter until after you've met with the principal and given him an opportunity to address your concerns. If he does not address them, write the letter to the entire Board of Education, the Superintendent, the Principal, the head of Human Resources, and the supplemental report to the police.

I hope some of this was helpful to you, and I hope you keep me up to date on what happens. I wish I could be there to sit in with the principal and get to the bottom of this swamp, but I trust you'll do well. You sound like an excellent mother to go to bat for your son in this way.

(Sorry for spelling errors and such)

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A good start would be to march down to the school and sit there for as long as it takes to get a REAL answer out of the principal. Not a phone call, email, or letter. Those can all easily be dismissed, or at the least it's easier to give you lip service. Beyond that, perhaps the school board? School board members generally hate scandals and talking with one of them over how to fix this situation quietly might open up more avenues.

Districts have hierarchies. Find out who in the district is his immediate supervisor. This could be the superintendent if its a small district. Ultimately, the school board is the one you would go to - the governor has no real say in day to day operations of districts in the state.

You can go take to the superintendent of the schools, I'm sure he would fix this problem fast.