Dad takes school's side when athletic trainer punishes daughter. AITA?
When this father is frustrated with his daughter's attitude toward her coach, she asks Reddit:
"AITA for not fighting the school to allow my daughter to do cheerleading since the athletic trainer denied her?"
I (M) am so tired and need an outside opinion. The schools athletic trainer (Beth) is a very strict woman. She started two years ago and at the time I thought she was just being a b&tch and on a power-trip. She was not, all she was asking for his basic respect.
This became really apparent when the school had a meeting about her and went through every single incident with her. They used the camera footage for a lot of incident ( parents know that office is recorded) and it showed the kids were awful and she was professional.
The kids were awful and really ended up have a tantrum when she told them no. Many times the kids calling her names and it really made me reevaluate my opinion on her. One example for reference, one kid needed to do a balance test and take off their shoes. She had a fit and refused to do so.
The athletic trainer old her that was fine but without it they can’t play. She took off her shoes and called her some lovely names. Not to mention the parents getting on her ass for it.
Now my daughter is a sophomore (15) and she needs to do a concussion test in the winter. If she doesn’t than she can’t cheer. She knew about the whole thing and they had a practice for the thing.
She gave everyone a time to be in her office. My daughter got a time and didn’t go in at that time. She went in at the end of practice when she was packing up.
Beth told her no and I am embarrassed to say it but my daughter had a huge fit about it. Beth stood her ground on it and went home. Now she is on vacation and my daughter can not cheer until the concussion test is done. That will probably be done in December so she is missing a ton of cheer events due to thanksgiving fest.
My daughter was pissed and wants me to fight the school. I told her no since I saw how she acted ( I asked for the footage). That is what she gets for being inconsiderate to Beth. My wife wants to fight it and both of them think I am huge jerks. AITA?
Let's see what readers thought.
willinghelicopter38 writes:
NTA. These kids sound awful to deal with. I'm glad the school has video footage of Beth's interactions because without it she might lose her job due to unfounded accusations. These kids need to learn there are consequences for bad behavior and not being able to participate when you really want to is a great natural consequence.
jealous8853 writes:
NTA. Your daughter needs to learn the consequences of her actions and the importance of respecting authority figures. It's not fair for her to expect special treatment just because she wants to cheer.
Beth is just doing her job and enforcing the rules. It's unfortunate that your daughter will be missing out on cheer events, but she needs to take responsibility for her own behavior.
superbduck5533 writes:
NTA. Your wife doesn’t want to deal with the grief her daughter will cause and as a result your kids would grow up with exactly the wrong impression of the world. Place it squarely on your daughter that being on cheer is a privilege, not a right.