The Problem Appears Again

Since we were told Danielle was failing her elective class, and then later discovered she had a passing grade, we've kept a pretty close eye on the school's online attendance and grading system.  After the big hassle, the grading system reported that she was still missing three assignments, despite Danielle's protestations that she'd turned them in,  Her grade at that point was a good, solid C, even without the missing assignments.

Thursday night, we checked the system again, and now she's missing seven assignments.  Her grade has dropped to a C-, and if she loses any more points, she'll fall into the passing, but unsatisfactory, range.

When we informed Danielle of what we had discovered, her response was unacceptable.

"I don't care," she replied.

Since it happened that we had a meeting with her therapist that night, we addressed the issue there.  Danielle just doesn't give a crap about anything right now, and it seemed to worry the therapist.  At one point, Danielle stepped out of our session to use the restroom, and the therapist commented worriedly, "Something has changed."

From my perspective, it seems as if little has changed.  Danielle cycles through her moods, especially whenever a therapist is present.  There have been some days where she's completely disengaged and barely says a word.  There have been others where she won't stop talking.  On this particular day, Danielle seemed tired and sullen.

The therapist was worried, and tried to impress upon us her concerns.

It's hard for me to get overly excited, because this is the kid we see all the time.  From our perspective, there is no dramatic change.  Yes, respite and starting medication gave us a honeymoon period of unusually sunny disposition for a while, but now the honeymoon is wearing off, and Danielle is returning to her more typical self.

The therapist didn't seem to much like it when I said I wasn't going to jump all over the school because of the missing assignments.

My problem is this: Danielle has lied to us so many times in the past that I'm just not going to get fired up over things she says.  We ended up with egg all over our faces once before when we jumped on a lie she told us with regards to things that were going on at school.  We aren't going to go there again.  It's a lousy place to be, but we can't trust much of what she says, so everything she claims must be verified.  The school grading system says she hasn't turned in the assignments; she says she has.  Maybe she has turned the work in, but unless she can give us some proof, we are going to side with the teacher.

It's a pretty crappy place to be when you can't trust what your kid says.