The Principal's Office

On Thursday I brought the kids to school late after a dentist appointment, and (eek!) the principal saw me and asked if I would come into her office.  Unfortunately I knew exactly what she wanted to talk to me about.  (The principal, Minerva Gonzalez, is pictured at right with our governor, Deval Patrick.)

Last weekend Adlani handed Ben $40 in cash, and when Ben asked him where he had gotten it Adlani said that he had taken it from Ben the day before.  Ben didn't have $40 the day before, so he thought Adlani took it from me.  When I used my *special* interrogation techniques on Adlani, he told me that he had gotten the money from his friend Dante* on the bus.  When the full story was finally revealed, it looks like Dante took the money from his mother's purse and put it in his coat pocket, and Adlani took it from Dante's coat pocket on the bus.  Ugh.

I don't know Dante, but Adlani told me that he lives in the apartment complex behind Burger King.  I wasn't sure how to handle it since I couldn't exactly go over and start ringing doorbells, so I wrote a note to the bus driver, enclosed the money, and asked Aliya to give it to her.  The bus driver apparently gave it to a teacher who gave it to the principal.  The principal questioned Adlani on Wednesday, and was planning to talk to Dante about stealing from his mom on Thursday.

Two good things came out of my visit to Sra. Gonzalez' office though. 
1) She assured me that this is a common issue in the development of kindergarten boys, and that I don't have to worry about whether Adlani will ever get to 1st grade. 
2) I had Norah with me and I mentioned that her teacher was worried that she was too advanced to wait until 2012 to start kindergarten.  Sra. Gonzalez didn't make any suggestions about how to squeeze her in early, but at least she met her and interacted with her a bit.  I'm going to talk to Norah's principal soon to see what our action plan should be.

I just hope I can keep Adlani out of jail long enough to learn how to read.  Watch your wallets, people.

*Dante is not the kid's real name.
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