How might a PTA association deal with a parent who is weird
May 22, 2015 1:10 PM Subscribe
This is for fiction: What might happen if a parent showed up at a PTA meeting and started making people uncomfortable by going on and on about the power of satan or some such thing. I mean, what might happen officially?
Like would Satan Parent be asked to not come to meetings? Or does somebody have to actually engage in criminal activity (like intimidation/threats/assault) for the P.T.A. to act? I would imagine here or there a parent exists who would love to go on and on about x, y, or z -- so how does the average P.T.A. stop that from happening w/o there being First Amendment issues?
Sadly, none of your answers will help defeat Satan, as this is only for a short story. It is set in the U.S.
THANK YOU
Like would Satan Parent be asked to not come to meetings? Or does somebody have to actually engage in criminal activity (like intimidation/threats/assault) for the P.T.A. to act? I would imagine here or there a parent exists who would love to go on and on about x, y, or z -- so how does the average P.T.A. stop that from happening w/o there being First Amendment issues?
Sadly, none of your answers will help defeat Satan, as this is only for a short story. It is set in the U.S.
THANK YOU
Best answer: I think the president of the PTA or whoever was moderating or in charge of the meeting would interject and say something like, "Thank you for your input but we have a short time left and need to get back to the topic at hand." The president would say something like, "I need to interrupt you and let you know that these particular comments do not belong at this meeting."
They could act if the member never stayed on topic and interjected with weird stuff. They could tell her that this is not the appropriate place to discuss such things and please refrain unless you have something to say pertaining to the meeting and when there is open discussion.
posted by Fairchild at 1:26 PM on May 22, 2015
They could act if the member never stayed on topic and interjected with weird stuff. They could tell her that this is not the appropriate place to discuss such things and please refrain unless you have something to say pertaining to the meeting and when there is open discussion.
posted by Fairchild at 1:26 PM on May 22, 2015
Best answer: Also, PTA (not P.T.A.) appears to be the style preferred by the National Parent Teacher Association. A local PTA is affiliated with this national organization. Typically an unaffiliated local group is called a PTO (parent-teacher organization).
posted by in278s at 1:28 PM on May 22, 2015
posted by in278s at 1:28 PM on May 22, 2015
Best answer: The responses above assume that the discussion is not on topic. It's more difficult if the discussion is, from the point of the speaker, on topic, such as a discussion on whether a school event would be in celebration of Halloween, which many people believe is "closely connected with worship of the Enemy of this world, Satan." If so, the discussion could go on for quite a while, even after the other parents had all agreed that the event would be a "harvest festival," and not in celebration of Halloween, because even if it was officially called a harvest festival, that parent might be concerned that it would be viewed by the children as a Halloween event, especially if there were costumes. Trust me, this discussion could go on for a long time.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 1:33 PM on May 22, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 1:33 PM on May 22, 2015 [2 favorites]
Best answer: From my experience at university open forums, the moderator will typically say, "One of our staff members would be happy to discuss this with you in more detail after the event," and nudge the person over to some poor schmuck who gets the whooooole story.
Chances are, no matter how large the pool of constituents, the organizing group will be familiar with such a person well in advance. These people demand to be heard in every way possible.
posted by St. Hubbins at 1:39 PM on May 22, 2015 [3 favorites]
Chances are, no matter how large the pool of constituents, the organizing group will be familiar with such a person well in advance. These people demand to be heard in every way possible.
posted by St. Hubbins at 1:39 PM on May 22, 2015 [3 favorites]
Best answer: I suspect most PTA/PTO groups would have a set of bylaws that would allow for keeping discussions on topic, limiting the amount of time to speak, etc.
I have no connection to this group beyond finding them in a web search, but here is a piece on using parliamentary procedure at PTA meetings: http://www.ptakit.org/PTA-President/Effective-Meeting-and-Important-Rules/Parliamentary-Procedure.aspx
Reading up on the Robert's Rules of Order might be beneficial for your story as well.
posted by ndfine at 1:42 PM on May 22, 2015
I have no connection to this group beyond finding them in a web search, but here is a piece on using parliamentary procedure at PTA meetings: http://www.ptakit.org/PTA-President/Effective-Meeting-and-Important-Rules/Parliamentary-Procedure.aspx
Reading up on the Robert's Rules of Order might be beneficial for your story as well.
posted by ndfine at 1:42 PM on May 22, 2015
Best answer: The board could use parlimentary procedure to either table the discussion or reject it if it's not on the agenda. If the person continues to be disruptive then they can be asked to leave or escalate it from there. But normally you start swinging Robert's Rules of Order around to keep people from derailing your meetings.
posted by JoeZydeco at 2:44 PM on May 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by JoeZydeco at 2:44 PM on May 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Also, when the person leaves, the next day at drop-off/pick-up, everyone will gossip endlessly. (Assuming you want the realistic view.)
posted by instamatic at 2:56 PM on May 22, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by instamatic at 2:56 PM on May 22, 2015 [5 favorites]
Best answer: Thirding a quick look at Robert's Rules, which really are designed for just such an occasion. Even a very lax adoption of them can keep a large body of folks generally on track for a meeting.
The use of Robert's rules is something that's usually laid out in an organization's by-laws - here's an example page that gives the rundown for the Georgia PTA.
posted by jquinby at 3:13 PM on May 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
The use of Robert's rules is something that's usually laid out in an organization's by-laws - here's an example page that gives the rundown for the Georgia PTA.
posted by jquinby at 3:13 PM on May 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I worked as a reporter in a bunch of different school districts, and it partly depends I think on wealth and privilege. In a wealthy school district, you'd just have lots of use of Robert's Rules to shut people up, then move the nice tea-and-cookies sessions to private living rooms to which you'd 'forget' to invite the Satanically obsessed. In a poorer school district you might find that such a member could completely de-rail the organization because while everyone knows there ought to be rules and someone should be in charge, you might not have the existing infrastructure to oust a really loud and obsessive Satan-fearer.
I am thinking specifically of one school district I covered where an elementary school with a mostly English Language Learner population was trying to form a parent-teacher organization. The whole thing fell apart because of one woman who was like a little verbal tornado. But that was in an under-funded school where a lot of the parents weren't available to participate for various reasons, like work schedules and language barriers and lack of financial resources to put into such an effort.
What I'm saying is, maybe it depends a little on the kind of town/school district you're writing about?
posted by brina at 3:34 PM on May 22, 2015 [3 favorites]
I am thinking specifically of one school district I covered where an elementary school with a mostly English Language Learner population was trying to form a parent-teacher organization. The whole thing fell apart because of one woman who was like a little verbal tornado. But that was in an under-funded school where a lot of the parents weren't available to participate for various reasons, like work schedules and language barriers and lack of financial resources to put into such an effort.
What I'm saying is, maybe it depends a little on the kind of town/school district you're writing about?
posted by brina at 3:34 PM on May 22, 2015 [3 favorites]
Best answer: In our community, that person would be asked to leave the PTA meeting, or taken aside by someone and ushered out.
I'm in one of the richest counties in the US (Marin, SF Bay Area).
In other, poorer communities, in which I've worked would probably not respond the same way. They PTA is so badly attended they'd probably be thrilled someone actually showed up. Even if they were shouting about Satan.
posted by guster4lovers at 4:26 PM on May 22, 2015
I'm in one of the richest counties in the US (Marin, SF Bay Area).
In other, poorer communities, in which I've worked would probably not respond the same way. They PTA is so badly attended they'd probably be thrilled someone actually showed up. Even if they were shouting about Satan.
posted by guster4lovers at 4:26 PM on May 22, 2015
Best answer: I've put in a lot of time in both PTAs and PTOs. These meetings always had agendas. If people wanted to go off agenda, they were always politely asked to submit their proposal for another meeting. If the shouting parent was just ranting off topic, they would be asked to stop. If they wouldn't stop, the president would end the meeting early and everyone would leave.
The next morning everyone would know to meet at Starbucks after dropping off the kids to have the meeting where all the decisions were really made.
posted by kinetic at 4:28 AM on May 23, 2015
The next morning everyone would know to meet at Starbucks after dropping off the kids to have the meeting where all the decisions were really made.
posted by kinetic at 4:28 AM on May 23, 2015
Response by poster: Thank you everybody for your answers! I don't have kids, so I really didn't know how these things were handled.
posted by angrycat at 6:01 AM on May 23, 2015
posted by angrycat at 6:01 AM on May 23, 2015
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Satan parent would not only be asked to not come to the next meeting if they could not stick to the agenda and the meeting rules, they would be escorted out of the current meeting too.
posted by AugustWest at 1:24 PM on May 22, 2015 [3 favorites]