Hester Prynnecess, beat reporter
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thread 1/6
is it ok to complain? — a short 🧵

“once you take this step, it’ll really change our relationship. that would be a real shame”

this is what the school 1st told me, when i came to them about my child’s struggle w/ learning disabilities & mental health some years back
01:45 PM - Apr 15, 2024
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Hester Prynnecess, beat reporter
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thread 2/6
from their perspective, it was “complaining” — after all, weren’t they really nice people, doing their best with my difficult child? surely I could see that in a system with all those other families and children doing “just fine” it would be selfish to ask for individualized needs to be met
01:45 PM - Apr 15, 2024
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Hester Prynnecess, beat reporter
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thread 3/6
it turned out that the law was most decidedly on our side, but it was a long and unhappy year, with escalating contention.

but that’s how it goes sometimes, when you are the first ones in a community to ask explicitly for grudgingly granted rights
01:45 PM - Apr 15, 2024
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Hester Prynnecess, beat reporter
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thread 4/6
the kicker came at the end of the year, when we attended the all-school May festival. imagine how astonished we were when the school’s director, with whom we had attended many agonizing meetings over the months, announced that he had written a new school song!
01:45 PM - Apr 15, 2024
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Hester Prynnecess, beat reporter
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thread 5/6
I cannot recall all of the lyrics, but THIS part, accompanied by the sprightly strains of the director’s ukulele, really stuck with me:

“Everything is finer
When no one is a whiner!”

have i mentioned what a very small school this was?
01:45 PM - Apr 15, 2024
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Hester Prynnecess, beat reporter
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thread 6/6
it took me about 24 hours to process my shock, and then I appliquéd, with bright red stitching, big reflective letters from the hardware store, onto a baseball hat for my husband or me to wear to every school pickup, every related event that followed for the next year

they spelled out WHINER
01:45 PM - Apr 15, 2024
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hmmwrites (Heather's version)
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In response to Hester Prynnecess, beat reporter.
Sometimes, petty can feel so damn good.
01:53 PM - Apr 15, 2024
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