What’s happening however, is that there are a couple of students in Emmett’s class that are very problematic. I don’t know specifics of their behavior but there’s fighting and disruptions. Basically, these kids are always getting into trouble. What’s been happening is that when these kids act up, the entire class is getting punished.

Emmett is the kid who has never once gotten in trouble at school and I mean never one single time in his five years of schooling. He’s never lost a point or been anything other than a class leader (those are his teachers words, not mine).

What’s happening is that everyday this year, the entire class is getting punished throughout the day because these same problem kids are causing problems.

In Emmett’s eyes, it doesn’t matter how well he personally does because he’s getting punished for the actions of students who are habitual offenders.

Emmett takes great pride in his reputation at school and to some degree, his identity is wrapped up in there as well.

In his eyes, no matter what he does, he’s going to be getting in trouble because these two kids continue to be a problem. For a kid like Emmett, this is devastating and he was so stressed out over this that he no longer wanted to return to school. He actually wanted us to pull him out.

Lizze and I met with his teachers on Wednesday morning before we left for Cleveland.

We went into this assuming that we didn’t know the whole story and needed to hear what the teachers had to say.

As it turns out, Emmett was essentially correct.