Welcome back to this week’s segment of After School Tea Time! Get your tea cups ready because we have more to spill this week! Keep your questions coming because you could be helping someone who has similar questions!

Question from Hartford County- There was a student in our program who wore a shirt that had an inappropriate graphic on it. We spoke to this student and told them that they were not allowed to wear the shirt again because it went against our dress code policy. The student’s parents called one of our staff members and were upset by how the situation was handled. Do you have any advice on what we should do?

Hey Hartford, thank you for asking this question. Situations involving parents can be difficult to navigate. The important thing to remember is that your intentions for correcting this student were not malicious, but to simply remind them of the dress code policy. Their parents need to understand that their child was not following a policy and had to be spoken to. I would suggest contacting their parents immediately and try to speak with them directly. The longer you wait to address the issue there could be possibly more potential for other issues to form. Explain to them that their child was wearing something that they were not supposed to be wearing and that it couldn’t be overlooked. Be clear with them and explain that the situation was handled respectfully. I would also talk to the other staff members who were involved and get their perspectives of the situation. Give a gentle reminder that they need to be careful about how they are handling situations where students are violating policies and that they need to remain professional. We all have days where we are not feeling our best, but we have to remember that we are still interacting with other people’s children. I think it would also be a good idea to speak with this student individually and make sure that you explain to them that the t-shirt situation was not a personal attack towards them, but a reminder that there are policies that need to be followed. Make it clear that if any student in the program wore things that went against the dress code, they would be spoken to about it as well. Here is an article about emotional self-regulation for adults. We hope this helps!

We’ll see you next week for another segment of After School Tea Time! Don’t forget to submit your anonymous questions here.