by Todd Daigneault

Created on: October 24, 2009   Last Updated: October 27, 2009

Expulsion from school for teens can be very catastrophic for teens, leading to huge problems for kids as they may be forced from school to school, in a huge catastrophic downward spiral. Expulsion from school can dawg teens into adulthood, even if they are trying to re-establish their academic lives in another school, or being given a second chance. Of course, everybody knows that the teen years can be devastating on both the parent and teen's psyche. Teens are not always perfect little angels, participating in the Glee Club, with assorted Ivy League universities and colleges falling over themselves to try and recruit them. Kids can get into trouble and run with bad kids-or be bad kids themselves.

Sometimes you as a parent may not even be aware that your kids are having serious problems in school until a teacher, a guidance counsellor, or even a high school principal calls. If the call isn't over an expulsion-sometimes the parent's teen may be hanging on 'life support' at school. The question is how do you deal with it? Do you blame yourself, your wife/husband, your other children, the neighbour's kids? The list can go on indefinitely. Remember, you may not have seen any advance warnings of misbehavior at home. Or maybe you thought your little Charles or Charlotte was just having a few bad days at school, and maybe some academic problems as well. After all, you may have had similar problems when you were at high school. We all did, whether we were in the Glee Club or not.

Dealing with the expulsion is going to take a lot out of you as a parent. What if there were drug or weapons possession as a reason for the expulsion? Criminal charges could follow quickly with a visit by your local police, ready to apprehend your former little darling. The thing is as a parent is to take a deep breath and compose your self. Find out what is happening. If there are going to be criminal charges laid, get your teen a lawyer and take them down to your local police station. It will go a long way towards helping your kid. Treatment and counselling may be recommended, setting the stage for recovery. If your child was dealing, it may have far more serious consequences. But as a parent, you must be prepared to accept that, helping your child through very strong 'tough love'.

But in most cases it has a far more moderate component to it, such as what all kids go through during the trials and tribulations of those formative years. Yes, it also happens in elementary school. So be prepared to deal with it. Don't look upon it as the end of the world, even if it is more serious. Learning to deal and cope with it helps you so much as a parent and goes a long way towards setting your teens back on the correct path to life.

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