Staying Sane in the face of craziness

Here's what happened. I was called to a student/parent/counselor/teacher meeting after school today. So I brought my facts -- grade, assignments missing, observed behavior, etc. But this was no ordinary meeting...this student had been suspended last week for reasons I don't know. But it happened because of an interaction with one of this student's teachers. (Not me, by the way.)
So I go, expecting that we will all do the usual thing..."You have the potential, but you really need to focus more...you are respectful in class, which is great, but be respectful to yourself by turning in your work" etc etc.
But this was not on one teacher's agenda for the meeting. Oh no. The parents appeared to be listening, and so did the student, with sincerity and more than a little humility and everything was going swimmingly, as they say. Then it becomes this teacher's turn, and the whole thing turns into a circus. Phrases such as these were thrown about by both teacher and parent(not necessarily in order):
"[student] is the most disrespectful student I have ever had in my class."
"I want to make sure you understand that I'm not threatened by your child, nor am I racist."
"I want to make sure you know that I don't appreciate being called a liar, especially when your child is sitting there lying to me and you and all the people here."
"But it's okay for you to call my child a liar?"
"When he's lying, yes."
WOW. Who ever said teaching was a boring profession? I was ringside today, and I didn't even have to drive down to MGM.
But seriously, can you believe that? Let it go, said teacher! Be offended, okay, but don't get into a shouting match! While I was sitting there, I could see the faces of anyone who has ever taught me about education, aided me in my education, or even just held a conversation with me about education. And, as I went through this catalogue of people, I decided that none of them would have been so foolish as to go into this manner of reasoning. Wow.
Plus -- the most disturbing thing for me was that the kid has already been suspended and ended that suspension for whatever happened that he's allegedly lying about. So it's done, right? He's gone through the consequence for his actions, right? Apparently that consequence is a whole year with a teacher who considers him a liar, and I don't think that teacher will be changing that opinion or working on changing their view of this student any time soon. Wow. All I can really say to myself is wow.
But it brings up many questions...SOOOOOOOOOO many questions. One of the most important, I think, is the question of how racism exists in the current time. You only have to start off a sentence with the phrase, "Now, I'm not racist, but..." and that will have told me something pretty important about where you stand. I think there are MANY people in this country today who do not consider themselves to be racist, but actually harbor many racist tendencies. I have no proof to back this up. The important thing to understand about the Madame is that she bases most of what she writes on this blog off of her personal feelings, not facts or statistics. To facts, I say, poo-poo. To statistics, I say, who needs you. So many of our opinions are based on these things, but facts and statistics often lie. The only thing to always trust is your own mind, your own feelings. And this is how I feel. I will try to think of examples in the posts to follow, but for now, I have nothing really to say about that except that I believe it to be true.
Another question this incident brings up is, why did this seem okay to said teacher? Why would you do something like this? This person was very offended by something this student did and the way this student acted after the fact, but here's the deal folks -- he's in middle school. Do you think he's going to act like a mature adult? Hopefully he will in the years to come, but that's the job we as middle school teachers are charged with. If all of our students came into the classroom mature and thoughtful, it would make my job dull and listless.
The next question? What has this student learned from this experience? This student has learned that teachers are not to be trusted, because they will hold a grudge and will never forgive you for your mistakes. Yikes. That's scary to me.
But otherwise, it was a lovely day. There's some prime optimism for you. :)