The entire administration of this school should be fired... all of them, but it won't happen because the AFL-CIO cares far more about collecting dues and increasing their own power than it does about educating your children.
To be sure, the mother in this story has failed as a parent. It is your job to ensure your children's education, period. (Anyone who's tempted launch in with "life is hard and we can't expect parents to educate their children" is welcome to simply mute me and go about your life. We have nothing in common.)
Massive parental failings aside, this story alone should be enough to end the AFL-CIO's involvement in education.
If you think I'm exaggerating, read the story.
A problem of this magnitude goes well beyond problems with individual teachers.
I assumed the boy's father was dead or otherwise out of the picture. But it is however a catastrophic failure of parenting on both parts regardless.
I am absolutely expecting a parent to be at least vaguely aware that in four years of high-school, their child earned only three grades that weren't F's.
This isn't just a single sad, tragic case. The median GPA at that school is 0.13.
The idea that the median GPA at this school is 0.13, and that they blithely promoted a student who has managed to get something other than an F only three times screams that there must but something deeply awry with the administration. I'm not letting the parents off the hook here, I promise. In my book, a failure to educate your child is on par with a failure to feed your child. But the school could at least goddamned help.
Parents have an obligation to feed, shelter, and educate their children. End of sentence. Abusing a child by failing to provide the very basic necessities of life makes one a shitty parent, and frankly, a bad human being.