You've heard the saying "kids are cruel?" In a disgusting case out of Iowa, the kids picking on a 9-year-old boy were being egged on by an educator who sounds rather cruel herself. The music teacher told students to spit on little Jaxon Kindopp.

His mom is furious, and who can blame her? Being spit on is degrading, plain and simple.

Just when you thought school rules couldn't get any more bizarre, a high school in Anderson, Indiana (home of Amber Portwood!), has served up quite a wacky tale. Students found photos of their naked teacher on a school iPad. So what did administrators do? They suspended the kids for looking!

Duh!

I mean, um, wait a second! When did we start punishing kids for something the teacher did wrong?

Homework: I almost think parents dread it almost as much as kids do. We were lucky enough to avoid it for the first few years at my son's school, but now that he's in the third grade we're finally staring the homework monster in the eye. And we will not let it destroy us!

It helps to remember what the whole purpose of homework is: To reinforce what kids learn during the school day, and to make sure parents stay involved in their kids' education. Did you know -- parental involvement is even more important to your kids' acacemic success than the quality of their school?

I'm still learning how to support my son the right way when he does his homework. Here's some suggestions I've found especially helpful.

Esraa Mohamed SolimanAs if the parents of children with autism needed another reason to be uneasy about sending their kids to school, a kindergarten teacher in Florida has just dished up a particularly horrifying tale. Cops say Esraa Mohamed Soliman dragged an autistic boy by his backpack, then rubbed a shoe in the 5-year-old's face.

And this woman works in a school? With kids?

Psst, moms of preschoolers. You know what's coming, right? LICE. Oh yeah. I heard it when my son was a preschooler and thought, "Not my kid!" Somehow I thought I could avoid the lice plague even though I live in Brooklyn. A more dense urban environment (in the US) you could not find.

I thought I'd outsmarted the lice. I heard that lice didn't like dirty hair, so instead of washing my son's hair every night, I washed it about once a week. I sent my son to a tiny school and assumed that the smaller classroom size would put the lice odds ever in our favor. But lice were waiting for us. There was no avoiding them. Guess what I spend this entire morning doing?

The following is a post from our sponsor, Sonic.

Imagine a student learning how to write without a pencil or learning how to read without a book. This is the harsh reality of many classrooms around the nation. The public schools they exist within often don’t have the budgets to replenish classrooms with basic supplies such as paper and pencils on a regular basis -- let alone afford inspirational learning tools.

Sometimes I hate my daughter's long hair. I hate the fights over brushing it. And washing it. And putting it up on gym class days. But I'm with the mom of the 7-year-old girl with down syndrome who got a haircut from a random adult at her school.

No one is going to put a pair of scissors near my daughter's hair without my permission. You got that? Especially not an assistant teacher at her school!

I love a good breakfast, especially if it includes mimosas and/or Bloody Marys. There's nothing not to love about a good old eye-opener, right?

So when I got the invite to attend a pancake brunch for my kindergartner, proceeds to benefit the PTO, I was thrilled. Pancakes? I love pancakes. I was semi-displeased to note that while "coffee" was listed on the beverages included in my meal, there was nothing about mimosas.

Fine, I figured. They're probably just not ADVERTISING it. Happily, I signed us up for the pancake breakfast, assuming that it'd be a cash bar for cocktails.

No such luck.