Seriously?

Okay, now that the whole thing has blown over (I hope) it doesn't seem like that big of a deal. But it was a big deal to me. Last May for Mother's Day I had Isaiah's name tattooed on my foot along with a heart that is the same as my ring from James Avery (which is called A Mother's Love). So anyway, Meet the Teacher night was last Monday night and I thought it was a success. All of the parents seemed very nice and there didn't seem to be any issues. Well, Tuesday evening I get a call from my principal saying that one of the parents were offended by the fact that I had a tattoo on my foot and they wanted to know if it was allowed. I was asked to cover my tattoo because it was offensive to the parents and they didn't agree with having tattoos. Being that it is on my foot it is very difficult to cover unless wearing tennis shoes (they so do not go with cute professional outfits, even though tons of teachers wear them regardless). I did my best to cover it on Wednesday and Thursday, while doing some "investigating" with other teachers that I knew of who had tattoos. I even had my sister-in-law call the administration office to ask the superintendent if there was a policy on teachers having visible tattoos. As it turns out there is no policy and there are many, many other teachers who have tattoos on their feet or ankles. There is even a teacher who has a tattoo of a horseshoe on her neck at another elementary in Claremore. So anyway, I was trying to decide how to approach my principal in a nice manner, so as not to cause any trouble or try to be rebellious or disrespectful in any way. I'm a very non-confrontational person so I was thinking of putting it off until this week. After all, it was the first week of school and I know I was very busy trying to get used to a new group of students, a new curriculum, and a new grade. I didn't think it was a priority, other than the fact that it was bothering me. I suppose my principal must have realized that she was asking a lot of me to cover it with a band aid if I had to and decided that maybe she should check around to see what the other principals were doing about teachers with tattoos. As it turns out not another building had a policy saying that teachers tattoos had to be covered. My principal came down Thursday while I was in the middle of class and apologized, telling me that no other teacher was being told to cover a tattoo. So I can now freely wear my dress shoes and sandals without worrying about it. My biggest beef about the whole thing is I can understand if I had some offensive skull or dragon on my foot, but it is my son's name, something that is obviously very important to me and close to my heart. I knew when I had it done that it wasn't against the school district's rules. It very much hurt my feelings, and well... it still hurts a little. So, I have done all the complaining about it and I'm going to (as Tim says all the time) get better and not bitter. And seriously, does any of this really matter in the big scheme of things? It has nothing to do with how I teach!