The apple doesn't fall far from the tree

This story is actually from last year but I was hesitant to post it. I decided to just go for it. I had this student who came into my French 1 class at the end of April, about a month and a half before school ended. I was pretty easy on him participation-wise for the first couple of days since we were in the middle of a unit but once we started a new unit I expected him to join in with the rest of the class since the information was new to everyone. He wasn't having it. First of all, he was often absent. If I asked him a question, he would just stare at me blankly. If we had a quiz or a test, he always had to go to the nurse. He would often put his head down and fall asleep. The punishment for kids who do that is to stand up (usually for 10 minutes or so). He refused. So I sent him out in the hall. I had a chat with him and told him that he was on the road to failure if he kept this up. He told me that no one asked him if he wanted to be in the class so he didn't care. Interim time came and I sent his mom a grade sheet that showed her that he currently had a 0% in my class. This is the reply that I got from her:

Thank you for hte porgress report. I have a question, being that **** cam from another school system did you even sit down with hime to see what he had covered what he needs to cover and what need to be done to bring him up to speed ???

It's amazing how one little word like "even" really carries a lot of weight. Of course a 0% is my fault. I obviously was not doing my job. So, I wrote back and told her that I had asked her son to stay after several times and he had yet to do so. I also mentioned my concern about his attitude and my willingness to help him. Here's her reply:

Thank you first fro your response. ****'s absences- have all been excused, so if the attendance office as not filtered that information to all his classes. I think that I have a bigger problem. I will talk to **** in regards to him meeting with you after school. As far as his behavior, I will also chat with him, but on a general view, this boy (my son) has been transferred from on top schools in ******* were diversity is prevalent, so his perspective is that his does not want to been there, I am not a teacher, and I know that would be a common verbiage from any 16 year old that had been transferred. Now I make no excuse for non-completed work so I will address that ASAP, but attitude is contagious regardless of the forum you are in. Send me what work need to be completed..

Here were my thoughts:
1)What the?

2)Since he came from a different school in the middle of the year, his behavior is normal? I can't count the number of transfer students I have had and so far he is the only one who acted in such a way.

3)Since my school doesn't have as many black kids as his old school, this has something to do with his behavior? The best part of this is that the class he was in only had 5 white kids, 2 of whom weren't even American. I had whites, blacks, Asians, Arabs, you name it.

4) Attitude is contagious? Are you assuming other students have this attitude in my class? Because they don't. Try the Spanish class across the hall.

5) So, you will excuse a bad attitude and disrecpect to the teacher but not missing work? That makes sense.

6) Some mean thoughts about her writing ability. And maybe her intelligence. We don't need to go into detail.

7) How am I supposed to respond to this in a rational manner??

Luckily I have a friend at work who is a master at sending diplomatic emails so he wrote the entire thing for me. It appeased her and I never heard from her again. When he actually showed up to class I just let him sleep, because it wasn't worth the effort. I did wake him up once to tell him he was snoring and it was disturbing the class. And he ended the quarter with a 0%. Only my second student ever to accomplish that feat! My friend who wrote the email for me is enjoying having him in his French 1 class this year....