The Downside of Teaching

Today I got to see the downside of being a teacher. My cooperating teacher and I have a student in class who has an extremely overprotective mother. Unfortunately, there was an incident between her son and another boy in our class early this year. Ever since then, she has shown up to make demands for her son. Her latest demand is that absolutely no discipline be done unless she and the principal are there in the room. This is impossible to accomplish. Her son likes to act up in class or on the playground, and unfortunately, he knows there is little that we can do about it. Today, we had another incident between him and the other boy from earlier in the year. All my cooperating teacher did was ask a question about what happened on the playground. No accusations were made, and no discipline was ordered. It was a simple question. The boy's mother came storming in after class and screamed at my cooperating teacher about her breaking the rules and how my cooperating teacher is not to speak to her son ever unless she is present. Needless to say, it was not a pretty scene. This whole incident brings up the question: what would I do in a situation like this? I am not sure. The boy's mother dictates what homework he will and will not do, no discipline is allowed at all, keeps him out of school for any reason at all, and then expects us to turn her son into a genius. This lady is the ultimate helicopter mother. How do you teach a child like this?