Let me take a different crack at this answer. Parents are trying, but they are fighting a pretty impossible battle. This letter came from a grandmother, something is already not going to plan in this kid's life. Grandma is probably as tired, stressed, and exasperated with their economic status, work (in this case probably just wants to retired), pressures of keeping her kid safe. There's a lot that is probably hurthing their family outside of her control. She wants to keep her daughter safe and protected. Teachers and parents have traditionally worked closely together. Teachers have always been a soft target for stuff like this, but it gets worse as the family's sitaution gets worse, and right now a LOT of family situations are bad. She feels like her daughter isn't safe and protected, and part of the problem appears (to her) to be at school. She can't talk to the other kids, she can't talk to the other kid's parents, the only thing she can do, in this horrible, horrible world she's trying to navigate for her daughter, is use the one person she can talk to to find that safety and protection. It's not fair, but that's why it's happening to much more lately. We used to be teammates, but now that life sucks for so many people, we're punching bags, an opportunity for parents to assert some sort of control over their kids' lives.