déjà vu all over again

I feel like I've been living this nightmare over and over, and I'm not doing a real good job of getting myself, or any of us, out of the rut.

After two semesters of really great school work, the youngster has slid right back to where he was. He started his Freshman year of high school last year and lit it up. He made the honor roll for the first half of the year, and then slacked the second half, resting on the first half laurels and getting by because of it. We discussed it at length over the summer, and have been doing the same this year, and we're in scholastic hell. The kid is failing three classes and not doing all that good in the others. We've been taking away privileges and talking until we're blue in the face, and it's just not getting through. So now, we've taken away his phone in the evenings, which hits right in the girlfriend, and probably hurts more than anything else we've taken, but I know it has his attention. We'll see how much good it does.

Every time he's goofing off, I ask if he's got all his work done, and he assures me he does, and then we find out otherwise. I don't want to take everything away from him, but we may just get to the point where he has nothing else to do but study.

Sorry to vent. I know it's not all that interesting, but I'm just a ball of frustration in need of an outlet, and you're reading the one I have.