In my kids' school there is a notebook for every kid so that the teacher can communicate with the parents. From overhearing teachers talk about 20% of parents have never looked at the notebook- in other words it's completely useless to those 20%. Perhaps this parent was one of those 20%, and the kid was itching, dying, ie really wanted to go to an event and needed the parents to sign off on a permission slip. Since the parent never looked at the notebook how is the school to tell her? Maybe the kid told the aide to write on her arm- we don't know. The story is short on details to make a complete assessment of the situation. Fired over this? IDK if that is the correct decision based on the info in the story.