DR. WALLACE: My best friend and I are 15 and we're two guys who enjoy sports, video games and watching science fiction movies. We've been classmates and friends for five years now.

Most of the time we hang out after school or at my house, since my mom works from our house and my dad has a busy executive job.

My friend has only a mother as his father left the family when he was 8 years old and so I never even met him. That's not the problem, however. It's his older sister who is now 18 and still lives at home with him and his mom, this girl is crude and rude and often makes inappropriate comments to me. I feel really uncomfortable whenever she's around.

Without going into details, let's just say that she says crass things about how "mature" I am and if "I'm a man yet." I don't respond to her at all, but it's obvious to me that what she is doing is harassment.

I don't want to say anything because I don't want to lose my good friend, but she harasses me every single time that she can. What can I do about this? — 15 and Soon a Man, via email

15 AND SOON A MAN: She is indeed harassing you, and she's an adult at 18 and should know better. I do suggest that you speak to your friend's mother and let her know what is going on. Physical harassment often starts out as verbal harassment, so be sure to keep your own parents informed if she ever lays a hand on you, even once.

If your friend's mother does not help to remedy the situation, then sadly you'll likely need to stop visiting your friend's home and seek to invite him more often to your home. I trust that since he's such a good friend of yours that he will understand and will continue to be your friend going forward.

HIS GRADING SYSTEM IS CRAZY SCARY!

DR. WALLACE: My friends and I have a new teacher this year for history and the first day of class he told us that we all had "F" grades and that we would need to work really hard over the next month to get our grades up to a "D!" Then he said that over the next month from there, some of us could try to get "C" grades by the midterm!

Then he mentioned that a select few of us might be able to get up to a "B" grade late in the semester and that one or two of us might be able to rise to an "A" grade by the final few weeks of the class, including our final exam.

This sounds crazy to a lot of us! Many of my fellow students and I are planning to go to college and we need to get decent grades in our classes. No teacher needs to treat us like grade school children when we are in high school.

Don't you agree that his grading system is unfair? He might ruin a lot of our college dreams. — Unhappy Student, via email

UNHAPPY STUDENT: Before you get too caught up in this teacher's grading methodology, see if you can find some of his past students and ask them how their final class grades worked out.

It could be that he's just making sure to get everyone's attention early on in the class and by the time the semester ends, his final grade distribution may be very similar to other students.

It's unlikely that one teacher at your school would intentionally give out a wide swath of very low grades, especially if the students took the class seriously and did the work along the way. If your worries persist, a few of you could have a group of parents contact the school management office, but I'd suggest holding off on that until you can confirm that it might be necessary. I suspect that if you can find a few of his past students and speak to them, your fears will likely be assuaged.

Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. Email him at rwallace@thegreatestgift.com. To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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