Wednesday, October 27, 2010

A Judgement Call Take 2

Yesterday as you know I kept my children home from school because of a threat of bad weather. The weather man said phrases like "the worse storm we have seen come through the Midwest in 70 years" and "beware of high profile vehicles." My kids ride a bus to school and I drive a high profile vehicle. With high wind warnings and the treat of tornadoes on the way I did what I thought was logical, I kept them home. In turn we ended up spending some time in the neighbor's basement.

I called all three schools first thing in the morning to tell them that I was keeping them home for weather related reasons. I didn't feel it was safe for them to go. Later I found out the students all spent 45 minutes in their "safe" zones. Some of them being boys restrooms. So with all the sirens and the wind whipping all of them were in restrooms and my children and I were in a basement on a couch praying to be spared.

Today my daughter stayed after school for an extra curricular activity. When I picked her up she told me she was pulled out of her first period class and given a referral for missing school yesterday. Seriously? Are you kidding me? The students and staff spent the better part of the morning in the restrooms and halls and they are giving my child a referral for missing school? You have got to be kidding me. I called in, I told them she would not be there, that I felt it unsafe. THIS right here is part of what is wrong with the system.

Let me help you out here. On page 26 of your student handbook where it discusses unexcused absences, number 2 is an absence without a parent phone call. Hello? Anyone home? Pick up the phone here guys, I CALLED! My kids don't miss school. I'm the mom who sends them to school sick and waits for the school to call and send them home, so they will know they are really and truly sick. Check their records. Look at their attendance. Not only her attendance check her grades. She's an A/B student! I could ALMOST wrap my mind around it if her attendance had been a problem in the past or she was a trouble maker. No we are talking about a kid who goes to school and does her best work and barely speaks to the kids much less the adults for fear of being bullied or picked on in some way. The one time she misses because of unsafe travel conditions and her mother won't let her go, you give her a warning and threaten her with ISS? WOW! That's rich!

Especially coming from a facility that for every year of my child's school career has done nothing about the bullies at school. The only time she ever went to get help with a problem of being bullied, she was told to "suck it up and go to class." I'm sorry but no. I will not be bullied or pushed around. I may have been that kid in school but I am an old, mad, Irish tempered woman now and I will fight back. I told my husband that I was prepared to take it as far as I had to, even if it meant pulling her from the school and transferring her. This my friends is what they call "the straw that broke the camels back."

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Oh dear! I hope it wasn't your daughter that I like that was in trouble! Stuff like this is what's wrong with purr school.

Jeanette
Fencerowtofencerow.blogspot.com