THIS HAS TO STOP

[Diane Amberg]

Yes.of course. I brought up emergency numbers some posts back. My problem, as usual, is with the generalization that just because one school does something wacky, every school must be doing it. Weird stuff happens every day somewhere. All my adult life I've personally tried to be prepared for the "what ifs."  Every school I ever worked for had policy books on what we were expected to do in every situation we could think of. Some, indeed, did involve calling the police, but they weren't at the top of the list for most things.

[Sarah]

Diane, isn't that emergency contact numbers are for?  Maybe the school should ask for a contact other than the parents in case the parents can't be reached?  

Sarah, I agree to a point.  But the parents can't really do much about police and other organizations that abuse their power.  Whats a parent to do when police conduct a "drug raid" and start points their guns in the childrens face?  Frankly, I know what my response woud be if I was there or found out about it.  However, I would say that alot of parents aren't willing to do that.

Take their children's education back upon themselves and be responsible for it.   That's what I would do if there were police marching in and holding kids at gun point.  Although, this isn't new.  I've seen a lot of stories like that one over the years.

On the other hand, I wouldn't send my kids to a school with that kind of reputation in the first place.   

[Sarah]

The parents should have the power to just leave the child at school?  A place some here didn't want them to go to in the first place? What am I missing here? What is the answer? A child isn't picked up as planned, what should happen? I take the child home for dinner? I wouldn't mind, but the parents might freak out if I happened to live an hour from where I worked.

Parents need to wake up and be responsible for their own children.  I heard a story once about children that were released from juvenile hall and no one would show up to get them and they'd end up another month because no one cares enough to show up or remember them.  I'm not saying this about parents picking their kids up from school, that's just the story it reminds me of.  As far as picking kids up on time, emergencies do come up and I agree, it seems to me the school should have back up emergency numbers.  A parent could be in a horrible car accident and taken to the hospital in a coma and the last thing the child needs is to be traumatized being carried away by the police to the police station. 

You know, when I was growing up, teachers were always there after school for at least a couple of hours anyway, either grading or preparing from something else.  Even after I was married, the grade school that we lived by, there were always teachers there till 6:00 in the evening sometimes.  But then the flip side of that is parents need to be responsible for the children they produced and leave an hour early if that's what it takes to make it to their children's school on time.  Being late to pick your kids up because you know someone's going to be there is irresponsible.

[Diane Amberg]

Thank you Sarah! Teachers are still often at school for a while after class depending on their own family circumstances.  Teachers taking night classes have to leave to be at class that evening by 7:00. As I said before, with a few exceptions, our kids here do not see the police as someone who will drag them away.They visit the police station as well as the firehouse in preschool. The Safety Town Day Camp has a police officer assigned to it every day to teach safe street crossing,etc. The kids do learn that if they misbehave or break the law the police will intervene if necessary. Parents tell their kids here that as long as they behave the police are their friends and will help them if they need it. Same goes for when we teach 9-1-1. Terrible car accidents do happen and we do have arrangements for that .Work numbers for both parents, (if there are two,) grandparents if they are around, a neighbor or other person who might be on the family's list. The parent in a coma? The nurses check the wallet for ID, photos, ICE numbers in the cell phone etc. Witnesses at the accident who might know the person.There are lots of ways. Varmit just didn't know. Child and family services sometimes gets involved, but that's possibly scary because the kids don't know much about that. Ask most any teacher or principal and I'm sure they would be happy to tell how it works there.

[Sarah]

Thank you Sarah! Teachers are still often at school for a while after class depending on their own family circumstances.  Teachers taking night classes have to leave to be at class that evening by 7:00. As I said before, with a few exceptions, our kids here do not see the police as someone who will drag them away.They visit the police station as well as the firehouse in preschool. The Safety Town Day Camp has a police officer assigned to it every day to teach safe street crossing,etc. The kids do learn that if they misbehave or break the law the police will intervene if necessary. Parents tell their kids here that as long as they behave the police are their friends and will help them if they need it. Same goes for when we teach 9-1-1. Terrible car accidents do happen and we do have arrangements for that .Work numbers for both parents, (if there are two,) grandparents if they are around, a neighbor or other person who might be on the family's list. The parent in a coma? The nurses check the wallet for ID, photos, ICE numbers in the cell phone etc. Witnesses at the accident who might know the person.There are lots of ways. Varmit just didn't know. Child and family services sometimes gets involved, but that's possibly scary because the kids don't know much about that. Ask most any teacher or principal and I'm sure they would be happy to tell how it works there.

I know they check all that, I'm just saying if the parent was headed to pick up the child and were due there in 15 minutes, had a wreck, is unconscience, it could take awhile for the police to show up and the ambulance to show up and then like me, I don't keep any numbers on me, so it would take awhile for them to track down anyone to call. 

I remember once when I was little, before they had cell phones, my mom had a wreck on the way to get me and the car was totalled and I remember how scared I was when I realized she wasn't there.  A teacher stayed with me until my dad came, but I was there for probably 35 minutes or so.  I would have been really scared if a police man came to get me because in my mind, I would have been scared that my parents wouldn't know where to find me.  Little children have irrational fears.   

I kind of wonder if this was some isolated incident where they were having trouble with the same parents.  At any rate, I know sometimes things come up, but generally speaking, it's not the teachers job to babysit after school.  I guess parents need to arrange and talk to their kids about what to do IF they don't show up.  Maybe go to a friends house or ride home with them or something.  Shoot, most kids have their own cell phones these days......LOL......they could just call someone.  I knew someone whose 8 year old had a cell phone for emergencies. 

[Diane Amberg]

Ok, now I am going to scold you...not really.   Would you please put some emergency numbers on yourself somewhere? Even just a card in your pocket would help. As far as turning a child over to any officer at school, not common, but if necessary, the officer is introduced to the child/children and an explanation would be given to the child. If possible a teacher would go to the police station also to keep the child company. Of course, usually this is all happening at school and the principal or designee waits there until the situation is resolved.

[Catwoman]

Well, for the benefit of all you civilians who aren't educators, let me let you in on a little secret...Yes, there are emergency numbers that are given to the school.  When you go to call those numbers because NOW it is an emergency...The number has been disconnected and no one informed the school of this development...Or they've moved and no one has given any new number to the school...Or there's been a case of domestic abuse and the family is split up, gone to the four winds and no one knows quite where anyone is...Or the emergency number is for a neighbor who is now on the outs with the family involved and refuses to come get the child because "it's not their job"....Or the emergency number is for a grandparent who says that their (bad word, bad word, MOTHER OF ALL BAD WORDS) child can now start being responsible and they'll be hanged if they'll come pick up the child...Or the grandparents don't have a working car now and can't come pick up the kid, can you hold onto the kid until the parent can come pick them up?  Oh, by the way...They get off work at 7 P.M....You wouldn't mind, would you?

Get real, people.  High horse attitudes about what SHOULD be done have all the chance of a snowball in hell of making a difference when it comes to the real world that the rest of us have to live in.

[Diane Amberg]

Thanks Cat.

[Sarah]

Well, for the benefit of all you civilians who aren't educators, let me let you in on a little secret...Yes, there are emergency numbers that are given to the school.  When you go to call those numbers because NOW it is an emergency...The number has been disconnected and no one informed the school of this development...Or they've moved and no one has given any new number to the school...Or there's been a case of domestic abuse and the family is split up, gone to the four winds and no one knows quite where anyone is...Or the emergency number is for a neighbor who is now on the outs with the family involved and refuses to come get the child because "it's not their job"....Or the emergency number is for a grandparent who says that their (bad word, bad word, MOTHER OF ALL BAD WORDS) child can now start being responsible and they'll be hanged if they'll come pick up the child...Or the grandparents don't have a working car now and can't come pick up the kid, can you hold onto the kid until the parent can come pick them up?  Oh, by the way...They get off work at 7 P.M....You wouldn't mind, would you?

Get real, people.  High horse attitudes about what SHOULD be done have all the chance of a snowball in hell of making a difference when it comes to the real world that the rest of us have to live in.

And we allow people like this to reproduce for what reason?   

I realize there are some messed up families out there.  Makes me wonder why any child ever turns out normal.

[Teresa]

And we allow people like this to reproduce for what reason?   

I realize there are some messed up families out there.  Makes me wonder why any child ever turns out normal.

[/b]

Well... some of us don't ever get there.. my mama tried.. lord how she tired.. but..........she failed.!