We are going to start writing again Damnit! These last 8 months have been interesting. We've definitely had our ups and downs. February like every year is one of the absolute toughest months. The lack of sunlight, cold weather, and basic gloom are just difficult for our family.
I thought though, that I would write about a recent event that happened in our local school district. Now I must say, that we live in a pretty great community. The crime rate is low and kids still walk back and forth to school. Our schools are good and the most awesome part is that our educators live in our community. (Although, housing prices may change that a blog for another time). The front page of the local paper made some pretty scandalous news this week though.
School officials notified parents their children may have seen or been victims of sexual abuse by
another student. This on it's own is pretty sad. Here's the kicker though, the school district did not notify parents of the incident or incidents until 5 months after it happened! The excuse for this is that once an incident is handed over to law enforcement, the school district isn't to interfere with the investigation. What a load of horse manure. Parents are filing a law suit as they should. The school district still hasn't given out a formal apology. Which screams more of covering their butts over looking out for our children and our community. I could go on and on ranting away but I don't see the logic in that. I suppose the questions come up though.
Why isn't there someone assigned on a special needs bus to monitor the behavior of the children? It's reported that the bus driver reported incidents of inappropriate behavior. Why wasn't something addressed at that time? When the BIG incident occurred, why weren't parents notified along with a mandatory meeting for staff, parents, law enforcement and school district attorneys. During the meeting talk of the situation and put forth a plan to prevent something like this happening in the future?! Since when did our educators and parents become so far separated? Bringing up our children is a community effort and partnership. Making it about pointing fingers and watching out for liability doesn't benefit our kids or our community.
The Parents of victims lost precious time to immediately help their children recover from this traumatic event and the Parents of the perpetrator have lost precious time to address some very serious problems with their child. In all, our community lost time to heal from this.
I still believe in public schools and I still believe raising "my" kids is raising "our" kids. They are part of a community. Our teachers and other civil servants are all part of that. They aren't the enemy. They are a vital part of creating well rounded members of society. But, we both (parents and educators) shouldn't forget that for this to work, it has to be a partnership. To say that the school district failed is an understatement.
Our educators and school administrators deserve respect. They are required to spend time and ludicrous amounts of money in college to take a job that doesn't pay them nearly enough. They don't go into teaching for the money. They go into it because they care about the kids and they care about the future of their community and yes, even our country. To say the very least they are unappreciated.
Parents, please don't swear off buses. If our community relied more on the public school buses, there would be much less traffic in the morning. It is safer for them to take the bus then to ride in the car with you! Statistically, there is more of a chance of a traffic accident. We can not and should not put our kids in a plastic bubble. Generally speaking, If your kids can walk to school, ride their bike, or take the bus, they should.
