Fire at Elementary School! Mother's Cluck Like Hens! No News At 10!

Not really pit worthy.

There was a REAL FIRE (that’s how the kids’ are saying it) at my children’s elementary school Tuesday. An air conditioning unit malfunctioned and some soot or dirt was blown through the A/C system. The school was evacuated and the fire department came to investigate. The 600 or so kids sat outside for about 45 minutes and were later moved to the gym for another approximately hour and a half as it was a cool day- about 50 degrees and sunny.

My son’s class was at lunch. When they returned to school they had to throw out their old lunches and get something new from the cafeteria because of the soot or dust. My daughter’s class was interrupted and they got a very late lunch and no homework that day.

I live near the school and went to investigate, saw that things were under control and went back home. That day, the principal sent a note home explaining what happened and complimenting the kids and staff on their timely and orderly behaviour during the fire alrm.

But the mothers!

Poor Johnny- he didn’t have his sweater! He could have gotten cold!
Poor Jane- she didn’t get a drink of water for 2 hours!
Poor Jack- he only got a crummy lunch!
Poor Grandma and Grandpa- who were having lunch with Seymore- no one came to get them or told them what to do!
Poor Mama- she accidentally left her purse inside and no one would let her in to get it!
Poor Other Mama- she had to pee!
And why didn’t the school call the parents and tell them to come pick up their kids?!

Are these ladies serious? Have they never suffered a hardship af any kind?

I think Johnny can tolerate 50 degress in the sun for 45 minutes.

Jane probably won’t die of thirst over the course of two hours.

The cafeteria had to throw out the contaminated food and come up with several hundred lunches with no notice. (Kudos to you!)

Grandma and Grandpa showed that they are perfectly capable of following the staff’s instructions during an emergency. Did you want someone to personally escort them from the building while everyone else waited?

There is nothing to buy in the playground or gym.

Hold it.

And how do you expect the secretaries to call you when they, too, are standing outside. Do you actually think they have memorized the phone number of every parent and can magically run a phone line out to the parking lot? Do you think they knew beforehand that the school would be shut down for two hours?

Get a grip.

And thanks to the school for a job well done!

Questions:

Who was saying these things, and in what forum? Were they on the news, or was it backyard fence gossip, or what?

Were Gma and Gpa just left there to burn? I don’t get this part.

Did the school pay for the new lunches?

Oh, this was the mom talk when I walked the kids to school this morning. The mom’s were hanging around gossiping about the event.

I asked the one mother about G’ma and G’pa- and she was just griping. G’ma and G’pa (this mom’s parents) were having lunch with the kids when the lunchroom was evacualted and they filed out with the kids like they should have. I don’t know what she really expected, but it seemed like she expected someone (one of the secreatries, maybe?) to come get her parents from the lunchroom and escort them out of the school personally.

Not only did the school have to some up with a bunch of second lunches, they only charged for one. The kids turned in their dirty lunches and got replacements- even the kids who brought their lunch. The cafeteria threw out all the food on the line and on the tables and came up with new stuff pretty quickly.

I’m not sure what to make of the Gma-Gpa thing, not having been there. You’d think that when there’s a fire alarm, two adults present would have the sense to evacuate themselves (uh, that came out wrong), but I know that old people can sometimes get confused. I’ll take your word for it that the complaint was frivolous.

Good thing the school paid for the lunches, that seems only fair. But now I’m curious about the one exception they made.

I think by “they only charged for one” he meant that they only charged for the original lunch that got ruined, not that they charged one kid.

I always considered fire drills and the like to be a great adventure as a kid. Once, when I was about 11 or 12, we had some kind of heat malfuntion, and ended up spending about three hours in the basement of the church (Catholic School - said basement was finished and was used for Church and school functions).

It was awesome! Also, I don’t think one parent complained (small private school, we probably would have known). They got us out, put us somewhere safe, and took care of us, rather than calling them, and making them leave work to get us.

Ah, OK. I was starting to wonder what they had against that one kid. Poor kid.

Speaking of elementary school, it looks like the OP just totally missed the whole lesson on that.

I meant, s/he missed the lesson on apostrophes.

I was thinking it must be Charlie Brown who got charged for the second lunch. Good grief!