What else could I have done??

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

This morning I take my kids to the bus stop to watch them safely board the bus before I head out for the day.

I get there, and the bus stop mothers are flippin, Robynne is WALKING to school!!!

I ask about it, it seems she was involved in a minor scuffle on the bus last week, and got her bus privleges revoked for a day or two (thats standard), and her parents made her WALK!!!

Robynne is 6 frikkin years old, and she is the tiniest little thing I ever saw, she is totally defensless. The trip to school from the bus stop used to take me 15 minutes on my tenspeed as a teen, its a long long walk for a grownup, and for a person under three feet tall, its a marathon. AND there arent even sidewalks on this stretch of road, its essentially a 4 lane rural highway!!! Tons of traffic, not alot of houses - anyone else see a Dateline special looming in the future???

So I pull over, she hadnt made it far, and offered her a drive, she knows me as Frankie’s mom, I have helped on field trips etc. She was so torn! I didnt want to pressure her, but dammit! I have stuff to do too, I didnt have time to walk her to school!

She asked if I could just follow her in my car <awwwwwww>

We agreed to go back to the bus stop and get some more moms, I turned the car around and went back, she wouldnt even ride with me to the bus stop - she was afraid to.

I go get another mom, and we cant find her!!!

I followed the bus all the way to school, and the principal was all snotty with me when I told her about the situation, she was convinced that little Robynne was getting a drive. NO I said, she was walking! No, she replied, she was getting a drive, NO I told her, she was walking and now I cant FIND HER!

Little Robynne pops up beside her, the dear bus driver Peggy had seen her and picked her up.

I insisted to the principal that I would drive her if she wasnt allowed on the bus, that I go right by. She was very chilly, and not very nice about the whole thing, she kept saying " there is a REASON she isnt on the bus" (newsflash sweetie, I dont friggin care WHY! I dont want her raped and murdered you twit!)
She insisted that the parents had made arrangements for a drive and somehow this must be a misunderstanding or Robynne had left walking on her own volition.

She is wrong, her punishment for her suspension was to walk all that way alone.

I just feel sick. She is so small, so pretty, just a snack for the monsters that are out there. :frowning:

Was I over the line? What would you have done? Should i report them to child protection? Call the school board? call the principal and apologize for over stepping my place?

I can tell you though, I will sleep tonight, my concience is clean.

2

What the hell is the principle thinking!? She must be smokin’ crack or something!? “there’a reason she’s not on the bus”!? WTF!!! She doesn’t deserve to be a principle dammit!!

Man, irresponsible parents and stupid principle…that just pisses me off. I think you did the nicest thing by actually going through all the trouble to help that poor girl get to school…that was so nice of you:p …god I’m so pissed off now!!

Reoch

3

Point of clarification, please, kelli … does the school assume that a parent will drive people to school if they are not allowed to go on the bus? Is there paperwork or something filed? This seems like it could get incredibly disorganized (and thus really dangerous, ESPECIALLY for a six-year-old!).

4

Shit, that principal needs to take a very long hard think about the potential consequences of her actions, as do the parents of the little girl. She could have so easily been run over. Child snatchers are rarer than we sometimes think, but road traffic accidents aren’t that rare.

It’s so sad that the little girl was afraid to even go back to the bus stop with you.

You and the other mom and Peggy the bus driver did a good thing.

5

Thanks guys.

Hey punha!! yeah, if a kid gets kicked off the bus, its the parents responsibility to get them there, they arent officially the school’s problem until they arrive.

She is the sweetest little girl, my heart hurts when I think of her all alone all that way, you could tell she was scared to walk alone, and scared to go with me. Her parents are normally not retarded, I dont know what the hell they had to be thinking. :mad:

6

That’s just terrible. I would make a call. I really would.

7

Kelli I think you did the right thing. I just think she was in more danger of being hit by a car then eaten by a monster.

(Unless you have a sexual predator active in your area that preys on children)
I was thinking that you should call the cops but her parents would be in trouble for child endangerment not the princepal.

8

Any mother who names her daughter “Robynne” should be up for abuse charges right off the bat.

9

What about just talking to the parents. Maybe they can’t drive her to school in the morning. You could talk to them, instead of child protective services, and make them the same offer you made to the principal. Since you mention that they aren’t completely retarded, I don’t see why they wouldn’t be overjoyed that someone cares about their little girl enough to take time out of their busy day and make sure she arrives at school safely.

10

Kelli, will you be insulted if I tell you that you remind me of my Mom? Hope not <grin> Back when I was a city kid, maybe second grade, our school decided to close early because of the weather was bad. While this is all well and good, they made everyone leave the building- even kids whose parents hadn’t got there yet. My mom worked nearby, so she came to pick me up, but there was a problem; a girl in my class’s parents didn’t work nearby, so she had a long wait ahead of her in freezing cold, snowy weather, and was considering walking to her babysitter’s.

My mom offered to drive her to her babysitter’s house, but being the wary type the girl didn’t want the ride: you could tell she wanted to, but the whole “don’t take rides from strangers” thing was pounded into us. Mom didn’t want her to freeze, or be scared to drive with us, so she struck a deal with her: she could leave the door open to feel safer, but sit in the car with me where she’d be protected from the weather until her parents came. So she did, until her parents arrived 20-30 minutes later.

I’m glad to know there are still people watching out for little kids :slight_smile: Too bad there are still stupid school policies in some places, though.

11

Don’t bother talking to her parents – at best they’ll be embaressed and hate you for it, at worst they won’t be, but they’ll still dislike you for being a nosey busybody. And I doubt that the situation will change either way.

Obviously I don’t know them at all, but nobody likes their parenting skills questioned, right or wrong.

12

As the parent of a 6 year old let me say that those parents need a swift kick to the head!! I’d talk to the school supervisor about the principal’s actions as well.

13

I’m totally speechless! You did the right thing Kelli.

14

You are a good person for caring Kellibelli

And Kudos to the bus driver, for putting child safety first, and picking up the little girl rather then letting her walk.

15

You did the right thing, definitely. And if that little cutie is walking again tomorrow, my first call would be to the police. They should be able to send someone to check on an unsupervised 6 year old alone by the highway.
The whole situation is ridiculous. Hope the bus driver didn’t get into trouble for picking her up.
~karol

16

Call the school board about the principle and your bus garage about the incident on the bus.
You said she got in a minor scuffle? What happened to the other student?
We have been having issues with our childrens principle for the past two years. Hopefully she rotates out of our grade school this year.
See, we have alot of underpriviledged children in our area so our school meets the criteria to get free breakfast and lunch for everybody.
She has the lunch room ladies grab the food off the tables at the first tardy bell, and if you didn’t make it five minutes before the bell rings you don’t get to eat.
So some of the teachers have taken it upon themselves to tell the kids to go ahead and bring their breakfast to class and they can sit out of the way and finish it there.
Nope, the principle told the teachers they could do this only if they were going to keep milk and cereal in there rooms that they could not bring up food from the lunch room.
This is tax payers money that she is wasting as a minor point, and starving children as a major point just because she says that they need to learn to manage their time.
Some of these children get themselves up and dressed for school because either their parents are already gone for work or too lazy and just don’t give a crap.
And heck, my children have been late a few times on Mondays since I get off work at 4:30am.

You so did the right thing. Please take the time to push this issue. You never know if this has happened or is going to happen to some other child that isn’t in your area but just as far away.

17

You definitely did the right thing Kels. A principal is supposed to advocate for the children under their care. If the parents didn’t ensure the little girl would get to school safely, the principal should be making some calls.

I would definitely push this one further.

18

I think some of the responses in here have been absolutely hysterical.

Since when did making some kid walk to school become an issue for the cops? Reckless endangerment? Do you have gunfights in your neighbourhood?

If you are really worried about child abduction from a stranger, take a look at the few (very, very few) kids who have actually been taken by someone not from their family. They grab kids playing in their own neighbourhood, often in their own building, after school. Why? That’s where the kids are! They don’t go cruising down the streets at 8 am trying to find children to abduct-- they’ve got their own jobs to go to.

And principals aren’t hired to look out for the kids in your school. They’re hired to make things run smoothly and to sweep problems under the rug so the school never gets in the news. If you think otherwise, I suggest you talk to your school board trustees. Or better yet, go become one.

19

I’d be more worried of a 6 year old being injured in some way while doing a walk by herself that takes an adult 15 minutes. Either way I think kellibelli did the right thing.

20

I’m not sure about the schools where you are Barbarian, but where I live, Principals get paid one hell of a lot of money to advocate for the kids. True, there are the politico types who try to sweep things under the rug, but eventually it comes to light anyways.

My son’s principal had that attitude until it was challenged, several times. He is ultimately responsible for my child during school hours and to follow up if a/my child doesn’t show up safely.