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Sunday, March 30, 2014

Public School Gone Wrong

You all know that I am a homeschooling mama, but when I am asked why and I say that there are many reasons, including that schools don't really care about the student as much as they care about how much money they can get, it never fails that the person who asked me rolls their eyes and stops listening.
So when my friend reported the other day that her daughter had been mistreated by a staff member of her school, and the school was trying to cover it up, I held my hands out as if to say to the world: You see? This is what I'm talking about!
Here's a follow up in her own words:

By Jolynn Iceman

Warroad Elementary School Update
Well in since my last post of what a Warroad School employee did to my 7 year old daughter I was informed that this person no longer works for the school. Keep in mind that that they did not state whether she quit or was terminated. Warning to parents out there, if they allowed her to quit she is still able to be hired back and get away with this.

Now for the update… I received multiple letters from the school. First let’s focus on my daughter that was the main issue with this person that they call a principal at the school. Two of the letters are violations on my daughter. Both listed as severe problems not minor. One stated that she refused to put her paperwork in her folder when she was told to and that this interrupted the entire class. Hmm okay. The second stated that she was under a table and disrupted the entire class. Now I understand that this behavior is not how she should act, but when I asked her about it she told me that they told her to put her homework away, and that because she didn’t do it fast enough the teacher threatened to call the principal, and which they did. A principal that was not to have any further contact with my daughter, period. Sorry guys she is not an adult and may not put things away as quickly as you do. I asked her why she was acting like that and crawling under the table and she said that she was playing with her friend and that she is the only one that got in trouble. Note: She had her favorite doll taken away for two weeks for this instance.

Did you know that Warroad Schools have one of the highest amounts of paid aides and assistants in the state in comparison to school size, and yet they fall short in a lot of other areas. There are multiple aides in my daughters class so I asked why they didn’t help her. My daughters reply was, “they don’t like me mom. They don’t like me because you made Mrs. (Name) mad.” Needless to say they are lucky the school is closed and no one was in office when she told me this.

Now to continue. There is also a nice little envelope that states all four of my children have too many absences due to a new policy “that was not written in the 2013-2014 handbook”. Guess what.. before they send out information on this subject they should know what they are talking about and if it was not in the handbook for the year it does not apply. First of all any days my children have missed they have been called out by myself or their father. The school seems to think they have a right to press that they can tell you when your chlld needs to go to a doctor. Here’s the thing. At the beginning of the year all of us parents attended a little BS meeting where they stated that "if your child is ill please do not send them to school", guess they failed to mention they are going to try and use it against your child’s status. I am not about to bring my child to the ER or doctor when they are going to just tell me to give them Tylenol and keep them hydrated for a flu virus that is going around, and I know there are a lot of parents that would agree. Then they tell us that we are wrong in doing so, and think they can tell us they need a doctor’s note for missing. Hmm wrong again. They can only request a doctor note if a child has a medical condition in which they need medication, will be out for extended periods of time (i.e. surgery), or if they have an injury or condition that will prevent them from doing normal daily activity (i.e. gym class). If a parent calls them in sick that is all they need for an excused absence, but our school lists them as unexcused without a doctor note. Guess what… this is against a lot of laws including a patient privacy act.

All of these and many other letters have arrived since I stood up for my daughter. If they think I am going to back off they are crazy, this just made me reinforce my fight against them in court. I will say that law enforcement has been very helpful in the case with my daughter and I have no issues with their part, but I will not stand for a school harassing my family or any child for that matter.
Since this has started I have had a lot of parents contact me about things their children have experienced, some stating that if they are not of the correct ethnic background or family name they get treated differently. Others stated if they are not a family big in sports they are treated differently. Here is an example.

A parent informed me that they had issues with one of their children. There are multiple children in the family, but this one child in particular is of a different race. They had held meetings over her actions, and again one of the Warroad School staff (that no longer works there but is now in a different local school) was treating her terribly which caused this activity. This was even backed up by doctors. When the parents had enough of this they stood up to the school. What actions did the school take you may ask? They called social services because this child was eating breakfast at school and not at home. Keep in mind they did not report the other children from the family, just the one child. Most of the staff didn’t even know this child had siblings at the school. Correct me if I am wrong, but because of the longer school days most children eat breakfast at school. So I wonder; how many other parents were turned in to Social Services for this ignorant complaint? The parent stated this continued with multiple harassing visits that disrupted their family, and found nothing to back the schools ignorant claims.

Next multiple parents stating that they had to leave work to go to the school because their child was acting inappropriately, only to get there to find out; they walked out of line, didn’t finish their lunch fast enough, that they arrived to class a minute late (after that parent called the school), that they thought a student was absent that was there, that busses dropped their kids off at the wrong place (after parent notification) and were locked out of the home in cold weather, along with many others. Oh wait this was my personal favorite. One teacher was failing a student on their homework because the PARENT didn’t grade it for them. Correct me if I am wrong but isn’t that what teachers are paid for, or one of the many aides they have. Not to mention that most parents sit with their child when they do their homework, I know I do, so as far as I am concerned they get a 100%.

Now back to the reasons for this activity. Warroad Public Schools bank on this lovely four day school week. They have to have proper attendance and meet other various criteria for this to happen, which means that they have to put more on the students and parents, facts that they leave out telling us. In order to get funding for all the paid aides and paras that they have they also have to have a reason for them, so they list normal minor things as severe instances so that they have a “paper trail” to back up the need for funding. Now let us touch on funding for a moment. Funding in the Warroad School comes from multiple sponsors and grants, much of which is donated to various specific programs. Now if they have said amount of funding and they limit what each student can receive for assistance, can you tell me where the excess goes; especially when most students do not use all the funding for the programs that the funds were donated for. Very interesting if you ask me, and also nice that it is information that can be released when you know the proper venues to do so.

Some of you may think that I am a “hostile parent”, but those that know me know different. If any of my children are in the wrong, I am the first to let them know and I do normal parenting things like grounding or taking away fun activities. Heck, I even make them do more reading if they are acting up at home. My children are lively, fun and have a lot of energy, just like other children. Each of them have their own personalities, and aspire to be different things. My two oldest want to go into the military, my daughter wants to be a basketball princess, and my youngest boy wants to be a fireman cop ninja. My oldest loves to read (like his mom), my second oldest can build anything (and I mean anything), my daughter loves to draw and color, and my youngest…well let’s just say that he is crazy all the time. We are like normal families; we spend time together, eat dinner around the dinner table, take planned trips, go to the park, have movie and game nights, talk about problems and love each other. No matter what my children are everything to me, and there is not a morning that I don’t get told I am greatest mom ever, and that they love me. So listen up Warroad Elementary, I will not sit back and let you put them into your cookie cutter mold so that things are easier on you, I will never let them down and that includes making sure you do the jobs you are paid to do. What happened to the days when school was about the kids, and not about what the kids can get the school?

P.S. My attorney loved the letters as they are proof of harassment.

Secondly to that lovely person that hurt my daughter I know who you are and I will do everything possible to make sure you never work with children again.

Lastly to the person that seems to want to report my posts so they get deleted… I also know who you are and if you have an issue I suggest you contact me instead of running your mouth.
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  • Roxanne Packard I would have pulled my children out of this school and made it clear that I will not tolerate harassment while I file a major lawsuit against the school. Stories like this and what's happened to my neice simply reinforce my decision to homeschool. Schools don't care about the kids anymore, it's all about how much money they can get. And the BS about not doing things fast enough, or stepping out of line just a little as a reason to call the parents in? THAT is teaching children to basically just shut up and do what they are told, like little slaves.
    Can I have permission to copy this ENTIRE rant and post it to my blog? And also to share it? Because I have a community of homeschoolers that would probably throw a fit that a school DARES to do this.

    JoLynn Iceman Share and post away Roxanne. That was one of the other things I was told, that a lot of parents are afraid to post or stand up to the school because they will just take it out on the family and children. Anyone who wants to share this is more than welcome to. I am just not one of those people who are afraid of backlash, and if they do anything to my children they will regret it. Most people's biggest fear is that this school uses the reporting law to their advantage in cases like this. Not that they are doing anything wrong, but if the school reports you to social services they are required by law to look into it. Like most parents say "it makes people look at you like bad parents when you did nothing wrong." They can report me all they want because with every knock at the door it is more proof of harassment by the school, and negligence of social services not looking into the real problem...that friggen school.

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