I just hate this whole school thing

So yesterday I go to the freakin public school to pay Sage's fees. The place is locked down like Fort Knox, I am the ONLY parent, out of about 20 in the room who speaks English, and there are people screaming and yelling and kids translating ect.

I go to pay the fee. Then I ask about the bus. We are a MILE from the school. There is a major street with NO cross walks to cross, there are NO sidewalks, there is construction going on and gang symbols on the underpass the children who walk have to pass.

I am told that Sage is not "within state guidlines for bussing." They claim we are, get this, NINE TENTHS OF A MILE from school. I ask if a five year old child is supposed to walk a MILE to school on her own and I am told to "find a car pool or pay the $300.00 fee for bussing, you'll get her on the bus if there is rooom."

So I call the District office when I get home. A womyn answers the phone and IMMEDIATELY, without my introducing myself calls out my name, address, phone number and names of my children, in an attempt to intimidate me. SO they have caller ID hooked up to a computer. I am not impressed and I simply say, "Yes. That's me." There is a pause, as the lovely womyn who answered the phone evidently expected a differente response. ANd then she says "YOu are going to complain about the bus, I already know that. I'm the one who talked to the teacher at X school. YOU WERE TOLD you'd be called later this week. WHY are you calling now?" I explain that I am CONCERNED about my child and this *&^$&&% says "I talked to you about this issuse when your other children were in this district YOU ALREADY GOT AN ANSWER WHY ARE YOU CALLING AGAIN?" Fuckin excuse me for caring about my kid. Besides the rules were changed for Kindergardeners. AND this @**#$^ who I am talking to made a mistake and told the teacher at the school that Sage had to be a mile and a HALF away to get bus service and she was wrong. I point this out to her.

She then says "WHEN we get around to it, we'll drive your route and see how far it is." I ask what type of instrument will be used to gague the distance. I am told either this womyn's car or the Principal's fucking LEXIS!!!! She drives a fucking LEXIS and they are telling me they don't have the funds to bus my child a mile to school.

Our district has the lowest expenditure per student of any district (save one, on a ghetto area) in the county, yet pays it's Administrators MORE than even the richest distrcit in the county. ALL available funds, evidently, from what I can see on the "school report card" are not going towards bussing, or books, or a gifted program, but to ESL programs. It is the HUGEST expenditure, except salary, in the district.

I then tell this lovely womyn that the state "law" (which NO ONE follows except our district, ALL the other districts in our county, including the poorest one, bus EVERY CHILD.) says that "dangerous routes, lack of sidewalks and lack of crosswalks" entitle children to bus service. And I will be taking pictures of Sage's supposed walking route (complete with NO sidewalks, gang symbols, open retention ponds, a main street with NO sidewalks and no cross walks) and then she accuses me of "threatening" her. WHAT THE FUCK. I simply tell her that if the route is "safe" than she has nothing to worry about.

Haven't heard from the (*$%*(^ yet, but I haven't been able to stop crying much since.

I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this


There has to be a better way. Sage NEEDS freinds. I can't get in with the "Intelligent Design" group, I don't know where to go next.

 

She JUST called me. Sweet as freakin sugar candy. Yep, nine tenths of a mile, BUT they are putting Sage on the bus anyway. (Damn, nobody wants you to call Channel 2 News and the Chicago Tribune and make a complaint, complete with pictures of fetid retention ponds, gang symbols and NO sidewalks, and a cute little 5 year old looking just as sweet and innocent as can be forced to walk a mile (excuse me NINE TENTHS of a mile) through this mess. LOL!)

My complaint to our principal about this womyn's rudeness actually paid off.

I WON. MY BABY WON! We won't have to pay the $300.00 fee. I won't have to worry about "carpooling" with nonexistant people.

Sage will still be EDUCATED by me. As I am using the Kindergarden as a playgroup. But, I am still SO confused. I don't know what I am going to do next year. Something tells me she will probably be double promoted, but I still am going to keep educating her the way I feel is best. Maybe by next year, we can work something else out.

Thank you all for listening, mamas. Maggie-Mama is having some rough times. I appreciate all of your sweet mamas just being there.

 

It's so super cool to hear that you won, maggie...and I'm sooo sorry that your daughter is having to be put in this school. I can't offer any advice as I was a child of the Missouri Public School System. But I can offer you lots of positive thoughts. *hugs*

 

Thank you. Sweetie.

 

Way to go Maggie.

 

yeay mama! Way to fight for your baby!

 

I feel your rage! Extraordinary ignorance can't come close to excusing that kind of behavior from someone WHO IS SUPPOSED TO BE WORKING FOR YOU!!! I am very glad you found someone with more than a brain stem. I hope Sage's teachers are the good ones.

 

Way to go Maggie

It's awesome how you fight for those vital causes. If there were more parents like you then no one would dare pull that kind of crap.
Hell hath no fury like a good mother scorned!

Hope everything works out for the best.

Super huge hugs to you and lil Sage

 

OMFG that is so freaking ridiculous. I only hope the other kids in your neighborhood have parents that will fight for them too (because something tells me the school staff won't bother to use their address-finding system to adjust for the others, unless their parents complain just as loudly)!

It's sad, there are so many schools doing this to their kids now; Springfield (missouri) started it a couple of years ago, and it's a city with sidewalks on nearly every street--if i remember correctly, there were two children killed the first year, ON CROSSWALKS and a couple of others seriously injured in hit-and-runs. Last year there was at least one killed, but there could have been more, as they don't like to say much about it on the news. Somehow they still see this as an acceptable way to save money.

 

I am so sorry that you have to deal with that shit. I am so thankful that we happen to live on the right side of the street so Maddie can go to the great public elem. school that she is going to. Literally, if we lived across the street, she would have to go to the WORST school in the district-least funded, failing school report card, etc.


Sage is lucky to have a mama who will stand up for her. Too many parents just take the school's response as gospel, and won't fight for their babies.

 

I have so many problems with the public school systems in this country. I'm glad you could get you problem taken care of, Maggie. After working in the secondary schools in our county for a couple of years, I told my husband that our daughter was NEVER going to attend the Junior High or the High School here. I didn't care if I had to get a divorce and move away. Anyway, he agreed . I don't really like the elementary school too much, but it sounds pretty good compared to some others. I seriously considered taking Meleah out of school and homeschooling, but she loves it so much. It is so hard to try to do the right thing and keep your kids happy. For now, Meleah will stay in public school, but I don't know what the future holds.

 

Congrats on winning the first battle of school year, Maggie! Sage is lucky to have such a militant Mommy on her side!

 

if your baby's school is anything like my little brother's, you're going to be fighting tooth and nail straight through to graduation. my mother is the school district's public enemy #1, and she's had to be to fight for dalzell's rights and just plain proper treatment. i'll be putting my daughter in school in ft. collins, which apparently is excellent. you can pick which school your child attends, and i'll be making use of that.

 

I'd still write to the paper. Even just a comment in the opinion section. If they're willing to treat you like that, they're willing to treat other people like that, and it should be brought to everyone's attention.

 

Good job. It's a hassle, but you reminded them that they can't just treat everyone like shit.


Like you, I am known at my daughters' school as a pain in the ass because I advocate for them. I didn't want it to be this way. I wanted to be on good terms with the people at their school. I feel like they have treated me with such disrespect, giving me the run-around, etc., that I have no choice but to be a thorn in their side.

They pull the same crap with me, trying to intimidate me. I like to think that by standing up for our rights we're making it a little easier for parents who come after us with the same issues. that's my hope, anyway.

Good job.

 

Way to go, Maggie. You are such a strong mama.
Not everyone has the courage to stand up for themselves and their loved ones.

Hopefully that will be the first and last battle you have to face with the school system......

 

YAY for Pain in the Ass Mamas!!!!

Thanks for your support, mamas and daddies! I wish you were right, Rainbow, but I've already had 3 kids in this district. It will be far from my last battle. *sigh*

 

That's funny. I can imagine myself meeting with the principal again, "Well, Mrs.-"

"Ms. I'm divorced."

"Ms. GDBJDRAP...." (They can never say my name right and often can't figure out which one is my first name because my names are unusual and they're rednecks.)

"You can just call me P.A.M."

For
Pain in the
Ass
Mama

LOL

 

they have this thing round where I live called a walking bus where the mums take turns to lead the kids to school and pick up other kids along the way, it is a move to get kids more active and seems to be going down really well here for people that have a few streets and places to cross that might otherwise be troublesome...the parents take turns with it however it has been such a success I think they are intending to introduce it more officially!

 

that is a gread Idea! I lived about a mile from my elementary school, and ther are sidewalks everywhere (never seen a city where there are no sidewalks...strange) and one major streetcrossing. But there is a traffic training guided by traffic police for all preschoolers that go to school in the following fall.

We had to walk the distance everyday, but all the kids of the part of the city walked together, which is a lot saver, as if every kid would go by his/herself. And we got proper exercise every day

The major way to school was marked with white footprints, so every kid could not only find the way, but also made people aware, that this is the path kids take to school.