School Days

A spokesman for Oregon's Salem-Keizer School District says it will not turn children over to the state if parents drop them off early or pick them up late at school. Parents of students at Swegle Elementary Student got a letter saying that's just what would happen if they didn't obey the rules. But the spokesman says that letter was sent in error.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

"Children must be picked up on time. If they are not picked up on time we will call DHS and you will then have to pick them up at court the next day."

I suspect the error was discovered only after they received unexpected negative publicity.

[Rich]

The principal, Corina Valencia-Chavez, was on vacation and could not be reached

I trust Corina will be turned over to the state.

[EMD]

Hyphenated names are my trigger warning.

[SRVolunteer]

My mobile number was previously held by a woman who seems to be not a very good mother. When I first got the number, I got multiple calls to it from a nearby school system / city government. When I picked up, I tell them I'm not the woman in question and they hang up. When I've missed their calls and the voice mail picks up, I get messages to the tune of 'your children were left at school today - it's now 5:30 and they're in the custody of CPS. If we don't hear from you by 7pm, we'll be finding a bed for them in a local shelter.

I haven't heard from them in a while. Maybe she told them her new phone number (though I got calls for probably 3 years). Maybe she doesn't have her kids anymore.

What's a good option for the school system when school lets out and there's a first grader with no one there to take them home?

[Granny Weatherwax]

Let them walk home? An entire generation of latch key kids managed to survive this horrible predicament.

[SRVolunteer]

Yeah, I walked home starting in 2nd grade. I lived in a pretty nice town, though.

I'm not so sure that's an option everywhere.

Wait... I know it's not, because my younger brothers and sister lived with my dad in the country, where one town had the middle/high school, and another town 9 miles away had the grade school. (The towns were 9 miles apart. My family lived about 4 miles from the high school and 13 miles from the grade school)

So when my sister was in 3rd grade, my middle brother was in 1st grade, and my youngest brother was in kindergarten, they most definitely could not have walked home. Even in good weather.