Post # 1
Member
152 posts
Blushing bee
- Wedding: January 2016 - martin\'s valley mansion
Last night as I was about to go to bed and was getting ready to turn off my television. I just happened to glace at the news and saw what I thought was my oldest and youngest grandchildren elementary school on television. So, I decided to stay up to see what was going on turning the volumn up not to wake my husband and found out that a child had taken a gun to school and hide it in a pipe. I called their other grandmother (that’s who they live with) and was joking with her telling her that I was mad because she didn’t tell me that there was a gun at the kids school today. A little background, she has some health problems that why I was joking because I figured she was just exhausted from her day. She told me she didn’t know anything about it and was I sure it was their school because it is two schools with the same name but their school is a middle/elementary school. After I googled the incident and called her back and told her, she confirmed that it was their school and that is when I got pissed. Now my delimma is I so badly want to write the principal of the school along with the school board to find out why wasn’t any type of alerts sent out to the parents during the incidents. Now the other grandmother called me this morning and said that she did find a letter that they sent home with the children. So what I need to know is should I still write the principal and the school board?
Post # 2
Member
217 posts
Helper bee
What do you think would have been the proper response? I don’t know what they could have done besides a letter — it’s probably not realistic to expect them to call every parent immediately during an emergency.
Post # 3
Member
3682 posts
Sugar bee
What? Why would you complain that the school didn’t do something after you found out that they in fact did do what you wanted?
Post # 4
Member
525 posts
Busy bee
No. They notified people already, so it won’t accomplish anything unless you want to suggest a different mechanism for letting families know (i.e., besides a letter). It’s awful though!
Post # 5
Member
1169 posts
Bumble bee
Our schools have an automated alert system that goes out to the parents. One of the office staff leaves the message and then it is sent to the parents’ contact numbers. My husband and I get the message by text, phone call, and a call to the house phone. For instance, the other day there was a suspicious smell in the cafeteria. They evacuated the nearby classrooms and notified the fire department. Everything was fine and then they sent the kids back to class. They sent the alerts out to the parents about the incident in case any of the kids talked about it at the end of the day. I think it’s great how well they communicate with us.
Post # 6
Member
6040 posts
Bee Keeper
- Wedding: October 2019 - City, State
randellleah: I’m confused by this post. Are you the children’s parents? are you their grandparent? it says your oldest and youngest grandchildren? I don’t think the school did anything wrong. I think a letter being sent home is the proper response and if it wasn’t found until later that is the fault of whoever usually goes through the paperwork sent from the school daily.
Post # 7
Member
8919 posts
Buzzing Beekeeper
randellleah: I know you’re scared and alarmed and I would be too. But when you say they should have sent an alert “during the incident” — is that really reasonable? Wouldn’t you rather they give full 100% attention to making sure the students are safe? At what point do you think they should have given this alert? While the incident is in progress, they need to be focused on ending the incident and keeping the kids safe. Also, while the incident is in progress they probably don’t know what exactly is going on. Do you think parents should get a call or text saying “there may or may not be a gun at your child’s school.” What benefit would that serve? What would you have done if they’d sent an alert? Driven to the school so that in addition to worrying about the students, the first responders also have to worry about a bunch of panicked parents? If they had determined that kids were in danger and the danger was ongoing, I could see them alerting parents to that. But they can’t “alert” parents every time there MIGHT be danger and by time they figure out there WAS a danger but it’s over now… what’s the point of trying to immediately alert everyone at that moment. Sending a letter home was the appropriate response. Something happened, they took care of it, they let the parents and guardians know about it. That seems appropriate. I think you’re responding to the fear and feeling of being out of control while your grandkids were (possibly) in danger. That’s understandable but not the school’s fault. Also though, I’m not sure how you “joke” during a conversation about a gun at school. If you were upset, you were upset. People shouldn’t joke or pretend they’re joking about serious stuff. Glad everyone was safe!
Post # 8
Member
152 posts
Blushing bee
- Wedding: January 2016 - martin\'s valley mansion
Daisy_Mae: Thanks for your honesty and I think that is what I needed. Yes I’m still a little upset, but after talking to my oldest daughter (not the kids parent) who calmed me down. Basically said the same thing that you stated. I think I was more upset that they didn’t alert the parents until after school. Even if they had said something to the fact that the situation has been taken care of and is under control versus waiting to the children got home from school. My daughter was telling me about another incident that happened where the parents over reacted and things got out of control because of a gun that was brought to one of the city’s schools in my area, so I do understand especially working for a police force. And after calming down, I believe that you are right, it was the fact that it was my grandchildren and nothing I could do about it and the fact that I had no control. But I think what made me more upset was I found out about it on the news and they didn’t send out a text for something that serious. They seem to text or call her for other things like if my grandchildren misses a day from school or if one of them is misbehaving and she needs to get up there, so why not for this incident. It could have been after the fact once everything was under control and they even had the weapon in their possession, would have been fine with me. Half of the children don’t even give the letters to their parents including my grandchildren sometimes. When we asked them, they said nothing happened at school. Even with that statement I’m glad to hear that they made sure the kids were protected and away from the situation. They came home took out their homework and started doing their homework with their grandmother. It wasn’t until she went to put my granddaughter’s homework in her bookbag this morning when she saw the letter.
Post # 9
Member
152 posts
Blushing bee
- Wedding: January 2016 - martin\'s valley mansion
rmca: No the school system is suppose to have an automatic alert system in place in case of some type of school emergency where text message and an automatic vm is sent out. They have used this system before when the school had to close for an emergency, but not in this situation. Yes, I do recommend the school police and the way they went in and handled the situation. I also handled the other grandmother for not thoroughly checking the bookbags of our grandchildren as well, but to find out that there was a gun at the school on the news is completely unacceptable, especially when you are listed as an emergency contact and receives text messages about other things from the school.
Member