NOT acceptable

(emailed to the principle @ Oakleaf Jr. High, Clay County School Board, Clay County Police, Channel 4 news)

Good Morning Ms. Crowder:

I am a parent of one of your students and to say I am dissatisfied would be a rather large understatement.

Yesterday there was an accident involving 2 school buses and 2 other vehicles. The handling of this incident, as far as the children and parents were concerned was completely unacceptable. The behavior of the police department, your administration and the transportation administration was abominable, thoughtless and unnecessary. I’m not alone in my opinion, though I may be the only one to say something about the issue.

I found out about the accident by coming upon it in traffic after returning home from a Doctor’s appointment. My first complaint is with the police. As I pulled up to the officer directing traffic I had already realized that was my child’s bus and I rolled down the window and told the officer “My child is on that bus!” The officer’s exact response was “That’s nice now move along”. I beg your pardon? Is this how you address the concerns of a frantic mother? Mind you, I completely understand him not wanting me to block traffic. Tell me “I understand ma’am, please park your vehicle, someone will speak to you shortly” or something to that effect. What the officer said was a slap in the face and unnecessarily harsh and rude.

I drove the 3 blocks home, parked my car and returned to the scene on foot. There on the corner, opposite the bus was a group of concerned parents. You Ms. Crowder as well as the transportation secretary (I was told) and several Clay County & State Police were there. At NO time did anyone discuss the condition of our children with us. NO ONE came to talk to us, assure us our children were OK, or inform us of what was going to happen next. We watched as one by one, the buses were released to return to school. We had no assurances that the children were unharmed, had been checked over, were unafraid, and were ready to return to school.

This is completely unacceptable. All of you should be ashamed of yourselves. Were these YOUR children, I am sure you would not have been as patient and quiet as we were. We all understood that your FIRST duty was to insure the children and the injured were attended to. What you fail to realize is your SECOND duty is to the concerned parents. NOT to get the students story then rush them off to school. Your failure to us large in scale and has left a bad taste in our mouths for the school administration, the police department and the transportation department. I know for me personally, I will be less cooperative with and trusting of the school administration and this is a shame. My daughter is only just beginning her scholastic journey into Jr. & Sr. high.

As for the police department, I’ve spent my life being a loyal supporter and harbored nothing but the greatest respect until recently. Many of my family are now retired officers and I was raised to respect not just authority, but the badge. Unfortunately, I am left with much less respect then previously. Not much I can do about it other than this email, so I am also left rather frustrated.

The great news of course is that all the children made it to school unharmed and I do have one praise. The school secretary was left fielding all the frantic calls and she did a wonderful job. SHE ALONE eases our fears, told us our children were OK, and gave us what little information we received. Her kindness and understanding is what kept this pack of pissed off moms standing quietly and respectfully on the curb.

I know full well what will happen to this email and I’ve accepted it. At least I know I spoke up and told you all that this is NOT OK. We trust you with our children. We must. It’s the law, and it’s the right thing to do. We teach our children to respect authority, respect their teachers and respect the system. Because of how this issue was mishandled, you’ve made our job 1000X harder. It’s hard to enforce something you do not believe in. Kids know it when their parents are faking it and they exploit the situation. Don’t you think our job is hard enough these days?

With hope for the future,

One disgruntled parent