From WPXI, police are searching for a 12 year old:
http://www.wpxi.com/news/22143264/detail.html
Is a North Side (Clayton) to Homewood trip by public transportation a bit much for a 12 year old? There is some wisdom behind the old idea of neighborhood schools, at least until high school.
Hopefully a report of this child's prompt and safe return will follow soon.
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10 comments:
Found safe, as hoped!
http://www.wpxi.com/news/22143264/detail.html
This really leaves one scratching his head. If your child is late for school a parent/guardian must accompany the kid into the building to avoid a detention, right? For high schools, if a kid shows up with an early dismissal request, the parent gets a call to confirm its legitimacy. I have already been asked to show ID when picking my kid up unexpectedly from school. I am fairly certain the normal mode of transport to school for a kid this age is a yellow bus given the distance.
Surely, CEP is preparing a statement and changing its practices, right? RIGHT? RIGHT?
Especially at a school for students who have had problems, it would seem to be a good idea for the school to confirm that the student actually did go home rather than hanging out somewhere else. They are supposed to be experts, aren't they?
I can't get through that link, but the PG story that I read said the parents were called, were told she felt sick and that agreed/approved of her being sent home with a bus ticket.
That means they knew when she left and it certainly seems like if they expected her to come home, they would have called the school and then notified police a lot sooner than they did.
Gotta say, I don't see this as a school problem. If they'd just sent her home with out a parent knowing what was happening, sure, that's a big problem. But with the notification, it becomes the parent's problem. Parent could easily have said, no, don't send her or what other transportation is available, etc.
12 sounds young, yes, but I promise you that 12 yos at CEP aren't, well, naive. She also conned the teacher, parents and school into believing she was sick as well, right? And then was found in her boyfriend's closet?
There are out of control kids out there and it seems to me the school, in this case, followed accepted practices.
Ideally the parents would have been on this right away- but one reason kids may have problems is that parents are not handling situations in the best way possible. A school like CEP has to go "above and beyond" normal procedures.
I thought CEP has social services available and would have guessed that a social worker would have been involved. The booklet I referenced published in June 2009 titled district info source carries this on page 35:
"If the parent is unable to provide transportation, school transportation contacts may issue PAT drop tickets with the parent or guardians consent. If the child's age or the nature of the illness make it impossible to take public transportation, the school may as a last resort, call Yellow Cab Company to provide the student with a cab" (Can't find the booklet on the website, so far)
I bet if the kid wasn't really sick and just wanted to be with her boyfriend, offering her a taxi directly to her doorstep ONLY, would have gotten her better real quick. I would have expected experts to use such a strategy.
I bet if the kid wasn't really sick and just wanted to be with her boyfriend, offering her a taxi directly to her doorstep ONLY, would have gotten her better real quick. I would have expected experts to use such a strategy.
I doubt it -- she seems pretty good at using public transportation for one thing. For the other, do we even know where the boyfriend lived? If it's near to her house, which is as likely as not, then she'd have merely gotten there faster in a cab!
News articles said the boyfriend's house is in Beltzhoover. Maybe a fellow Clayton student?
But the issues remain:
Skipping school time is a problem, ESPECIALLY for students sent to a school like Clayton. Would it not make sense for these experts to make sure that a student claiming to be going home sick actually went home? For example, by instructing the student to call from the home phone upon arrival? For the millions of dollars being paid to this company shouldn't we expect better?
And, even if normal transportation is by a yellow bus- students miss buses, need to leave early, etc. - does it make sense if at all possible to provide services in or close to the home school rather than putting 12 year olds in the position of navigating public transportation for long distances (regardless of whether this particular 12 year old managed to get to Beltzhoover)?
Would it not make sense for these experts to make sure that a student claiming to be going home sick actually went home? For example, by instructing the student to call from the home phone upon arrival? For the millions of dollars being paid to this company shouldn't we expect better?
They notified her parents. It seems to me as a parent, then it's my job -- the child has been sent back to my care. I know the child is on a PAT bus (and I likely realize that I could have demanded a cab, I knew that policy and so do most parents without cars).
As a parent, if I'm not at the house my child is being sent to I either get to that house, call a friend, relative or neighbor to get there, tell the school to send my kid somewhere else or tell the school that my child has to stay at school until I can supervise her when she gets home.
I still don't see how the school is at fault here, as much as I don't like the idea of that school. The parents were responsible for her after she left the school with a bus ticket and their permission. It was their job to meet her or make some way of determining that she was at home.
As a parent, I'm also going to the police a lot faster than they did.
It would be ideal if all parents were like Not Stunned describes. But issues with parents and families are part of the reason kids end up with referrals to schools like CEP.
The school probably did all it HAD to do- but is it doing everything it SHOULD be doing if it really hopes to turn these kids around?
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