Charter School - Durham NC

[Jesus_hurley]

We had enrolled my daughter (4th grade) in a charter school in Durham for this year. Supposedly it was just a better school and was supposed to be oh so great for everyone. We go to the open house last week and hear all the right things - down to 'We've never lost a fourth grader'. Guess what happened yesterday....

My wife goes to pick her up from school. She gets in the car line at 2:55 and is at the first teacher (who notifies the person who calls the kids to come over) at about 3:05. At 3:10 she's at the front of the line - with no child in the car. After a minute or two, the staff member there tells her to go park while they TRY and find my child. After about 10 minutes - during which the staff continues to load cars and send them on their way, my wife backs the car up back to the front of the line to get an answer on why they have not found her, what they are doing and why, in God's name if they can't find a child do they continue to let people on and off the property (no answers....). Fortunately 3 minutes later they find my daughter and bring her out - but what happens next? The staff member says 'you could have hit me backing up' (at a snail's pace), turns her in to the principal who bans her from the campus and is threatening legal action. Meanwhile, we went 18 minutes without knowing my daughter was safe or where she was - and neither did the school.

Needless to say, we've re-enrolled her back in her old school where in the previous 4 years she's never been lost. I am interested if anyone (paging CathyCA and lawgrad...) knows what our rights are in this - especially if they want to pursue charges. To me, they recklessly endangered my daughter by not knowing where she was and continuing to allow free access to the campus, but that could just be my emotional response to it.

[DukieInKansas]

Caveat - I'm not a lawyer or a parent.

I think they should have left your wife at the head of the line until your daughter was located and brought out - unless they had radio confirmation that they knew where she was and she was on her way out - i.e. - Little Suzy had to make a trip to the restroom. Mrs. Jones will be out with her shortly. Please pull ahead until she is out.

Of course, your wife was nicer than I probably would have been - I don't know that I would have left the line.

[Jesus_hurley]

Caveat - I'm not a lawyer or a parent.

I think they should have left your wife at the head of the line until your daughter was located and brought out - unless they had radio confirmation that they knew where she was and she was on her way out - i.e. - Little Suzy had to make a trip to the restroom. Mrs. Jones will be out with her shortly. Please pull ahead until she is out.

Of course, your wife was nicer than I probably would have been - I don't know that I would have left the line.

Her old school (now her current school) did exactly this. She was much nicer then I would have been too - she didn't cuss, yell or threaten anyone. I would have done all 3.

[DukieInKansas]

Out of curiosity - what did you daughter have to say about the delay? Hopefully she wasn't even aware that your wife was out there stressing.

[TillyGalore]

Can you sue for child abandonment, or some law-like term?

I bet they would have been in deep doo-doo if something had happened to your daughter.

[Jesus_hurley]

Out of curiosity - what did you daughter have to say about the delay? Hopefully she wasn't even aware that your wife was out there stressing.

They had them on the playground away from the building where it's hard to hear the announcements. Toss in the fact there were 50-60 screaming kids out there and it's no surprise she missed it.

[Jesus_hurley]

Can you sue for child abandonment, or some law-like term?

I bet they would have been in deep doo-doo if something had happened to your daughter.

That's what I was wondering - not that I want to do anything like that, but if they want to push I want to be able to push back. I figure just a threat of it would work since the last thing they'd want is to have something like that in the local news

[OZZIE4DUKE]

Sounds like you, and I if it had been my child, would have been arrested in the aftermath....

[CathyCA]

I think a well-placed call to WTVD or WRAL or the N&O (not sayin' the Herald-Sun) might be interesting. Surely some reporter is looking for a school story these days.

I'm not sure whether there's any legal action that you could take, especially since your daughter was found unharmed. I don't know whether a cause of action exists, but I'm thinking. . .

Are there message boards where you could discuss this among other parents, to warn them?

I don't like charter schools. They're the recipients of public funding, but they're not subject to all the state rules and regulations, and that just scares me a little bit.

Safety of children should be of paramount importance at any school, whether its public, private, charter, parochial or homeschool.

[DukieInKansas]

Out of curiosity - what did you daughter have to say about the delay? Hopefully she wasn't even aware that your wife was out there stressing.

They had them on the playground away from the building where it's hard to hear the announcements. Toss in the fact there were 50-60 screaming kids out there and it's no surprise she missed it.

In that case, they need to work on their system. There should be an adult that recognizes all the kids that gets the name by radio and can verify that the child is on the way to the pickup line.

I think their reaction to your wife backing up is a defense mechanism - they know they were wrong in their actions and wanted to put her on the defensive instead of them.

[Jesus_hurley]

I think a well-placed call to WTVD or WRAL or the N&O (not sayin' the Herald-Sun) might be interesting. Surely some reporter is looking for a school story these days.

I'm not sure whether there's any legal action that you could take, especially since your daughter was found unharmed. I don't know whether a cause of action exists, but I'm thinking. . .

Are there message boards where you could discuss this among other parents, to warn them?

I don't like charter schools. They're the recipients of public funding, but they're not subject to all the state rules and regulations, and that just scares me a little bit.

Safety of children should be of paramount importance at any school, whether its public, private, charter, parochial or homeschool.

I appreciate it - we have found some sites where you can express your opinion of schools so other parents can read about your experiences. I knew about the public funding and just assumed they would take the same steps as other public schools as far as safety went - shame on me

I appreciate your insight on this

[Jesus_hurley]

Out of curiosity - what did you daughter have to say about the delay? Hopefully she wasn't even aware that your wife was out there stressing.

They had them on the playground away from the building where it's hard to hear the announcements. Toss in the fact there were 50-60 screaming kids out there and it's no surprise she missed it.

In that case, they need to work on their system. There should be an adult that recognizes all the kids that gets the name by radio and can verify that the child is on the way to the pickup line.

I think their reaction to your wife backing up is a defense mechanism - they know they were wrong in their actions and wanted to put her on the defensive instead of them.

That's exactly what I told my wife

[shindman]

Thanks to all who gave us words of encouragement regarding this topic. It helps to know that I'm not truly "crazy", just a CAMERON CRAZIE!!!

[lawgrad91]

I agree with learned counsel CathyCA about legal action, but I don't see how they could ban your wife from school grounds. I mean, your daughter was a student there; were they just going to make her walk home, or walk off the grounds where you could pick her up? Think there could be some liability attached then? But since your daughter (thankfully) was fine when they finally found her, I don't see that there's much the legal system could do for you. I think a well-placed call to your favorite local news person would be in order. Certainly the school needs to handle such a situation better, or (better still) stop it from happening in the first place.

I agree that they knew they were in the wrong, and that's why they blew up at your wife. It was the first day of school; surely lots of people didn't have the system down pat. I'm sure they didn't ban anyone not following the driving patterns, driving into the bus area, etc., or threaten them with legal action.

I can't imagine a judge giving the school system more than about 15 seconds on this.

Your best move was changing schools. Hope things go better at the new/old one.