WashPost Flame-Bait on Loudoun County Tardy Policy
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Anonymous
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/parents-say-loudoun-officials-reaching-too-far-to-stop-school-tardies/2012/02/03/gIQAMUUmpQ_story.html?hpid=z6
Front-page. Read this critically and I can't decide how I feel. On the one hand, I do think sending a sheriff after you because your kids are a couple of minutes late to school too often sounds a little over the top. On the other hand, I also think this family may have been spoiling for a fight: -- Dad is a lawyer prone to referring to government as a "nanny state." -- Mom says things like "It's not my goal that the kids are late, but my coal is that they arrive to school well-fed, ready to learn and comfortable in their skin." UGH. -- They are tardy fully 1/3 of the time. -- This paragraph: "If the parents are cooperating with the truancy officer, they're referred to the county's Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court." Which suggests that there's been quite a bit of due process before the cops showed up and this family's response was to go crying to the newspapers. So, on balance, I understand I'm supposed to react with outrage against the county (I live in Arlington, FWIW), but this feels really manufactured and I'm also concluding that these are people who regard their children as very special snowflakes and the rules of their school and community as optional for them. What do others think? |
Anonymous
| Selfish people thinking only of themselves. Glad the sheriff showed up. I'm betting that family (or at least the mom) is late for everything. |
Anonymous
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Yup -- 8:39 is spot on.
These are people who believe the party doesn't start till they arrive. |
Anonymous
| Agree with the PPs. If the parents have such goals, they should homeschool. |
Anonymous
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Some people just can't get their act together in the morning. One of them lives in my house. I've tried to explain to him for 4 years that it's unacceptable that the kids are late to school regularly because he can't be bothered getting the evening and morning routines coordinated (because he puts the kids to bed too late, they can't get up, he won't get up, and then everyone is late). And yes, I will put the kids to bed, but there are 2 evenings a week that I am not here to do it. He'll do better for a little while, then revert back to his old, lazy ways. I'm glad that next year, it looks like I'll be taking one kid to school, and even though the start time is nearly an hour earlier, I bet we'll only be late when there are traffic or weather issues that cause major delays.
I do think it's rude and disrespectful to be chronically late. It's like saying that your time is more important than other peoples' time. |
Anonymous
| I read that this morning and thought, WTF is wrong with those people. They're late 30% of the time and school is only a 2 minute drive? Half the people in my house have ADHD and we're inculcating in our kids what they need to do in order to get places on time. Even if they're just a few minutes late, the school staff have to sign them in and they disrupt class when they get there. Maybe this summons will be a wake up call. |
Anonymous
| When I saw the headline, I thought I would be agreeing with the family. When I read they were late 1 out of every 3 days, they lost my sympathy. It's obnoxious to come in late on a regular basis and disrupt the class. Also, the parents aren't teaching the kids how to function in a world where, for many jobs, showing up on time is critical because you're relieving people who just finished a long shift. And I agree with pp's point above that these parents are sending a message that their time is more important than everyone else's. So the summons doesn't bother me. |
Anonymous
Agree this is BS. So you need two extra minutes every third day to accomplish the above? I definitely think fines will motivate parents such as this, though I don't think protective services should be involved for this kind of situation. They are modeling bad behavior, and ignoring the fact that it disrupts the entire classroom. Our school has tons of these chronically tardy families; it is a pet peeve of mine, and I wish DCPS would implement financial penalties. |
Anonymous
| I would bet real money that the sheriff/truant officer only gets involved when there is a persistent, recurring problem - like self-involved dbags who are late once every here days. Not something I'm going to get worked up about. Pay the fine, and be on time in the future. Done and done. |
Anonymous
| My DH, for all his fine qualities, is like this and it drives me crazy. We did get a social work referral after his son was late 10 times in one school year (evenly split between his drop-offs and DSS's mom.......) . The only thing that has improved it is when the school was able to institute penalties that affected the child. As in, now that we are in middle school, three tardies equals a lunch detention and so DSS now pushes to be on time. |
Anonymous
| I really do think kids arriving late disrupt the class and it's unfair to do that to the other kids several times a week. These people just sound totally self centered. |
Anonymous
| Well, I was prepared to loathe the family too but when I read the article, I was surprised re: the 7:41 school start time--that is insanely early for elementary school. I have a 5 yo, 2 yo and a 6 month old and we have racked up a few tardies this year too. No matter how early I am up! Our school doesn't start until 9 a.m. and we live 2 minutes away. And I was always someone who loved punctuality. Not sure what happened to me. |
Anonymous
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Bullshit. You adjust your schedule to ensure that you and your kids are where they're supposed to be when they're supposed to be there.
If school starts at 7:41, then clearly you won't be staying up to watch the Top 10. There is simply no excuse for constantly being late. None. |
Anonymous
"The Denicores have been been late almost 30 times since September, or about one out of every three school days." |
Anonymous
I totally agree. In order to get to work on time, DH and I have always had to leave the house by 7:00 am. Our kids go to bed at 7:30pm and DH and I are in bed about 9:00pm. In addition, two of my kids and DH have ADHD. There is no excuse for the Denimores being late so frequently. If they'd been begging for help on how to organize their time, I might have had some sympathy but instead, they think the rules shouldn't apply to them. What BS. |