Reply to AMI vs. AMI Montessori?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Franklin Montessori in NW DC is with AMS, 
not AMI.
That explains why they need not answer uncomfortable questions, either to its parent body or its community, about the recent child left behind at the neighborhood playground.[/quote]

Can anyone elaborate on this story it seems to be mentioned anytime there is a thread on franklin but nothing that elaborates.  Was the child harmed?  How did staff realize the student was missing?[/quote]

Yes, I can elaborate. The primary classes go to Forest Hills playground a couple times a week. At the time of the incident, the teachers were supposed to do head counts at some set intervals during the trip, including as the very last step before returning to the school. Apparently, in this instance, the teacher did one last thing after conducting the final check (I forget the precise details; it was something like helping a student re-tie a shoe) and one of the children had wandered off.

The class returned to school without the child. I believe that the teacher realized the mistake prior to arriving back at Franklin, but by that time, a parent at the playground had already noticed the child was left behind and had called the school, so the school knew the child was missing before the supervising teacher did. The child was not harmed (other than in the sense that the entire situation sounds traumatic).

After the incident, the school director decided to handle it by instituting a set of additional safety policies (different checking procedure, introducing Franklin neckties with the school's phone number, her attending all playground trips personally for several months, etc.). The school director sent a letter to the parents listing the new safety procedures and a very general statement of why they were being instituted. The letter did not include a detailed description of the incident itself, though the school director did provide specifics if you asked her about it in person. Her reasoning was that the safety procedures were relevant to every parent at the school, but that the specifics of the incident itself were primarily a private matter involving that particular family, and that she should not share it without their permission.

The parents at the school were split about whether the director handled it correctly. I thought she did; what mattered to other parents was what the school was going to do to make sure the incident never happened again, and I thought she conveyed her prevention plan clearly and effectively. Others thought that she inherently had an obligation to spell out in more detail what happened to this particular child. I see their point of view, but disagree.

The parents of the child who got left behind decided not to withdraw the child from the school (at least for that school year; I don't know what they decided the following year).[/quote]

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