Reply to My story: Accused of Residency Fraud

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=jsteele][quote=Anonymous][quote=jsteele][quote=Anonymous]No, you forgot option d)  - express sympathy that OP is the subject of gossip, and outrage that someone followed and photographed her, but also take issue with her exhortation that, "Before reporting suspected parents, please consider the hurt you may cause to those who truly don’t deserve it."  (And I think most people's response falls into that category.)  You claim she isn't suggesting that others shouldn't report their suspicions, but I'm not sure how else to take that comment.  She's obviously advocating that people not report.  Think it through - you suspect a parent of residency fraud.  Before reporting, you consider that your suspicions might be incorrect, but you still have the suspicions.  And then . . . what?  You either report or not report.

As for, "The OP is saying that before you report someone, you better be damn sure they are guilty because you are potentially going to unnecessarily cause them hurt," you're mistaken - she doesn't want that at all.  The part of this saga that has the OP most upset clearly is that another parent followed her and took pictures of her and her kids.  [b]She repeatedly calls it stalking and harassment, and while I might not go that far, it certainly is disconcerting, and parents shouldn't do that. [/b] But, how does that square with your suggestion that before reporting one must be "damn sure" the other parent is guilty?  How would one become "damn sure" about that?  [b]The only way is by doing one's own investigation[/b]- which is exactly the most troubling thing about this to the OP.  If the general advice and best practice is for parents to decline to become amateur private investigators, setting the reporting bar at "damn sure they are guilty" is *exactly* the wrong way to do it.

Your posts on this thread thus far have been limited to righteous indignation on behalf of the OP, but you haven't addressed the underlying issue.  So let me ask you directly - if a person has a good faith suspicion that another family at his or her kid's school is engaged in residency fraud, what do you think they should do?  
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Let me get this straight? You are actually advocating that parents follow other parents around, even photographing them, based on suspicions that they might be residency cheaters? That is what you consider proper behavior? I'm sorry, but that's insane.

If you know someone is cheating, turn them in. If you simply think they might be cheating, it's not your job to investigate. I might think you are cheating on your taxes. That doesn't mean I should dig through your trash can looking for financial statements does it? If you don't think current DCPS practices are sufficient to prevent cheating, then advocate for change. Becoming your own vigilante Inspector Clouseau is not the answer. Instead of spending your time trying to justify your suspicions, use that time getting to know other families. 
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I have no idea how to respond to this.  You either didn't read, didn't understand, or are willfully misconstruing my post.  I bolded another sentence for you, just to help.

*You* are the one advocating that one be "damn sure" someone is cheating before turning them in.  In fact, in this post, you repeated the same sentiment - "If you know someone is cheating, turn them in."  But setting that standard - certainty of cheating - is what inevitably leads to the investigations.

And you didn't answer my question, which I will repeat here:  "If a person has a good faith suspicion that another family at his or her kid's school is engaged in residency fraud, what do you think they should do?"  
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You seem to be suggesting that there is some imperative for parents to turn in potential cheaters. Therefore, you propose two alternatives: 1) launch your own investigation of parents that you suspect of cheating; or 2) report parents based on mere "suspicions".  However, there is always the choice of doing nothing and I think that in the absence of actual knowledge of cheating, most of the time that is the best choice. This is for the school system to handle, not individual parents. "A good faith suspicion" is not a precisely-defined term and can mean different things to different people. To one person, such a suspicion might be based on simply seeing a child being driven to and from school in a car with a Maryland license plate. To someone else, quite a bit more evidence might be required. Regardless, as long as there is nothing more than a "suspicion", good faith or not, I don't think you should do anything. There are more productive ways to spend your time and energy.
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This is all getting way too personal...This may have happened to the OP but something doesn't ring true about the school confronting her, you know how many homeless families are in DC? Principals just don't get involved in this at least at DCPS, they know to leave it to OSSE they have way more important things to think about, and as most folks have complained about they don't do much about it. OSSE comes to schools and reviews all paperwork in the office, I have done this and know how it works. They identify anything that needs further investigation at the audit, which happens once a year. After that DCPS principals are not going to be tracking down folks and following up. Schools check their books before OSSE comes and sometimes asks parents for additional docs, if something is not clear. No, parents should absolutely not be following other parents, the parent who did this obviously has some serious issues or a vendetta. Not the previous poster, but some parts of this story are seriously off even though the the gist of the scenario may have some truth. The moral of the story is leave it to the authorities ...[/quote]

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