Reply to Thoughts on the new Churchill principal?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

Perhaps your child did not experience these things.  They are large teams so some kids got more attention than others.  However, many children (girls and boys) came forward last year to complain.  Some children were more affected than others, particularly if they were one of the children in the cars.. [/quote]

Jeesh.     If you don't want your teenagers  going in the Coach's car,  why don't you just tell them that?    But the kids often need rides to and from the track meets, since there are usually not enough people to afford a bus.     I chose to take my daughter to and from the track meets, mainly because I like to know the driving ability of anyone driving my teenagers.      But there was one time when I couldn't get there in time , and so I let the coach drive her home.

(It was awful.   They got caught in traffic and arrived home 10 minutes late.     My daughter had nightmares for weeks and required therapy for months.)

OK the stuff in parentheses is a joke.    The ride home was completely uneventful.     But I do hope that Mrs. Heckert has a spine and refuses to let you bully her into further disrupting the track team.

[/quote]

I don't have kids at CHurchill but I'd bet money this was written by someone connected to the coaches in question. In my whole time working for MCPS, I've always known that if I had to drive a kid anywhere, there would have to be another staff member in the car with me. No question. Any mcps employee behaving differently is knowingly violating policy, and I'd want to know why too if I were a parent. In a decade, I've driven a kid twice, both times with an administrator or a security officer in the car with me.[/quote]

My dd was on a different team last year, and no issues arose.  But I recall messages when they were trying to set up the carpool to Away games that they really wanted to get enough parent volunteers and they preferred not to have the coach drive the kids, but that was an option if necessary.  Never crossed my mind that this would violate policy.  (I understand why it does, but it wasn't anything I thought about.)  I also don't know why I'd be more squeamish about having the male coach drive my dd than having a teammate's father drive my dd.  In both cases, I'd want other kids in the car, but I've never expected there to be more than one adult in the car.

Generally, though, this whole stream seems like good justification for them to figure out the Away schedule and bussing situation so that bussing is a real option without missing significant amounts of the school day.  Both types of drivers put kids at risk and create liability issues, and the parent-driving carpool is very inconvenient on top of it.[/quote]

As a parent, whenever driving someone else's child, keep your own child in the car with you.  It is something parents normally do instinctively but it is a good safety practice for everyone in the car and it minimizes the parent driver's liability.  MCPS should encourage this practice for parents who are helping to drive teams to athletic events.  I agree, the away schedule is known at the beginning of an athletic season so there is time to hire buses or organize the carpools so a coach is [u]never alone with a child in a car[/u].  It just takes organization and communication. [/quote]

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