Friday, January 8, 2010

When people ask me why I deny my son simple pleasures like...

...the experience of going to school and riding the bus, I'll be sure to remember and remind them in future that Martha Thompson was sentenced Jan. 6 (almost a full YEAR after she put the lives of a bus full of children at risk) - to 12 WEEKENDS in jail, 6 months home 'supervision', and a $1000 fine. For 37 (!!!) counts of reckless endangerment. Those children are traumatized - and by an adult they've been instructed to trust to get them home safely.

Kudos to the teenage girls who stood up to her, evacuated the little ones from the bus safely, and comforted them during what must have been a terrifying and confusing time!!!

Also, I'll gladly remind my inquisitors that I live in the rural eastern PA school district where, during a brief three week period THIS PAST MONTH, one teacher died of a heroine overdose and a teacher's aide had her phone 'appropriated temporarily' by a student or someone familiar with a Bangor student at a social function outside of the school and the nude photos of herself were distributed throughout the school and community to nearly every student with a cellphone within perhaps two days. I'm as liberal as liberal gets, but I mean... REALLY?! Ugh. Totally disgusts me.

When I was in 8th grade (after I moved to another school district from this one), one of my best friends (also an 8th grader) was brought into the principal's office (also in Bangor!) because he was suspected of having a gun in his backpack. They asked him to empty his pockets and the gun was in one of them. Before anyone could react, he shot himself in the head. He lived, but lost an eye. (I apologize for the lack of references, but this happened in 1993 - before the internets were born. ;)) This was all I could find about the shooting and it's more about the negligence of his mom: http://articles.mcall.com/1993-08-26/news/2931292_1_son-shot-bullets-moran I have no idea if my old friend is still alive today. I haven't heard a word from him since my parents told me he was recovering and I couldn't go visit him at the hospital.

I often tell Spawn to remember that his Daddy and I are his bodyguards. It's our job to protect him and keep him safe until he's an adult AND we feel he's old enough to keep himself safe. I'd be doing a poor job of it to enroll him in a school system that's turned Lord of the Flies.

I ♥ cyber schooling!

Chrissi, Cyber School Mom

2 comments:

Libbytown said...

Woo woo!!!

Kell C said...

Chrissi: I just saw the video of the drunk bus driver. And I am sitting here in tears, mostly after watching that little boy at the end cry in the arms of one of the girls. I may be a worrywort, but that's exactly one of the reasons why my child never rode the bus to school (and why we are homeschooling him now). It's horrifying that these kinds of things happen ALL THE TIME in the school system.

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