Anyone who's listening, I will tell you a story. It's a true story, and it happened in October of 2009. Thankfully, it had a happy ending.
My oldest daughter used to be quite the avid cross country buff when she was thirteen years old. She was good at it, too. But one day, while she was at practice, and I was at home, just assuming that all was well, her coach drove past my house, stopping to talk to my eight year old son. Mr. Coach wanted to know if Mr. Eight Year Old had seen his older sister. Mr. Eight Year Old had not. No one had seen my daughter in over two hours. She was lost. Why was she lost? Because her coach had dropped her off by the side of a highway, four miles south of the town we live in, by herself, and just left her. It was part of cross country practice. No supervision. If she had been stung by a bee, had tripped and hurt herself, or had some other medical emergency, no one would have been there to help her. (at this juncture, you should know that I offered to volunteer to help with cross country, but since I do not attend a Christian church, my offer was rejected. The school staff thought it better to take chances with a child's safety in the way I just described) When my daughter realized that she did not know her way back, she started to wander of a side road, hoping it would bring her to a house, or another person. This area has a lot of commercial farms, and there were no houses or places my daughter could go to for help.
Back to my eight year old son.......Twenty minutes went by. While he did not realize the signifigance of his conversation with Mr. Cross County Coach, (also Mr. Guidance Counselor) he did realize that no one knew where his sister was, and it was getting later and later, and no one was looking for her. So he told me about it. I looked all over town, called all her friends, searched the school (why was the school left unlocked after everyone had gone home?) and finally started home to call the police, when a couple of senior boys drove up with my crying daughter in their car. It was still within a few minutes of when I found out she was missing, but this cross country coach had known all afternoon, and had not called the police, or spoken to me. Why? I guess whatever he cared about, it WASN'T my daughter. Well.........I actually DO care about my daughter. Nowhere else have I met a teacher that did NOT care, at least a little, about the children he teaches, but I think that is what the problem is with Mr. Cross Country Coach/ Guidance Counselor.
Suppose it was not young men from her school who found her, but a dangerous person? I have been told time and time again by the people who live in this small Kansas town that "those things don't happen here", and "there ARE no dangerous people here", but there was a sex offender whose address was with half a mile from where my daughter was abandoned. The police were quick to point that out, but the principal only argued his harmlessness as a sex offender with them and the school board is not worried about the incident.
My children no longer participate in cross country at their school. It isn't safe.
Siriunsun
- Juli Henry
- In An Age Of Universal Deceit, Telling The Truth Is A Revolutionary Act.......George Orwell
10 comments:
First of all, I do not appreciate your rude comments about our guidance counselor/cross country coach. He is one of the nicest people you will ever meet and goes above and beyond his job to help our students.
Second, as a member of the school's cross country team, I am well aware of how the practices are ran. We are not dropped off all by ourselves. We are dropped off at one of our usual running routes, given clear instuctions on how to get to our finishing point, and our coach follows behind us in a vehicle. None of this would have happened if your daughter had followed instuctions and stayed on path. You also seem to have forgotten to mention that the "senior boys" you spoke of were, in fact, members of the cross country team, out looking for your daughter.
I know you don't agree with me, however, I am very proud of our school and I am not a fan of people attacking it. Also, I have lived in two different states and would say the education system here is rather high-quality. Even though you don't seem to grasp the concept of how great it is to live in such a lovely, close-knit community.
I do hope you consider some of the points I made and allow people to view this comment, as I have been told you tend to pick and choose what comments can be posted.
First of all, this is my blog. I can publish any comment I wish, and any comment I do not wish to publish, I can disregard. I do not have to publish an entire town's insane, ignorant guff. Second, my daughter WAS dropped off by herself. That's what happened. If you have been told something else, assuming you actually know someone who was involved and have interviewed him or her, then you have been lied to. The school board here apparently swept this incident "under the rug". Dropping a student off in this manner by herself is also AGAINST THE LAW. It is also DANGEROUS. If your parents do not love you enough to protect you from this kind of crap at school I am sorry to hear that. As for instructions and staying on the path, my daughter was four miles away from the school by herself, completely unfamiliar with the area. And the boys I spoke of were not out looking for my daughter, they were unaware that she was missing. Had they been looking for her, this would certainly have been stated at the school board meeting my husband and I attended when we discussed this with the school board. Also, the superintendant would surely have been aware of it. So please, no more koolaide. Just face the fact here, what happened was WRONG; on the part of the GUIDANCE COUNSELOR/CROSS COUNTRY COACH. And unlawful.
As for the close knit community......I have been here for almost five years, and very few people in it know how to say "hi". You also don't know how to invite people over to dinner. One of you did know how to knock on a mother's door and say you were going to kill her seven year old child, though. I didn't even know you. And in order to get a police report, I had to contact the FBI. Is that what you meant by "close knit"? Ok then, you're close knit. But not wrapped too tight. BTW......the rest of the world, by and large, agree with yours truly about child safety. Not with you.
My comments are certainly not rude. All in all, I think I've been pretty easy on the school. But when you guys break the law, endangering children, I am going to speak up. Suppose one of you, while experiencing cross country practice as you do, gets stung by a bee and has an allergic reaction, or gets injured? With no supervision and iffy cell phone reception, someone could die while waiting for medical attention. I do not want to see that happen to any of you. Your parents may not care. The whole town may like the guidance counselor for silly-assed political reasons, but I care if something happens to you. So here I am, warning you about it. Listen to me or not, at least I care enough to speak.
Why would teenage boys be the ones enlisted to search for a missing child? Why not the police? Can you see how your statements cannot possibly make sense? Any time a child or an adult is missing, the first three hours are crucial. Two hours were thrown away by this teacher. Two hours. But did my daughter's saftey really matter? Probably not, since I am not from this "close knit" community. And, while I am on the subject of things that really matter, perhaps, before the next time you practice for cross country, you should run your town's zip code through a sex offender registry and see what you find. It may surprise you. Either this guidance counselor/cross country coach knows and does not care, or he is taking chances with your safety deliberately. Think. And be safe.
You make us sound like such terrible people. I for one agree with the first comment above, this is a very loving community if you would just give it a chance. I am proud to call myself a Frankfort Wildcat, and one day hope to bring my children here. My parents and my older siblings have all graduated from here and love it! Our community has great pride in our town...it sickens me that you hate it so much here and continue to post rude things about my home..the place that i love.
Second, if you hate it so much here, why not move? Why not change schools? or for that matter, why not homeschool?
You seem to have plenty of time at home to write all these things about our town!
I've considered home schooling. I did not know what I was getting into when I moved here. I didn't understand it completely until one of you threatened to kill my son. As I said before, the FBI got involved. Unfortunately, we bought our house before this happened, and then the real estate market crashed. I hope for your sake that by the time you bring your children here, schools have consolidated. That way, more teaching and learning can happen, and less reckless endangerment of children. Why do you have great pride in your town? Aside from providing a haven for a few people who have been on the lam, and allowing children without drivers licenses to drive, and letting underage kids drink beer in your fields, what really goes on here? I truly don't see much that would make me proud if I actually had to call this town home. Anyway, don't answer that question. I'm no longer interested in the discussion. You guys wouldn't be terrible people if you had insisted, as a town, that no teacher who abandons a child somewhere outside of town continue to work at the school. That choice pretty much defines all of you as terrible people, like it or not. There isn't much else to say. Understand, if any child ever gets hurt because of this teacher's irresponsibility, I will take all the info I have from this case to whatever authorities handle that case.
If schools consolidated our town would LOOSE our school, the town would disappear. Have you ever hear of the little town Vliets? THey dissapeared after they lost their school. our community doesnt want to loose the school, people would move, and stores would close.
and might i say...ever town has underage drivers and drinkers. not something to be proud of sure! But it doesnt just happen in Kansas, it happens Nation wide! Why attack just us? And i know as a student that any town you go to will have this problem! I know people from ALL the schools, and i know MANY that drink. its not just us.
Do you mean we would LOSE our school, or do you mean we could finally turn it LOOSE? Interesting. I am not from the area, and was only able to see opportunities in consolidation of schools, and didn't understand until about a week ago, why you guys have such a problem with it. An older person who has lived in a number of other places explained that not having a school meant the town was "dying". I guess I understand a little bit.....did any of the Native Americans you guys pushed away get upset because their communities "died", along with an inordinate number of them, personally? Hmm....just one more chapter in the story of northern European/American Christianity that looks like hypocrisy and lies.
No one's attacked you. Anywhere else, the police would raid your fields and your houses for allowing teenagers to drink on you properties and proceed to drive that way. Sure, it's a nationwide problem, but you guys seem to get away with it much more often here, with law enforcement turning a blind eye to it and allowing the children of people who have been here for "years and years and years" (I am quoting the cop who told me that it was okay for an adult to threaten my little boy and that was the reason!!!)to get away with it. Ultimately, you do them no favors, anyway. The leave this area and either wrap theri vehicles around trees.....yes people.....the rest of our Ancestors left the trees in the ground.....or they get arrested and find that no one outside this area cares who their goofy little parents are.
Consolidation might not mean losing the school....we would have the option of keeping it and using it as an elementary school. It would be a waste to completely write it off.
I honestly do no understand why you get so worked up about stuff like this....it's not your kids out drinking and driving. Yes it's illegal but obviously kids are going to find some way to do it no matter how hard you try to stop them. Im 17 and have never known one person who could upset so many people because they feel the need to vent over the internet. If you want everyone to know how you feel then get a fucking megaphone and shout it downtown obviously you're the coward if you can't say it to anyone's face....everybody knows everybody in Frankfort and people talk so im sure there is no need for your blog anymore....and the comments from the school weren't from teachers they were from students who go to school with your children. You bash frankfort and talk shit about everything that goes on but do you think about how this affects the way people are towards your children? I sure as hell wouldnt want to hang around with a child with a mother like you. Fuck that!On the losing your daughter note, there is no way to get lost on these country roads everyone in this town knows them like the back of their hands it is not that hard. Have fun with whatever you're trying accomplish with this blog.
Sincerely a student who dislikes you very much,
Janay Howard
I'm sorry you feel that way. Perhaps after you've identified someone who was alive the last time you saw him, but got drunk and wrapped his vehicle around a tree or utility pole, and sadly, is no longer with us, you will understand my position in all of this. Please do not tell me that those things never happen around here, because they do. And one person does NOT get everyone going......it's my opinion that "everyone" already knew these things in the first place; simply no one was really using common sense. People got defensive when they read my blog. And as for everyone knowing the roads......that is beside the point. You have no control over who uses a public highway. Anyone could have taken advantage of an opportunity. I'm sorry you dislike me very much. You obviously have some growing up to do.
Wow, there are some pretty ignorant people living in your town. If my daughter had been left somewhere without supervision and came home with boys in a car, I probably would have had that coach's head on a platter. Your school district got off easy.
Drinking and driving kills, it's not kids being kids. Maybe these people won't think it's so tolerable when their child is a victim of a drunk driver.
I went to the police, and to every agency in Kansas that deals with child safety. The Kansas Department of Education lets the little "unified" school boards run the schools any way they please, and tell everyone they "have no control" when something happens. They even allow children to take guns to school during hunting season; on March 3 of this year, one of the kids, and 18 yr old who is on probation for drunk driving, took a gun to class with him because he was mad at someone! Drugs were also found in his car, after he was arrested. This kid's mother actually got mad at me for making statements about drunk driving online, and went about denying that alcohol was involved in a terrible accident he caused.....another child now only has one leg because of that accident. The following day, the newspaper announced the DUI charges...
These people would have no idea how to function if they had to move away from this little town and live in the real world. I am a bit sorry I invested in property here.
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