To those of you who continue to argue the wisdom of child neglect and carelessness with me, calling me all kinds of ugly names because I favor prudence over recklessness, I will address this post. Hopefully, someone out there in cyberkansas will listen to me, and if I save just one life, it will have been worth the five minutes or so it will take to make this entry.
The National Center For Missing And Exploited Children is a respected resource for excellent information about child safety. They not only deal with missing children, but in prevention of situations that pose the danger of children going missing. Those who get on Siri's World merely to vent anger at yours truly for her higher expectations really need to study the NCMEC and put the recommended commonsense practices to work. From now on, I will be writing letters and sharing information with anyone involved with student safety at the national level to ensure that this common sense eventually reaches Northeast Kansas.
In April, I posted http://siriunsun.blogspot.com/2011/04/child-safety-and-kansas-schools.html , in which I detailed how a cross country coach/guidance counselor took the cross country team to practice at a location about four miles south of our town. He had all of the boys, but my daughter was the only girl who attended practice that day. He was the only teacher present. He dropped her off by herself, in a place that she had never been before, where, also, a sex offender lived in the nearest house......about a mile away or less, and just left her. She got lost, he could not find her, and he proceeded to look for her by himself for about two hours; he did not tell me that my daughter was missing, he did not call the police. Eventually, my daughter was found BY ACCIDENT, by some students who were out driving. Something I find disturbing is the number of comments I have gotton, from Kansas people......not the rest of the world......blaming my daughter for that situation!!! Folks! My daughter was only fourteen! It was the COACH'S responsibility to ensure her safety! If I cannot count on the school staff to use appropriate judgement, how can I or my children respect the school? How can any parent trust this school? I kinda, sorta don't, very much, anymore. It is the local school, that my taxes pay for, and I send my children there, but I do not have a feeling of trust for the community. As long as the coach who "lost" my daughter is still welcome to endanger more students, I don't think I will, either. But let me get back to this thingie I was onto about dumping children on the roadside by themselves and how it was supposedly my daughter's fault she went missing for an afternoon. Here is what the NCMEC has to say about it, in "know the rules: child safety in sports":
"Are there other adults present, besides the coach, to assist in supervising children during team events and practices, including any off-site travel? The coach should not be alone with children during team events, practices, sleepovers, or trips. You should know the names of the others who supervise and have access to your children and meet them in advance of any team activities."........NCMEC
The next point I want to make is pretty simple. Several of my gentle posters (haha) have protested that Mr. Guidance Counselor/Cross Country Coach had other students searching for my daughter that day. I guess that would be fine.......under certain circumstances. Any police station will give you the information that in the case of any missing person, adult or child, the first three hours are crucial. So why were not the police involved in the "search" (which really didn't happen folks......that was a LIE to protect the school and save face for the coach) instead of teenagers who were not search and rescue experts? Also, there WAS a sex offender nearby.....suppose a situation with that person, or someone happening upon my daughter on the highway had been the cause of my daughter's absence, instead of her simply becoming lost? How would another child have handled that? Failing to notify parents and proper authorities was dangerously irresponsible for all involved.
So there you have it. Northeast Kansans are either behind the times, or children are not important to them. I really do not care what connections the cross country coach/guidance counselor had or has, there likely is no other place, in this nation, where this person would still be employed at a school. I also do not know what kind of koolaide the school and community are serving about this incident, ( to those of you with personal knowledge) I can assure everyone that my daughter's safety was the school's resposibility, and that teacher has NO EXCUSE for what happened that day.
One more point, about which I want to be very clear: I never want to see a child from this area go missing or become the victim of a crime. It is easy to sit back and assume that "it will never happen here", or "those things don't happen in________",(you fill in the blank....could be anywhere) but consider what happened to Kyron Horman, who disappeared from his school in June of 2010. No one who worked at Kyron's school thought a thing like that would happen there, either. Please believe me when I tell you that the extra time and trouble it takes to supervise students and account for them properly is very, very worthwhile. Also, know that if any child does go missing from this particular school or becomes the victim of a crime, as a result of irresponsible conduct or unsound judgement on the part of a school employee, I will share every letter and document I have relating to the above cited incident with the proper authorities and the media.
The National Center For Missing And Exploited Children is a respected resource for excellent information about child safety. They not only deal with missing children, but in prevention of situations that pose the danger of children going missing. Those who get on Siri's World merely to vent anger at yours truly for her higher expectations really need to study the NCMEC and put the recommended commonsense practices to work. From now on, I will be writing letters and sharing information with anyone involved with student safety at the national level to ensure that this common sense eventually reaches Northeast Kansas.
In April, I posted http://siriunsun.blogspot.com/2011/04/child-safety-and-kansas-schools.html , in which I detailed how a cross country coach/guidance counselor took the cross country team to practice at a location about four miles south of our town. He had all of the boys, but my daughter was the only girl who attended practice that day. He was the only teacher present. He dropped her off by herself, in a place that she had never been before, where, also, a sex offender lived in the nearest house......about a mile away or less, and just left her. She got lost, he could not find her, and he proceeded to look for her by himself for about two hours; he did not tell me that my daughter was missing, he did not call the police. Eventually, my daughter was found BY ACCIDENT, by some students who were out driving. Something I find disturbing is the number of comments I have gotton, from Kansas people......not the rest of the world......blaming my daughter for that situation!!! Folks! My daughter was only fourteen! It was the COACH'S responsibility to ensure her safety! If I cannot count on the school staff to use appropriate judgement, how can I or my children respect the school? How can any parent trust this school? I kinda, sorta don't, very much, anymore. It is the local school, that my taxes pay for, and I send my children there, but I do not have a feeling of trust for the community. As long as the coach who "lost" my daughter is still welcome to endanger more students, I don't think I will, either. But let me get back to this thingie I was onto about dumping children on the roadside by themselves and how it was supposedly my daughter's fault she went missing for an afternoon. Here is what the NCMEC has to say about it, in "know the rules: child safety in sports":
"Are there other adults present, besides the coach, to assist in supervising children during team events and practices, including any off-site travel? The coach should not be alone with children during team events, practices, sleepovers, or trips. You should know the names of the others who supervise and have access to your children and meet them in advance of any team activities."........NCMEC
The next point I want to make is pretty simple. Several of my gentle posters (haha) have protested that Mr. Guidance Counselor/Cross Country Coach had other students searching for my daughter that day. I guess that would be fine.......under certain circumstances. Any police station will give you the information that in the case of any missing person, adult or child, the first three hours are crucial. So why were not the police involved in the "search" (which really didn't happen folks......that was a LIE to protect the school and save face for the coach) instead of teenagers who were not search and rescue experts? Also, there WAS a sex offender nearby.....suppose a situation with that person, or someone happening upon my daughter on the highway had been the cause of my daughter's absence, instead of her simply becoming lost? How would another child have handled that? Failing to notify parents and proper authorities was dangerously irresponsible for all involved.
So there you have it. Northeast Kansans are either behind the times, or children are not important to them. I really do not care what connections the cross country coach/guidance counselor had or has, there likely is no other place, in this nation, where this person would still be employed at a school. I also do not know what kind of koolaide the school and community are serving about this incident, ( to those of you with personal knowledge) I can assure everyone that my daughter's safety was the school's resposibility, and that teacher has NO EXCUSE for what happened that day.
One more point, about which I want to be very clear: I never want to see a child from this area go missing or become the victim of a crime. It is easy to sit back and assume that "it will never happen here", or "those things don't happen in________",(you fill in the blank....could be anywhere) but consider what happened to Kyron Horman, who disappeared from his school in June of 2010. No one who worked at Kyron's school thought a thing like that would happen there, either. Please believe me when I tell you that the extra time and trouble it takes to supervise students and account for them properly is very, very worthwhile. Also, know that if any child does go missing from this particular school or becomes the victim of a crime, as a result of irresponsible conduct or unsound judgement on the part of a school employee, I will share every letter and document I have relating to the above cited incident with the proper authorities and the media.
3 comments:
Your ranting and raving about this issue will continue to fall on deaf ears. REGARDLESS of your distaste for this cross country coach/guidance counselor, he is one of the most caring and genuine staff members at this school, and NOTHING you can say will change that. What happened to your daughter was a ONE TIME incident. I seriously doubt you would find anyone that would not agree with me on this one. He is a good man, dedicated to his athletes and every student in the school. I know how much you dislike his praises being sung, but that is just the way it is. Never FOR A MINUTE did he, or would he, intend to jeopardize your daughter, or any other student. Get over this, move on, and realize that no institution or organization within this state or country is going to listen to you. The students at this school are well supervised and given ample attention, both in and out of the classroom. There is a reason they rank so highly both nationally and state-wide - good teachers that care about the kids. Nothing you can say or do will change that. And the good news is that they care about your children and their success as much as they do the children of any other community member. Just curious if you can find anything at all postive to say about the school system? If not, you are truly a narrow minded woman.
Are you really that undersocialized and stupid?
Seriously......do you read anything I write? First of all, a teacher who cannot remember to make sure he/she knows the location of all of the students is simply dangerous. It compares to letting a drunk teach a class. Not that this school hasn't allowed a drunk to teach, because it has, but that's another post. I simply want to err on the side of caution. And if you read what the NCMEC has to say about this subject, you will know how wrong you are. Yes; I think people will listen to me. I have been to enough places and communicated with enough people to know that my opinion on this matter lines up with reason a lot better than yours does. Sorry you feel that I am narrow minded. I have teenagers who tell me that, too.
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