Bad protocol
This age of instant messaging puts anyone and everything under scrutiny, and schools especially have become a target for angry parents.
Most of the postings are personal rants but those that have widespread appeal are scooped up by the media. In recent days, two 6-year-olds one in Indiana and the other in Oregon went through traumatic episodes for which outraged parents held their district responsible.
The first involved a bus transportation issue in Indianapolis. The youngster, Cameron Beers, was forced to ride a replacement bus to his school last Monday morning because his regular bus was being serviced. His regular bus was returned to the road in the afternoon but nobody apparently told the 6-year-old to ride his regular bus home.
He got back on the replacement bus from that morning, which took him on a different route. When they reached the last stop, the driver made Cameron get off, even though the boy said it wasn't his stop.
Cameron had to walk a half-mile home on a busy roadway and also cross a busy street. His trek was made more dangerous by knee-deep snow.
When he arrived home, his mother Kelly Beers said his face was red and he was crying. When she asked what happened, Cameron said the bus driver dropped him off and wouldn't listen when the child insisted he didn't live in that area.
School officials in Decatur Township Schools are investigating the case.
The second incident involved Hunter Garloff, a 6-year-old Oregon boy who was publicly shamed by his elementary school for being one minute late to school. As punishment for being tardy, Hunter was given a lunch detention and forced to sit by himself with a cardboard cubicle surrounding him.
The boy's mother tried to explain there was a problem with the family car that morning and the tardiness was not Hunter's fault. She said no one's child should be shamed like that.
After posting a photo of her grandson at lunch on Facebook, Laura Hoover's page was flooded with comments. The district also received many angry phone calls that the school used public humiliation as a punishment.
School officials said the policy in question was never intended to isolate or stigmatize students. John Higgins, district superintendent, explained that each elementary school develops its own system for addressing tardiness. He said discipline is not the purpose of the protocols, adding that the priority should be on allowing the child to catch up on what they missed.
Tardiness policies that teach punctuality are a good thing. Students are expected to be in class and ready to begin work at a set time, thus students are taught an important career skill for future employment.
Shaming a 6-year-old to make that point, however, shouldn't be part of the protocol.
By JIM ZBICK
editor@tnonline.com
