A letter that went out to families at an Oregon elementary school had some parents up in arms in this week — and fearing for what would happen should they arrive a few minutes late to student pick-up.
The
letter, which was sent from office staff at Swegle Elementary School in
Salem, was intended to be a reminder about school procedures for the
upcoming academic year. But for some parents, one line in particular
jumped out: “Children must be picked up on time. If they are not picked
up on time, we will call DHS [Department of Human Services] and you will
then have to pick them up at court the next day.”
Another
line, this one about the timing of morning drop-off, included similar
language: “Please do not drop your children off before [7:40 am]. There
will not be any supervision. If children are dropped before 7:40 the
staff will call the authorities.”
This
letter, sent to parents of students at Swegle Elementary School, said
that DHS would be called if kids weren’t picked up on time. (Photo:
Chelsea Eichenauer/Facebook)
On
Thursday, Chelsea Eichenauer, whose 5-year-old son Mason will attend
Swegle Elementary in the fall, posted the letter, dated June 24, on her Facebook page. She included the note: “Anyone else think this is crazy?! Way too extreme!”
Officials
at an Oregon elementary school sent a letter home threatening to call
authorities if parents pick their kids up late. (Photo: Corbis/Kevin
Dodge)
A letter that went out to families at an Oregon elementary school had some parents up in arms in this week — and fearing for what would happen should they arrive a few minutes late to student pick-up.
The
letter, which was sent from office staff at Swegle Elementary School in
Salem, was intended to be a reminder about school procedures for the
upcoming academic year. But for some parents, one line in particular
jumped out: “Children must be picked up on time. If they are not picked
up on time, we will call DHS [Department of Human Services] and you will
then have to pick them up at court the next day.”
Another
line, this one about the timing of morning drop-off, included similar
language: “Please do not drop your children off before [7:40 am]. There
will not be any supervision. If children are dropped before 7:40 the
staff will call the authorities.”
This
letter, sent to parents of students at Swegle Elementary School, said
that DHS would be called if kids weren’t picked up on time. (Photo:
Chelsea Eichenauer/Facebook)
On
Thursday, Chelsea Eichenauer, whose 5-year-old son Mason will attend
Swegle Elementary in the fall, posted the letter, dated June 24, on her Facebook page. She included the note: “Anyone else think this is crazy?! Way too extreme!”
“My heart kind of skipped a beat a little bit, it’s pretty scary,” Eichenauer told KOIN News. “It would traumatize my little boy to death if he couldn’t come home one night.”
Eichenauer didn’t respond to Yahoo Parenting’s request for comment.
In
response to Eichenauer’s Facebook post, fellow parents expressed
concern. “If they would put your child through that scary of a situation
(‘Oops, your bad mom is 3 minutes late. I’m taking you to the CRC
center and you have to stay overnight with people you don’t know, kids
you don’t know, and you can’t see your family until the morning’) think
of what unimaginable things they could/would be doing to your child,”
wrote one parent.
“I
would be putting my kid in another school,” added another commenter.
“Especially if they plan on putting any child through that type of
stress.” Yet another critic noted, “Of course people want to pick their
kids up on time but sometimes things happen.”
No comments:
Post a Comment