Yesterday, I received two letters for each of my girls about absences. It was shocking to receive them since I was not aware that they had any absences. The shock increased, on this first notice of our girls' truancy, with its wonderful quotation from the North Carolina Compulsory Attendance Law that spoke of unlawful absences and court dates.
"Unlawful," while technically accurate, seems to be tonally extreme on the first notification that your children have had several absences - especially when their absences are due to sickness or being stranded in Michigan due to a broken vehicle. But perhaps I'm being oversensitive.
Regardless, I called the school social worker this morning - where, Did I mention?, my wife teaches - and was told that all their absences were excused. Furthermore, the second letter that said they had three 'unlawful' absences was a glitch in the computer. I can only assume they use PCs.
I suggested they work on the tone of their first contact letters, and maybe not bring up the whole "We're going to haul you off to jail and send your children to live with Jimmy Jack and Annabelle Guthry in western Appalachia" bit until at least the second letter. I mean, we barely know each other.
I was kind, of course - but when am I ever not?
4 comments:
Dude, you crack me up, as always. I'd have been upset about that myself.
I like to assure whomever I am speaking with, in situations of conflict, that he or she is not to blame while employing a tone that suggests a lioness caged.
It never fails to get prompt and attentive service regardless of the sitch.
Golly! Can you take your Mac to jail with you? I'd miss your blog if you were doing "bad dad" time.
I like that one of your labels for this post is "stupidity."
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