Community Chat

[hyacinth003]

On 2/14/2014 mominohio said:

Being a parent and a taxpayer, the ultimate responsibility of raising a child belongs to me the parent. In reality it is not the state, local or federal government's responsibility to feed, house, babysit, or even educate my child. It is my responsibility, and in the past I chose a private school to assist me in that endeavor. At this time, we are using the public school system as a paid (through taxes) partner in educating our son.

I am the ultimate decision maker in what my minor child does. If it is too dangerous to go out to school, I decide what happens, despite what the local officials choose about running buses or opening schools.

Once I had a child, I realized that no job, no school system, nothing, was more important than my responsibility to provide for my child. If you are going to have a job, and a child or children, you must build yourself a safety net for those times when your child needs care that you can't provide directly. Anyone who fails in this is a poor parent, plain and simple.

It is not the responsibility of the schools to stay open because you don't make a plan B, or you don't provide even the most basic necessities like food if school is closed for the day.

You made my original point beautifully.

It is the responsibility of a parent to care for your child, provide shelter, and meals.

NOT the public school system. Better realize this before you have kids.

Hyacinth

[catlover]

How can they say stay off the roads-the driving is treacherous and then send kids on those old yellow buses..............

[JaneMarple]

On 2/14/2014 catlover said:

How can they say stay off the roads-the driving is treacherous and then send kids on those old yellow buses..............

In NYC they take city buses and the subway.

[CelticCrafter]

On 2/14/2014 JaneMarple said:

On 2/14/2014 catlover said:

How can they say stay off the roads-the driving is treacherous and then send kids on those old yellow buses..............

In NYC they take city buses and the subway.

In the other 4 boroughs a lot of the kids do take the yellow buses.....

[Financialgrl]

If they are your children, parents have the last word - if schools are open and you feel its too dangerous keep them at home. Having worked in a high school for 3 years, I can't tell you how many parents would call before school started - "hey, are we really having school today, or why are we open when . . ."

Another situation that always killed me - I worked in high school and many kids drove to school (cuz taking that yellow cheesewagon is so not cool in HS). Can't tell you how many parents would allow their kids to drive to school and at the first snowflake call and tell us we needed to get a message to their kid to take the bus home so they wouldn't wreck their car. I can remember a day when the weather turned bad much sooner than expected and we had over 100 messages to get to kids. Schools don't have the time or personnel to deliver personal messages to your kids, yet we pulled in every aide and kids from study hall we had, we tried. And then the next day back at school, you'd get the same parents calling to tell you their child said they never got the message, they drove home and had they been in an accident, they'd have sued. I wanted so bad to say - "you listen to the same forecasts we all do, if a bad storm is expected, how about being proactive and tell your kid to take the bus that morning, then no matter how it turned out, they'd be okay".

[Qwackertoo]

beancounter17 . . .at least now parents could text them. While usually they can't have their phones on or on their person, suppose to be off and in their locker or backpack . . . which is extra nice on early dismissal days due to flooding, snow, tornado warnings etc. as parents might not always have the tv on or be near a tv to see the scroll on the local affiliates of ABC, CBS & NBC.

and in that situation I would have them leave their car right where it was in the school parking lot and go get them myself, those buses and bus routes have a pre-determined amount of riders to fill that space on the bus, not enough flexibility for multiple unexpected rides at the "drop of a hat". Actually with budget cuts, our system is contemplating a "shift" of starting and ending times due to growth in number of students and lack of funding to purchase more buses.

edit clarify sentence.

[LizAnne_1]

On 2/13/2014 JaneMarple said:

On 2/13/2014 PurpleBunny said: When the city says it's "too treacherous" for adults to be out and going to work, then it's too treacherous for kids going to school. THAT's why parents were upset.

With all due respect PB, Mr. Roker's children do not attend public school. With that being said, NYC is unique in the fact that most parents have to go to work, there are thousands of jobs in the city that need people to be there. It does sound heartless but most people can use the subway. A second cousin of mine works for One Police Plaza, she HAD to go to work.

You stand corrected, Jane Marple. Al Roker's daughter attends an NYC public school.

[pinkskates4]

With all this OMG hysteria - the schools are closed - or closing early - what am I going to do - I have to go to - or stay at -work.

What do these parents do when their kids get sick - before school - or during the school day? That's not planned either.

[Qwackertoo]

On 2/15/2014 Dagna said:

With all this OMG hysteria - the schools are closed - or closing early - what am I going to do - I have to go to - or stay at -work.

What do these parents do when their kids get sick - before school - or during the school day? That's not planned either.

Having worked in the "first - aid" room . . . staffed by volunteer, Red-Cross trained, Mom's like me . . . many send them to school. We "help" the nurse who was located in another area who handles medical records and the more serious stuff . . . but now for some reason no more . . . I took a year off after my broken ankle . . . and many, many days we'd see 100+ students in the first-aid room . . . calling and calling and calling parents . . . I don't know how the one poor nurse handles it now . . . I know many days, she'd call over or come over IF she had time and thank us for being there that day. Usually one Mom a day or sometimes one Mom in the a.m. and one in the p.m. . . . but we'd have a sign up sheet and many did their regular day every week or every other week. It was nice to be appreciated and I felt very bad for the kids who were sick and their parents couldn't be reached even with half a dozen numbers and a couple of alternate "emergency" names.