I don't think it was so much Kori's phone call as all the other Lake Braddock students calling as well.

Mrs. Tistadt works in a very multicultural school with a high ESOL and FRL rate. She may be able to get away with that attitude with parents and kids from that school, but not at a school with LBSS demographics.

Why do we expect kids to act mature on one hand and then go run to mommy and daddy on the other? If he'd been lewd or threatening in his message you know that he would have gotten in trouble for it. It sounds like this kid was persistent, not abusive although we may not know.

I feel you Drole...but what I was saying is he should have started with mom and dad first...have THEM make the call and let THEM handle a potentially irate person. I don't care if he is a 3.9 student or not, adults should be handling the situation...not the child.

I disagree. There's nothing inappropriate about making the initial call itself. It isn't the parents' job to handhold their teenager, and he didn't do anything wrong by calling and leaving a message with name and number.

Show me where his call was obscene, abusive, etc. and I'd agree with you. But I'm not going to assume that it was.

If I as a parent feel that it is unsafe to take/send my child to school - he is not going, no matter what the school decides. The kid should have been talking to his parents about not going to school if the concern was his safety.

That's all fine and good until a truancy keeps the kid out of his next school-sponsored activity (like the next debate competition). And some schools won't allow you to make up a test if you were truant... should he have to take a failing grade on a test?

I don't think the kid was completely in the right... but I think that women like this are the reason kids learn how to bully so well. She should have ignored the message, called his parents, called her husband at work to have him deal with it, or else made sure that her phone number was unlisted if she was that touchy.

Some people don't understand as well as others the line between work and home. I've had teacher friends talk about how many parents feel free to call them at home quite frequently. A polite, please contact me (or my husband, in this woman's case) at the office would be sufficient to get the point across.

Totally agree. Think of the "helicopter mom" threads that we all read this past fall. If we want kids to handle things themselves, it isn't a "turn 18 and everything changes" scenario. Kids have to learn gradually how to address a situation, and we can't demand that we make them wait on their parents to fight their battles one year and expect them to handle them without going back to mom and dad the next.

I'm with you on this. What did he really think he was going to accomplish exactly?

I also have to say while I'd stop short of calling one phone call at home harassment, I don't think that working for the school system makes you a public official in the sense that you should be regarded as being on call 24-7, even at home. Most school system employees in my district, often even at the administrative level, have a contract day and a contract year. I don't think it's reasonable to expect this guy to take calls at home from the public.

I saw that someone said the kid had been trying to reach him for weeks, but how would that work if it was about a snow day? Are you saying that the kids had general theoretical questions about how the man made his decisions? If that's the case, and he was brushing him off at work and wouldn't return his call or make an appointment to meet with him, then the kid should have gone above his head to his school board rep. or the media about the lack of responsiveness to his concerns.

It still doesn't make it okay to hound the guy at home. If the kid expects to be treated professionally, he should avoid taking it to the personal realm of calling at home.

(Similarly, even if a mom or dad has a legitimate question for me, I don't want to have an impromptu parent conference while I'm buying food at Kroger. I don't think I should have to have an unlisted number or shop for food out of town; I think people should just show a little respect for boundaries.)

All that said, the woman who returned the call should have A) ignored it or B) returned it politely with her husband's work number and the suggestion that he try to reach him there. There was no reason for her lapse of decorum, particularly if this was the first time he called at home.

I think you mean "unexcused" vs. "excused".
I dealt with the whole "unexcused vs. excused" thing when I was in high school and had to be absent for some horse shows. My mother called the school to arrange my absence. She was told that no, I could not be absent (I was an "A" student, btw). My mother wanted to know if she reported that I was sick if I would be considered unexcused. She was told no. So she told them that if I was absent with her permission, I would always be "sick". I never had to miss a speech tournament.
In the case of the kid in VA - again, I'm talking about if the conditions were indeed dangerous (which I understand they were not). If I have to weigh possibly losing my child by sending him out in dangerous weather or risking an absence, it's an easy choice.
And I think the wife went over the edge - but I would like to hear the first call before I decide if she is totally nuts.

I think if it's actually unsafe to go to school, then you accept the consequences for your decision as a parent. Not making up a test pales in comparison to dying in a wreck.

I'm also in a district where you just have to be present for a half day the day of an activity to participate. If it was unsafe to go to school, then it's unsafe to go to debate.

It's nice when schools have protocols that allow for people to be honest and still be able to do what they need to do, and it's a shame when the policies basically compel people to lie.

Sometimes what complicates the whole excused/unexcused thing is that in Georgia the state actually gives a list of things that can be considered "excused" for official attendance reporting. What can be worked around in most cases, though, is that an absence can be recored as officially unexcused but kids can be allowed to make up work.

Back when I was in high school, if my parents or I thought it was unsafe for me to go to school, I didn't go. My teachers knew that I didn't just cut school for fun (that often), so if I missed an assignment, I was able to make it up.

I think that kid was out of line calling the home of a school official. It's not his job to be an answering service for students. If the student REALLY didn't feel like going that day, he should have just stayed at home.

Thats my point of contention Drole...the initial call.

regardless tho...his follow up by posting the message and phone number shows that he couldn't be responsible enough to handle adult biz on his own.

An ADULT would have saved the message and contacted the school board and LET THEM handle it...not pimping youtube...that part was childish.

But yet the ADULT does NOT call the school board, Lake Braddock administration, OR the kids' parents to notify them of the problem and let them handle it.

Ahhhh....so glad I'm not a Fairfaxer anymore...