'no rescue' policy - is this FAIR?

the only reason I haven't gone to the school to complain is that I am not the parent. Trust me, if MY daughter's school did something this ridiculous, not only would I have already spoken to the principal but I'd have been to the district to file a complaint as well. It's not like forgotten lunch is a habitual problem either, this is the only time this has ever happened when I've been taking care of the kids (I've known the kids since the first grader was an infant) and the attitude the school had with me was deplorable. I don't care what other situation 'led' to this policy, I wasn't around when that situation occurred, I wasn't trying to remove some stranger's kid from the school or smuggle something on campus in a lunch bag and I am willing to give them every form of ID I have if it makes them feel better. Not that anything like that happened but I keep hearing about 'something that occurred' which led to these sorts of policies and it just bugs me that they have to treat everyone like criminals and basically punish the children as a result because someone ELSE acted like an idiot!

It was just weird how they were all 'we can give him the lunch if he just comes here to get it, but if he doesn't, we can't ask his teacher to send him here to get it'. Well why not? How complicated is it and how much time does it actually take away to call the classroom and ask them to send ONE child to the office to get a lunch? I even asked them if they could have one of the proctors in the cafeteria send him to the office to get his lunch at lunch time and they said no! It just makes NO sense to me, and things have to make sense. I do not follow any rule that doesn't make sense, I don't care who made it, what the reason is, or why they think I should follow it. If I am forced to follow it anyway, I make sure that people know I disagree with it and I'm not happy.

I hear ya there dear, I hate it when things don't make sense. I am kind of surprised you just didn't go anyway.

I hope this doesn't happen again, if the school ever calls ME because they can't get ahold of my friend to tell me the kids don't have a lunch or lunch money, I will be really mad. I'll probably tell them - well, when I tried to bring a lunch, you wouldn't let me.

I don't know why they have to be so mean, it's not like he was in 5th grade and should know better, it was an accident, he put the lunch down when he was tying his shoes . The jacket thing bugs me too because the oldest one has told me they don't let anybody bring jackets either and the kids are forced to go outside for recess. At my daughter's school, if it's really cold and windy or raining, they do their physical education INSIDE and they also hold recess INSIDE. When there were problems with fires last year and there was a lot of smoke and air pollution, they also had the kids inside. That's one of the reasons I got upset when I was arguing with the office. They were telling me 'well if he knows to come to the office to get his lunch, then we can give it to him. If he doesn't know to come to the office, we can't tell his teacher'. What the hell? I mean he's in FIRST GRADE. That's like someone saying 'I'm mad at you but I won't tell you why'

I think that ever they wouldn't let a child of mine go without a jacket or food I would talk to the principal, district and governor if I had to. Luckily where I live they don't have such rules. I really feel badly for the kids at this school.

I agree!! I can see how a school would have the right to nip rescues if you are bringing something forgotten EVERY DAY. Picking up kids is kind of a hassle at most schools, there is just not a good way to do it. Unless you come rather early, it's impossible to get into the lot, and unless you have parking across the street and access into the parking lot from there walking, it's not more convenient to park and walk up.

If they do it to me again, I think I will file a complaint. This isn't the first problem I've had with this school. I have mentioned some of this stuff to friends and none of my friends can believe it either. Apparently, WE all have decent schools. THIS particular school is way off the deep end. Sometimes I wonder why nobody else says anything, I have no problem saying something, I think it is rude and unacceptable, and I also don't care whether they like me or not. They don't have to like me, but they do have to comply if they get investigated lol.

I asked him if he got anything from the cafeteria and I think he said they gave him a sandwich, but when I picked up the kids after school, his brother heated up a bag of hot wings and he ate about 6 of them.... and some yogurt... and some of my daughter's Takis. He's not a big eater usually at once, he's more of a grazer, so to me he ate more than normal - making me think probably all they gave him was ONE sandwich. I'm still irritated about this and it's been several days!

Like I said, I was upset because he's a first grader . I felt rotten even finding out he couldn't find his lunch when I was dropping him off. His backpack was open so he was zipping it up but he happened to notice it looked kind of empty so then he said his lunch was missing and he started looking around the back seat of the car in case it fell out. I even asked his brother if he accidentally had TWO lunches but he didn't. It wouldn't have bugged me if I knew the kids had lunch money on their accounts.... but I was pretty sure they didn't. Since I'm not their mom, I can't just add lunch money, and I didn't have any cash on me lol.

MY school is NOT horrible, and I like public school. I dislike the snobbiness and elitist attitudes of private schools, or the chances of your kids being indoctrinated by something you don't believe in. This school I ranted about isn't even in my home district, and many other people (who also won't send their kids there) have the same complaints I do. If I were to find a private school that did not have an elitist attitude, that didn't teach religion, that did not require uniforms, or cost 4K a year, then perhaps we could discuss it. I like the idea of online school, but not homeschool. If the school won't let me be a sub without taking all those years of schooling, then it makes little sense that it would allow completely uneducated parents to homeschool, know what I mean? Double standard!

Actually, there are many uneducated parents who can home school their children quite well. Now of course it depends on the meaning of uneducated. If you can't even read and write, or do basic math, well then you have a point. That parent can't likely teach much, if they can't even read what they need to teach. But short of that, you don't need a college education to teach the ABCs, reading and writing, and basic arithmetic. You need to have a college education to teach a college education. But you don't do that in home school. And the idea that someone can't home school is fruity given that before public schools everyone was home schooled the basics. For example, my sister is a stay at home mother without a college degree in anything, and she taught her son how to read before he even started school. In 1st grade, he was reading 4th grade level books. As for the elitist attitude, I went to public schools, and they were extremely elitist there. If you didn't drive a new porche, or BMW, let alone not have a car, you were considered lower than scum. Subject to endless ridicule. It was just a public school. And ironically, I had several teachers that didn't teach much. They would either read the book to you verbatim, or some teachers played a video while they sat at their desks. If that's all a masters degree in education does, is allow you to hit the button on the DVD player, and grade tests.... somehow I think a parents without a degree in education could do just as well. I also have some experience with elite private schools, and although I wouldn't be able to tell if they were snobbish, I can say that they were teaching far ahead of where public school students were. I was amazed to find that 6th graders where learning the exact same material that I was in 11th grade, in the public school. And I do mean exactly the same material. I happen to look over these sixth grader's math and science books, it was exactly the same that I was being taught that year in the public schools. So I have a very high respect for private schools. Not only because of the high quality of the education, but also the high quality of the schools themselves. The buildings were immaculate, clean, maintained, and nothing pointless or trivial. They didn't spend $100,000 on a sports program, and then claim they can't fund tutors for students if the levy doesn't pass (something that actually happened in my public school). Now, I do agree with you, no doubt at all, there are snobby elitist schools. However, I think there are snobs everywhere. Snobby has more to do with the father and mother influencing their child, than what school they go to. I would also say, that if by chance, you happen to have a truly smart child, not the parent syndrome of "my kid is brilliant because he's my kid!", but if you have an amazing kid... I would honestly consider the idea of a private school... or doing some advanced home schooling, and possibly even a private tutor. Public schools will generally hold back a brilliant child.

It just punishes kids who are really too young to be expected to have that level of responsibility. It's not fair and I still can't believe I was standing there being lectured by and arguing with ADULTS who should know better!

You know... they were really weird about that, telling me 'you know that you are not allowed to wander around campus'. Ok, YES, I am aware! I have to sign in at my daughter's school as well and get a sticker that says visitor or volunteer and if you volunteer, you have to let them know where you are heading so they know where on campus you will be in the event a fire, disaster, or other catastrophe happens. I wasn't even ASKING them if I could DELIVER the lunch, I just wanted to leave it in the office and GO, I didn't even want to stand there while they went to get him, I did trust they would actually give it to him - except they said they would not call him to come get it unless he already knew to come get it. Pffft. Even when my daughter was in first grade, it's not like she would just KNOW without being told or reminded that she should just suddenly ask her teacher if she could go to the office to see if her mom dropped of her lunch. I think that is expecting way too much of a first grader, in my humble opinion. I'm an adult and if someone stopped by my work to drop off something, I wouldn't KNOW unless someone called me and said 'hey, your friend so and so dropped off something for you'. They seemed like they had all the time in the world to argue with me and repeat their policies but it was WAY TOO MUCH TROUBLE to interrupt the class to call the teacher and ask her to send him to the office to pick up his lunch. Talk about seriously messed up priorities here.