It’s only November into the 2012-2013 school year and we’ve already had several school run-ins, which are causing me to feel a little psychotic and not having confidence in our school system.

1. First week: Oldest daughter was not on the bus list. New bus driver states his bus was almost full and if she didn’t get on the list, he may not be able to take her. Ugh. She’s been riding the bus for the longest time and she wasn’t on the list. Goodness. Several phone calls later to get to the appropriate person and she’s finally on the list.

The next incidents all have occurred within a two week period.

2. My second grade son gets a note that he is ride a bus number he doesn’t recognize home. He starts crying and is upset because he doesn’t know why. Come to find out they had mistaken him with a another child whose name was CARVER not CARTER. Same first name but obvious mix-up when they aren’t even in the same classroom. Thank goodness he questioned it or else who knows where he would have ended up.

3. I pay our lunch money online and in bulk for all four kids at the same time. Side note, we have been packing lunches more often this year and this incident reinforces that principle. Oldest daughter’s account wasn’t reflecting the lunch money I added. After a week, I finally called and of course, had to call several people to get to the right person. Her lunch money had been applied to someone else’s account. Nice. She hadn’t eaten lunch for a week because she wasn’t able to get a la carte items due to a school policy of no extras when lunch money is in the negative. She’s a vegetarian so it’s not always possible to eat a tray lunch due to the Healthy School Initiative program which would require meat (protein) to go on her tray whether she is going to eat it or not.

This is the one that made me lose it. Completely. It’s the end of the line for me. I’m sure I’m on some people’s shit list after this one but they are also on mine.

So here’s the story. Eli & Sofia were suppose to ride the bus home today. A little after 12pm, I took treats into their classroom told Eli’s student teacher, Sofia’s Teacher, Sofia, and hand delivered two notes to school secretary and said the kids are suppose to ride the bus home. Apparently Eli’s **student** teacher told him he was suppose to be a car rider. THE NOTE IN HER HAND SAID BUS RIDER. Clearly, it was my fault because I didn’t send the note into the school in the early morning.

4. My two elementary students were suppose to ride the bus. I was in the school around 12:30 p.m. to deliver Fall Party cookies and treat bags I had made. I was working from home and due to Halloween being that night I decided I would let the kids ride the bus home so they could get ready for trick or treating at home without me having to make another special trip into town to pick them up from their after school club.

I visit my son’s classroom first and tell the student teacher, who is apparently THE teacher right now, that he would be riding the bus home. She told me to write a note and take it to the office. I say okay. I didn’t see my son because he was in another classroom at the time so he was unaware of the changes that I was making.

Next I visited my first grade daughter’s classroom. I tell her teacher and her while indicating I will be following the official channels of writing a note and giving to the office. BTW, I love seeing all her little friends wave at me when I’m in the school. They get all excited to see a parent still at this age.

I write two notes in the office that state “X is to ride the bus home today 10/31.” I indicate full name of students and their teacher’s names. Signed, my name.

I hand deliver the notes to the school secretary while stating that X & Y will be riding the bus home today and here are the notes. Clearly, I don’t expect people to remember verbal reminders as I space out occasionally too. So my part is done, I think I’m in the clear and the kids will get where they need to go because I have a paper trail, talked to three adult figures, and my daughter.

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

At 3:15 p.m. I get these series of text messages from my high schooler who was on the bus. Mind you, elementary school gets out at 3 p.m.

I have a panicked older sister who thinks it’s possible some creeper is picking her up from school. I’m thinking, WTH, my husband and I are the only ones really authorized to make changes like that. I knew my mother in law wouldn’t pick them up without asking and my mom definitely wouldn’t. Either one of them would have sent me a message beforehand to get permission.

I call the elementary school and no answer. It’s 3;17 p.m. at this point. I decide to call the school corporation as I know all the ladies in that office. I happened to get my sister in law on the phone.

She finds out they pulled Sofia off the bus because Eli was told he was a car rider. At this point, I don’t know who effed this up but I’m ticked. For one thing, my kids weren’t where they were suppose to be and this is NOT good for safety. Second thing, I now have to stop working at home and drive twenty minutes round trip into town to get them. Third, I have a freaked out older sister thinking some creeper was kidnapping her adorable sister. (She doesn’t always think she is adorable but she did show she actually cares about it.) Lastly, I had a confused 6 and 8 year old sitting in the hallway waiting for someone to pick them up – very confused on what they were suppose to do.

Wasted time and wasted gas. My husband did offer to pick them up but I was so ticked I wanted to let the school know that this was unacceptable.

I was one of those looney parents. The school secretary did try to apologize over and over but there was still a tone that if I hadn’t made the change at 12:30 instead of earlier in the morning, then it wouldn’t have happened. Um, note item 2 above where they almost sent my kid home on a bus he didn’t know about because of a name change. At this point I have no confidence. While I was ranting, the intermediate principal hung back just as a witness I’m sure to my ranting. I didn’t use any profanity but I let them know how upset I was. 

It’s also not like I just called into the school 5 minutes before dismissal.  I had personal conversations with three adults, one child, hand wrote and hand delivered a note indicating the same.

Lucky for the school, I was available to pick them up.

The fault lies in multiple areas.

1. I should have sent a note in the morning with the kids. (Though, I don’t think this was a trigger point. But in the future I will send a note in the morning and write in sharpie marker on their hands what the arrangement is.)

2. The student teacher told my son he was a car rider while the note was right in front of her face. BUS RIDER and CAR Rider shall not be confused. This was the root of the problem which trickled down…

3. School secretary calls Sofia off the bus because Eli was upset that his sister wasn’t a car rider too. No one verified which one was in the proper place. At this point, someone should have verified with someone.

4. Bus driver has the note I had written that indicated she was to ride the bus home. He didn’t mention that when the school secretary pulled her off the bus. Also, in the future, our older daughter will be getting off the bus anytime a younger sibling is pulled off the bus as we don’t want two little kids roaming around with no supervision and confusion on where they are to go. She has a phone and so she can let us know.

My son said no one cared while they were sitting there waiting for me to pick them up and they were both crying and confused. The good thing is at least they were together. If they had been separated and my older daughter had not been at home, it would have been even more difficult to pick one up and make sure the other got into the house safely.

I did send an apologize to the secretary for her getting the brunt of my aggravation as it wasn’t just her fault. It was a failure on multiple levels stemming from a unprepared and apparently confused student teacher.  Apparently she had four changes that day and that was just too much to handle.