Okay, I'm not sure where this post should go since it concerns school, but it's not really an IEP issue.
On Monday afternoon/evening as I was on my way home from work my cell phone rang. It was my dad wondering if I knew where my son was. I assumed he was at the house (remember right now we're living with my entire family due to losing everything in a fire 6 weeks ago), but dad said no he never got home from school. He'd checked the teen rec center and didn't know where else to look. I got back to the house a few minutes later and called difficult child's teacher at home to see if he'd said anything about going anywhere after school. She said he hadn't said anything and that she hadn't seen him since about 2 when one of the counselors took him out of the classroom, due to his causing a scene and disturbing the other students. The counselor was taking him to the cubicle (difficult child uses it as a quiet place to sleep, but it's really an in school suspension room in the office). His teacher assumed that he had been let out of the room at the end of the day and gone home. I called another kid who rides his bus and was informed that he hadn't gotten on the bus after school. Okay so it's 34 degrees out and he only had on a sweatshirt and a jean jacket so he couldn't have walked far. So I proceed to check with the only kids within walking distance from the school where difficult child would have walked to without whining about it and calling me at work (my work number is the only number he can seem to remember and the school refuses to allow him to carry his cell phone with him no matter what the reason is). He wasn't anywhere. I called back to my work to ask if he'd called there and to tell them that if he did to find out where he was and call me immediately. Well, I then called his teacher back to see what she had found out when she called around to see what anyone else had heard. She then decided to go back to the school to look around, because she was sure they had let him out but it's not like difficult child to not go home after school. In the mean time I was getting more and more panicky, driving around stopping at stores asking if anyone had seen him, and in general refusing to call the police because since he's a teen they would immediately decide he'd run away and not do anything about it. By now it's almost 5:30. Finally the teacher called me back. She'd found him. Wandering around inside the school (locked in). The counselor had apparently forgotten about difficult child being in the cubicle and gone home when school got out and everyone else had gone home too. His teacher was furious and had tried calling the principal at home. She said she'd have her (principal) call me on Tuesday.
Okay, so now it's Wednesday night and I still haven't heard from anyone (other than difficult child) what happened. On Tuesday the principal and school liason officer had a meeting with difficult child to discuss what had happened and told him they'd reviewed the vidoe tapes and that from then on it was the principals responsibility to check the cubicles (there are 6 of them) at the end of each school day. It's all fine and dandy that they talked to difficult child about it, but I am his mother and they still haven't contacted me to let me know they have come up with a way to prevent anything like this from ever happening again. They all and I do mean all know difficult child falls asleep at the drop of a hat and waking him takes an act of god so expecting the bell ringing at the end of the day to wake him up isn't exactly a plan. I'm not sure exactly what to do now. I'm still ****** off that they would allow it to happen in the first place and getting angrier by the minute that none of them have had the guts to call me and say hey we messed up and this is how we're going to keep it from ever happening again to anyone. Sure nothing bad happened, but you can about imagine what was running through the back of my mind as I was driving around looking for my kid.
On Monday afternoon/evening as I was on my way home from work my cell phone rang. It was my dad wondering if I knew where my son was. I assumed he was at the house (remember right now we're living with my entire family due to losing everything in a fire 6 weeks ago), but dad said no he never got home from school. He'd checked the teen rec center and didn't know where else to look. I got back to the house a few minutes later and called difficult child's teacher at home to see if he'd said anything about going anywhere after school. She said he hadn't said anything and that she hadn't seen him since about 2 when one of the counselors took him out of the classroom, due to his causing a scene and disturbing the other students. The counselor was taking him to the cubicle (difficult child uses it as a quiet place to sleep, but it's really an in school suspension room in the office). His teacher assumed that he had been let out of the room at the end of the day and gone home. I called another kid who rides his bus and was informed that he hadn't gotten on the bus after school. Okay so it's 34 degrees out and he only had on a sweatshirt and a jean jacket so he couldn't have walked far. So I proceed to check with the only kids within walking distance from the school where difficult child would have walked to without whining about it and calling me at work (my work number is the only number he can seem to remember and the school refuses to allow him to carry his cell phone with him no matter what the reason is). He wasn't anywhere. I called back to my work to ask if he'd called there and to tell them that if he did to find out where he was and call me immediately. Well, I then called his teacher back to see what she had found out when she called around to see what anyone else had heard. She then decided to go back to the school to look around, because she was sure they had let him out but it's not like difficult child to not go home after school. In the mean time I was getting more and more panicky, driving around stopping at stores asking if anyone had seen him, and in general refusing to call the police because since he's a teen they would immediately decide he'd run away and not do anything about it. By now it's almost 5:30. Finally the teacher called me back. She'd found him. Wandering around inside the school (locked in). The counselor had apparently forgotten about difficult child being in the cubicle and gone home when school got out and everyone else had gone home too. His teacher was furious and had tried calling the principal at home. She said she'd have her (principal) call me on Tuesday.
Okay, so now it's Wednesday night and I still haven't heard from anyone (other than difficult child) what happened. On Tuesday the principal and school liason officer had a meeting with difficult child to discuss what had happened and told him they'd reviewed the vidoe tapes and that from then on it was the principals responsibility to check the cubicles (there are 6 of them) at the end of each school day. It's all fine and dandy that they talked to difficult child about it, but I am his mother and they still haven't contacted me to let me know they have come up with a way to prevent anything like this from ever happening again. They all and I do mean all know difficult child falls asleep at the drop of a hat and waking him takes an act of god so expecting the bell ringing at the end of the day to wake him up isn't exactly a plan. I'm not sure exactly what to do now. I'm still ****** off that they would allow it to happen in the first place and getting angrier by the minute that none of them have had the guts to call me and say hey we messed up and this is how we're going to keep it from ever happening again to anyone. Sure nothing bad happened, but you can about imagine what was running through the back of my mind as I was driving around looking for my kid.
