This school told every parent their child was absent
I was standing in our school office the other day and listened to the secretary apologize profusely to a parent -- she had called asking where her child was because he had been marked absent. The parent had freaked out, because the boy had gotten on the bus that morning. The secretary had to then quickly call the teacher and learned that his bus had arrived late and the teacher didn't update the paperwork when he finally arrived.
Imagine how fast that mom's heart was beating -- and then multiple that by a few hundred and you'll get the heart attack that happened at this school. Their new automated system goofed and called every parent to say their child was absent. I'm not sure if I feel more sorry for the parents or the school's secretaries who had to answer all the panicked calls -- and a few parents who showed up in person!
I would have been irate!
I do feel bad for the secretary having to confront all those panicked people, but I probably would have been one of them. We take for granted that the bus is going to get them where they're going, how many of us call the school to make sure our child got to school on the bus? not many. That's scary to think a phone call from a computer could put me in a tizzy and then be wrong.
I'm sure the automated systems make life easier for the administrators, but there has to be some accountability and supervision of the computer that is designed and run by actual people.
My daughter was home sick two days in a row recently and I called and talked to a person both days before class started to let them know the situation. I assumed they'd let the teacher know and she would be marked absent and excused or at least put it in their computer. Nope, I got an automated call a few minutes later warning me that my child was absent and unexcused and what the consequences were and an email later in the day from the teacher wanting to see where my daughter was.
Sounds like humans and computers are not communicating!
Michelle Galvez, Community Editor