Missing.
October 12, 2011
On Wednesdays I pick Gavin up at school at noon for 2 hours of therapy at ChildServe. Usually I’m there between classes, he sees me in the hallway, I wave to the teacher, and we go sign out.
Today I did not see Gavin in the hallway. I saw his buddy Joe. Joe hadn’t seen Gavin. I went into his classroom while the kids were getting settled. No Gavin. I went upstairs to the special ed room thinking maybe that teacher had snagged him. The room was dark, no Gavin. I went back to the classroom, where by now, the kids were all on the rug listening to the teacher. No Gavin.
You should have seen her face when she realized he wasn’t there.
My little Gavin was still out playing on the playground………at this time, about 15 minutes after the rest of his class had gone inside.
I WAS LIVID.
I do not blame Gavin at all. It’s crazy out on the playground at that time of day. There are probably over 100 kids out there from different classrooms. There are whistles being blown all the time for different groups to go in. My son has auditory processing disorder for one thing. He plays alone sometimes. He did not see/hear/process that his class was going inside.
I understand that it can be hard to keep track of all 25+ of your 1st graders all the time. BUT DON’T YOU THINK THAT AS A TEACHER YOU WOULD ESPECIALLY KEEP TRACK OF YOUR KIDS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS FIRST????? DON’T YOU AT LEAST DO A HEAD COUNT WHEN YOU COME IN FROM ALL THAT CHAOS??? (Imagine me screaming here because that’s exactly what I wanted to do).
Good thing we have a parent/teacher conference already scheduled for tomorrow. Insert me screaming some more.
LIVID I TELL YOU.
Now it’s got me wondering if this has happened before……..it’s not like anyone would ever tell me.
This makes me absolutely sick to my stomach. They NEED to be yelled at, Emily!
oh my word, em. had he realized they had gone in? poor buddy.
sure makes the picture day debacle seem insignificant…
(though i’m really looking forward to THAT conference, too.)
oh em, this is so unbelievably hurtful/insulting/sad/(insert word of choice). toward ANY child or parent. i never ever ever did head counts (except at the beginning of the year when i didn’t know all my kiddos very well just yet)…all it took was a look around the room and BY THIS TIME IN THE YEAR FOR SURE i knew if someone was m.i.a. and yes, i always paid more attention to whether or not my students with special needs were accounted for, because…well, i don’t think i need to explain why. it’s such a big fat freakin’ DUH. but for the sake of that teacher, in case she’s reading, let’s do a little run down of just a FEW of the reasons she should be extra watchful for her more delicate kiddos to be accounted for: a) because teachers are solely responsible for knowing where their kids- regardless of abilities- are at all times during the school day. b)because teachers are solely responsible for knowing where their kids- regardless of abilities- are at all times during the school day. and c)because teachers are solely responsible for knowing where their kids- regardless of abilities- are at all times during the school day. hmmmm, that was pretty easy to sum up.
let me know what i can do. i’d gladly go with you to a conference acting as a consultant (yes, i’m allowed to do that for anyone) and give suggestions for avoiding this situation ever again. if nothing else, it’ll embarrass them into proving they can handle a school day without losing your child.
i’m really sorry for your stress. it’d break my heart and piss me off all at once too.
That’s just awful! That’s like every worst fear I have about school coming true. How can they lose a kid???