Mom arrested for "unauthorized entry to a school" after she was buzzed in but didn't sign in.

[unsinkable]

http://www.kmov.com/news/local/Mother-arrested-at-school-for-consoling-son-in-local-classroom-251349481.html

 

She got a call that her son with Asperger's was panicking. She went to the school, was buzzed in and talked to a teacher, then went right to her son.

 

From the article:

 

"She got to her son’s classroom and immediately started to console him. Then the school principal informed her she was violated school policy by not signing in.

“I didn’t sign the book, but I had to check on my son. You can bring me the book, She said oh no, I’ve already called the police. You called what,†said Williams.

Calverton Park Police responded to the call that came out as an “unauthorized entry to a school.†The school was also put on a 12-minute lockdown and a letter was sent home to parents."

[Catwoman]

Seriously??? :glare:

 

That's just ridiculous.

[Mom in High Heels]

I read this earlier and find it absolutely ridiculous.  They knew she was there, and knew exactly where she was, so what's the fuss?  That principal should be suspended or fired for misuse of public funding (police).

[itsheresomewhere]

I read this earlier and find it absolutely ridiculous.  They knew she was there, and knew exactly where she was, so what's the fuss?  That principal should be suspended or fired for misuse of public funding (police).

 

I would hope that the locals make a stink about wasted taxpayer funds.  The BOE should look into the waste.

[Arcadia]

Then the school principal informed her she was violated school policy by not signing in.

 

It does violate school policy for my neighborhood schools and is stated in the student handbook that parents/guardians have to sign. 

It is extreme though to call the police and to initiate a lockdown.  That is a waste of police resources.

 

Read the linked article.  Crazy that the mother was actually handcuffed. :cursing:

[Guest]

You have got to be kidding me.  I can't even find the words....

[unsinkable]

You have got to be kidding me. I can't even find the words....

Maybe something like:

 

-@&/$;&/)@:)(;&:@-!!!!

 

:lol:

[HiddenJewel]

Whatever happened to actually accomplishing the intent of the law? 

[fraidycat]

Ugh!  Ugh!  Uh!

 

That's it.  That's all I've got.  Reduced to grunting over the absolute ridiculousness that we call "life in the real world" these days.  I honestly kind of feel sorry for my children that this is the world they are growing up in - it seems to be getting more insane year by year. :(

[KRG]

Oh good grief!!  Has all common sense been lost?!!?

[SadieMarie]

This how homeschooling will grow and grow. The schools are becoming crazier and crazier. It is like the post someone did about their son being punished for cheating when he was not cheating and everyone knew it. But rules are rules people! Here is a mother who rushed to the aid of her son and everyone knew it, but you know, laws are laws. Let us never forget that! Rules are more important than children. Rules are more important than parents. Rules are more important than their intent. Rules are the only things that matter and it is just going to get worse.

[Unicorn.]

Oh good grief!!  Has all common sense been lost?!!?

 

Yes.

[fraidycat]

Oh good grief!!  Has all common sense been lost?!!?

 

Well...  In order for it to have been lost, it would have to exist in the first place.  I'm pretty sure that it is in someone's signature on this very board that It should not be called common sense, when it is not all that common (or something to that effect).

[zoobie]

I wonder if there's more to the story. Had she been reminded of policy before and this is an ongoing issue? Maybe there's ongoing conflict.

 

If it's a first time thing with a known (and stable) parent, this does seem like a huge overreaction. Schools really are damned if they do, damned of they don't though. If she had been up to something nefarious and they didn't call...

[bettyandbob]

two thoughts

 

1. I've been a teacher in many different types of schools. I've been public school parent, a private school parent and a parent of a child with special needs. In those capacities, I've met a lot of principals. I do not know any male principals I can imagine acting this way, but I do know female principals who I'm sure would do this (follow the letter of a rule to spite a parent). 

 

2. wanna bet there's history between this mom and the principal. Like maybe the principal doesn't like the the mom advocates for her son during IEP meetings. 

 

My guess is this particular school generally has a negative environment. 

 

 

 

 

[Alicia64]

This how homeschooling will grow and grow. The schools are becoming crazier and crazier. It is like the post someone did about their son being punished for cheating when he was not cheating and everyone knew it. But rules are rules people! Here is a mother who rushed to the aid of her son and everyone knew it, but you know, laws are laws. Let us never forget that! Rules are more important than children. Rules are more important than parents. Rules are more important than their intent. Rules are the only things that matter and it is just going to get worse.

 

 

 

This is a case of "we were just following orders." I hope this sort of stuff does increase homeschooling.

[Anne in CA]

Clearly the school must be a real hell hole on a daily basis with such a jerk in charge. Someone who will enforce rules for the sake of rules is the worst sort of leader, if you could call such a person a leader and not a dictator. 

[Alicia64]

Clearly the school must be a real hell hole on a daily basis with such a jerk in charge. Someone who will enforce rules for the sake of rules is the worst sort of leader, if you could call such a person a leader and not a dictator. 

 

Our elementary in Ca had these kind of rules. I don't think this is unusual at all. I think the schools have gotten really weird. Our school district has very strict no tresspassing rules that state that if you're asked to leave . . . you have to leave immediately or you're trespassing. And that includes students. If you don't leave immediately they'll call the police. (And they do.)

 

And the district is very upper crust.

 

Alley

[chiguirre]

This is a case of "we were just following orders." I hope this sort of stuff does increase homeschooling.

 

I think that's what the principal is aiming for. She probably wants to get rid of a challenging student and a squeaky wheel parent. I hope she's disciplined for escalating the situation instead of diffusing it.

[LucyStoner]

That is seriously effed up. I usually am one to say that there are two sides of the story but I have a hard time seeing any situation in which this makes sense and I have a big issue with the police not using better discretion. The police are not the flying monkeys of school principals.

[Annie G]

I'm all for schools having rules to keep kids and staff safe. All for it. But they called HER and a teacher spoke to her by name when she entered the school. She wasn't an unknown intruder. She was called to the school by her son's teacher!

 

I suspect this mom has been a thorn in the side of the principal or some other staff and has a reputation. Maybe she has had to fight for her son to have accommodations for his Aspergers. Or maybe she's mouthy. I don't know. But in this instance, it seems she was called by her son's teacher because he was having a meltdown. To call the police, and have them handcuff and arrest her seem to be a bit over the top. 

 

 

[Mrs Mungo]

I'm sure arresting his mom totally eliminated the anxiety issues of the child with Asperger's. Maybe we should send her a copy of TWTM.

[BarbecueMom]

Interesting. This mother gets arrested, but not the TV news journalist who tried to bypass security two months ago in a nearby metro area school (actually, five of them) to see what would happen as part of his undercover investigation, putting the school in a disruptive lockdown. I'm not sure if the journalist pulled this stunt in this district as well, but I bet the zero-tolerance style response had something to do with that mess.

 

ETA: It wouldn't surprise me that she was arrested because the principal was saying, "Arrest her!" Some of these tiny police departments like Calverton Park... have trouble with these kinds of things.

[Lara in Colo]

I also think that we have to blame ourselves in some respect since these super anal regulations are there and enforced because when "bad things" happen people call their attorney before anyone else.

[catz]

Interesting. This mother gets arrested, but not the TV news journalist who tried to bypass security two months ago in a nearby metro area school (actually, five of them) to see what would happen as part of his undercover investigation, putting the school in a disruptive lockdown. I'm not sure if the journalist pulled this stunt in this district as well, but I bet the zero-tolerance style response had something to do with that mess.

This is what I suspect too. Some sort of back lash for other incidents/complaints about how these types situations are handled. There's always some back story. Not that this makes it any better. Still stupid beyond belief. Especially since the school called her!

[MomtoCandJ]

Grr, dd1's school has the same rule but if you forget to sign in its not that big of a deal, they just ask you to sign before you leave.

[momma2three]

I understand why schools have rules like this.  Even besides school shootings, I'm sure schools have lists of parents who there are restraining orders against, and they have to make sure that the visitor is who they say they are.  There are valid safety concerns about letting people into the school without checking them in at the front office.  In this case, the story is very sympathetic because it's a mom with a SN kid and it all turned out okay, but rules like this do exist for a reason.

[RanchGirl]

I do not know any male principals I can imagine acting this way, but I do know female principals who I'm sure would do this (follow the letter of a rule to spite a parent).

I take umbrage to this remark which I find sexist and irrelevant to the conversation.  I firmly believe that male and female idiots abound in equal proportions in the public school system.  There is nothing inherently female about behaving like an a$$hat.

 

Odds are that at least one of the four police officers involved was male and did nothing to stop this lunacy.

[SadieMarie]

Zero tolerance and this stupidity are not just because of the schools getting crazy. I mean, to be fair, they have to cope with the possibility of someone coming into a school with an automatic weapon to kill as many people as possible. They are being asked to try to prevent the kind of bullying that results in children committing suicide. So I guess what I am trying to say is that the schools are being charged with solving, or protecting children from, societal problems and of course they can't. But their attempts to do so anyway result in these kind of stupid, arbitrary, counterintuitive reactions. And I really think that the result will be more homeschooling.

[bettyandbob]

I take umbrage to this remark which I find sexist and irrelevant to the conversation.  I firmly believe that male and female idiots abound in equal proportions in the public school system.  There is nothing inherently female about behaving like an a$$hat.

 

That's fine. It's just been my experience with male and female principals. I've never dealt with a completely inflexible male principal. I've seen quite a few inflexible female principals. One of whom resulted in me decided to home school my oldest. Another destroyed years of academic and social progress in my son who has Down Syndrome. On the other hand as a teacher, I worked with quite a few male principals before and after "zero tolerance" who looked for ways to help kids around rules and recover from bad choices.  I don't think my experience represents a scientific sample, but I've certainly dealt with enough that it those negative experiences with female principals stick out and make me wonder why none of the men acted in such a controlling manner. Men act badly, but not in the same way.

 

I fully expected people to take offense, but that is my observation in schools. Really I have experiences back to the 80s and student teaching, seeing the way male and female authority figures act in schools way back then that have built this observation.

 

Yes, the main point is this principal is awful. She acted awful in a vindictive manner and that is something I've never seen in a male principal.  

[Haiku]

Rules are more important than children. Rules are more important than parents. Rules are more important than their intent.

But ... but ... but without rules you have no order! Without order you have chaos! You might have people who think for themselves and make their own decisions!! YOU CAN'T HAVE THAT when you are herding the sheeple!!

[Mom2OandE]

My kids went to three different public schools over four years. All of them had strict policies. All of them had buzzers with cameras and two way speakers. If I didn't sign in they knew where I was (often in the special needs room with my son), they didn't ave me arrested. They may remind me on the way out to sign in/out before I left. This parent was called to the school by staff, was let in by staff and the fault lies with the staff. It amazes me that they put a classroom of children through a traumatic situation for selfish gain. I think its highly likely the principal took issue with this parent (likely because she advocated for her son).

[SadieMarie]

But ... but ... but without rules you have no order! Without order you have chaos! You might have people who think for themselves and make their own decisions!! YOU CAN'T HAVE THAT when you are herding the sheeple!!

Lol, hsing has definitely hit a libertarian vein lurking in me among the true blue state liberal ones. I was quite shocked to find it there.

[Mrs Mungo]

Lol, hsing has definitely hit a libertarian vein lurking in me among the true blue state liberal ones. I was quite shocked to find it there.

An old friend messaged me on Facebook the other day. He was telling me that he had quit teaching in the school system after 2 heart attacks and went back to the long haul trucking job he used to do before he went back to school and got his degree. He was pretty convinced that the system was trying to kill him.

[jentancalann]

I read the comments and found this... "First of all that is an out right lie. This mother son is ED Emotional Disturbed and is not Autistic. The teacher did not call frantically. This mother has been an issue every since her children have attended Walnut Grove. She has threaten to stab a mother and has had conflicts with another family which led to the police and the family having a meeting Wednesday. I feel the news needs to investigate before putting anything on the air. Next time check the background of the parent before believing anything they say. She knows school and district policy. All she had to do was stop by the office and sign in. Also her son went outside and played while the police escorted her out of the building. Also the students are on special permission to attend there." - Debie Flask

 

don't know who this person is, but I do feel like there is more to the story.

[LibraryLover]

Wow. These are the times that try my soul, and sending me hoping for 'another side',  but it's difficult. I, grasping, wondering, why the mother met with the principal yesterday. Could that explain anything? Or would it make it all seem worse? Did the principal have it in for the mother, at the expense of a child she is supposed to care for?  Does a principal really think that in this day and age they can get away with such behavior?

I know it is an article from a TV station, but the grammatical and punctuation mistakes are so bad that I am tempted to not trust anything about it.  It also sounds like the entire story was only sourced from the mom.

[In The Great White North]

 

 

Even besides school shootings, I'm sure schools have lists of parents who there are restraining orders against, and they have to make sure that the visitor is who they say they are.

 

"Make sure the visitor is who they say they are"??  None of the schools I've ever had to sign in to required any sort of id.

[PrincessMommy]

I also think that we have to blame ourselves in some respect since these super anal regulations are there and enforced because when "bad things" happen people call their attorney before anyone else.

 

Yes, and then after that they call their legislature to make more laws.

 

Every winter my dh wonders how much longer until they enact a law forcing children to wear helmets to go snow sledding.

[unsinkable]

The thing is, they buzzed her in. If she was a problem parent, she could have either not been buzzed in or met at the door by someone in authority to deal with her.

 

It seems so petty to let her in, then call the police over a paperwork issue.

[Joker]

"Make sure the visitor is who they say they are"??  None of the schools I've ever had to sign in to required any sort of id.

 

At my dds' middle school you can't get past the front office unless you have had a background check. We always have to show ID even though they know us by name. My dh hadn't done the background check and we had no idea (since it is usually always me there during school hours) and he went one day and was denied entrance. He had to submit to the full background check and now he is allowed inside. As far as I know, all the schools in our district are the same.

 

ETA: It's not just showing ID and signing in. You also are given a temporary badge that says you did these things that only one person in the front office can give you. If you don't have it on or it falls off, you will be stopped by someone until they can verify you are supposed to be there (it happened to me once when my badge fell off and I didn't know it). Teachers and support staff are on alert these days and most take it seriously.

 

I don't agree with how this woman was treated, though, if everything out there about is true. It sounds completely ridiculous.

[SKL]

Well, I don't know the whole story, and maybe there is more to it.  But it sure sounds crazy.

 

That said, we've asked for this.  Every time parents make a stink about things not being 110% bogeyman-proof, the schools are going to implement another ridiculous rule.

 

My first thought was that maybe they though they had to call the cops because so much was made of a recent incident where parents lobbied to have a principal fired for NOT calling the cops.  Seems a mom had become ill and asked her grandpa to pick up her KG kid at school.  The kid wore a face mask hat as many boys do in the winter.  The grandpa signed out the boy and drove away with ... the wrong kid (one of similar size and dress).  The mistake was soon discovered by the grandpa and he called the school, who told him to bring the kid back, which he did.  Nobody was harmed.  But the whole community was in an uproar because the police were not called.  The principal agreed that he should have called the cops.  Because that would have helped ... how?  Anyhoo, after hearing that, principals are probably afraid to NOT call the cops about every accidental security breach.  That's what parents demanded, now parents can suck it up.

 

Happy to say that my kids' school does not require all this nonsense.  I've read that before all this security crap, schools were statistically the safest places for kids.  It's parents who have gone crazy.

[catz]

I read the comments and found this... "First of all that is an out right lie. This mother son is ED Emotional Disturbed and is not Autistic. The teacher did not call frantically. This mother has been an issue every since her children have attended Walnut Grove. She has threaten to stab a mother and has had conflicts with another family which led to the police and the family having a meeting Wednesday. I feel the news needs to investigate before putting anything on the air. Next time check the background of the parent before believing anything they say. She knows school and district policy. All she had to do was stop by the office and sign in. Also her son went outside and played while the police escorted her out of the building. Also the students are on special permission to attend there." - Debie Flask

 

don't know who this person is, but I do feel like there is more to the story.

Hmmm ... interesting. Like I said before there are often 2 sides to every story. The school could have well been under threat of lawsuit from another family. My son went to school 2 years. There was a parent of a child in my son's first grade class that seemed smoking crack crazy. He walked in the classroom of the middle of the day twice while I was volunteering, disrupted class, was kind of disturbing in front of kids (very loud, very demonstrative, had personal space and hygiene issues, etc.) I will also say his son was the most high maintenance student in that room of 27. I could see where walking a hard line with certain parents might be necessary.

 

Anyway, stupid waste of resources.

[momma2three]

"Make sure the visitor is who they say they are"??  None of the schools I've ever had to sign in to required any sort of id.

 

You need a license (or some sort of photo ID) to sign into the elementary school that my youngest had speech therapy in.

[kitten18]

The thing is, they buzzed her in. If she was a problem parent, she could have either not been buzzed in or met at the door by someone in authority to deal with her.

 

It seems so petty to let her in, then call the police over a paperwork issue.

Agree.

[alef]

I went to the local high school today, researching future options. It's a big school, I wasn't sure where the main entrance was so I asked someone in the parking lot who looked like a teacher. He said the doors are kept locked except for one that he pointed out, I asked if that was where the main office was and he said no, that's at the other end of the building, I could go around to it if I wanted as there was another unlocked door at that end or I could just walk through the building. I thought it was kind of funny that he kind of made a big deal about the doors being locked but then pointed me to the unlocked door at the far end of the building from the office. I decided to go around to the door by the office and check in before walking through the building...

 

Really I think it is sad that there have to be rules in place to keep people out of schools, but I guess some sad things are just reality. I do think common sense should prevail over letter of the law!

[Catwoman]

I understand why schools have rules like this.  Even besides school shootings, I'm sure schools have lists of parents who there are restraining orders against, and they have to make sure that the visitor is who they say they are.  There are valid safety concerns about letting people into the school without checking them in at the front office.  In this case, the story is very sympathetic because it's a mom with a SN kid and it all turned out okay, but rules like this do exist for a reason.

That's all well and good, but in this particular case, it appears that the teacher contacted the mom and asked her to come to the school, and the mom was buzzed in because they knew her.

 

The mom could be the biggest troublemaker on the planet, but if a teacher called her and asked her to come to the school because her child needed her, that principal was completely out of line to call the police on her.

[Nart]

That's all well and good, but in this particular case, it appears that the teacher contacted the mom and asked her to come to the school, and the mom was buzzed in because they knew her.

 

The mom could be the biggest troublemaker on the planet, but if a teacher called her and asked her to come to the school because her child needed her, that principal was completely out of line to call the police on her.

The mom said they called her to go to school, but the school can't comment if it is true or not. Perhaps the school just called her to let her know her son was having a hard day and wanted to know if he slept well, wasn't feeling well that morning, or to give her an update, or tell her when a meeting was scheduled. We don't know if in fact they really told her to go to the school. If there is no news about the principal being removed or suspended I really think there is much more to this story. Some parents have restraining orders not to be on campus except for pick up and drop off because of previous threats to staff members and/or other children and parents. Schools can never give their side of the story due to privacy laws.

[Catwoman]

The mom said they called her to go to school, but the school can't comment if it is true or not. Perhaps the school just called her to let her know her son was having a hard day and wanted to know if he slept well, wasn't feeling well that morning, or to give her an update, or tell her when a meeting was scheduled. We don't know if in fact they really told her to go to the school. If there is no news about the principal being removed or suspended I really think there is much more to this story. Some parents have restraining orders not to be on campus except for pick up and drop off because of previous threats to staff members and/or other children and parents. Schools can never give their side of the story due to privacy laws.

Had the school not buzzed the mom into the building, I would have had similar concerns, because obviously the whole story would change if she'd somehow managed to sneak inside. As it stands, they let her in, and then called the police on her. Unless she was threatening violence or refused to leave the premises after being asked repeatedly to do so, the principal had no reason to call the police.

 

I don't doubt that there is some kind of history here between the mom and the principal, but let's be honest. Teachers don't arbitrarily pick up the phone and call parents in the middle of the school day just to let them know how little Johnny is doing today. The child must have been either very upset about something or otherwise out of control for the teacher to have called the mom -- and why would she have called the mom unless she was asking her to come to the school to deal with her child?

 

Again, I'm not saying the mom is an angel. I'm just saying that if the school called her and buzzed her into the building, it seems ridiculous that the principal turned right around and called the police to arrest the woman.

[Audrey]

http://www.kmov.com/news/local/Mother-arrested-at-school-for-consoling-son-in-local-classroom-251349481.html

 

She got a call that her son with Asperger's was panicking. She went to the school, was buzzed in and talked to a teacher, then went right to her son.

 

From the article:

 

"She got to her son’s classroom and immediately started to console him. Then the school principal informed her she was violated school policy by not signing in.

“I didn’t sign the book, but I had to check on my son. You can bring me the book, She said oh no, I’ve already called the police. You called what,†said Williams.

Calverton Park Police responded to the call that came out as an “unauthorized entry to a school.†The school was also put on a 12-minute lockdown and a letter was sent home to parents."

:blink: Wow.  There are no words to accurately convey that level of asinine.