Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Now I'm just plain mad!

For those of you who think you might now who I really am, you'll know for sure when I'm done with this post. Maybe I'm making a mistake by doing this, but TPS making a huge mistake and putting my childs well being in jeopardy on a daily basis and I'm simply sick of the BS!

First, a little information from the past. Last school year, we had a problem with 2 boys on my eldest childs bus. The two of them would take turns with one of them restraining a child while the other one would go through the persons pockets, backpack and other property in search of money or anything of value. When we complained to the school about this we found out that this wasn't the first time one of these boys' names had come up for problems on the bus. We were assured by the school principal that it would be taken care of ASAP, which they did. BUT, their way of taking care of the problem was to call the two boys in question into the office along with my own child and tell the two boys was my child was accusing him of. They obviously denied doing anything and that afternoon on the bus came up to my child and say "Tell on us again and we'll take care of you". The end result was us pulling our child off the bus and providing school tansportation ourselves for a while. Everything eventually died down, until the yesterday.

When my child got home from school I was informed that one of the kids we had problems with last year had punched my child 4 times that afternoon on the bus ride home from school. I immediately called my husband and he went straight to the school. He was informed that until the bus driver wrote a referral there really was nothing they could do, which to me is totally unacceptable, but we had to leave it at that and see what would happen. I did, however, contact the Lucas County Sheriff's Department, but was informed by the deputy that came to my home that it is out of their jurisdiction, that it would have to be dealt with by TPS and the Toledo Police because it happened on a yellow school bus.

My husband took our child to school this morning and tried to talk to the principal again and was informed that the principal wasn't available. He left a message for her to call him ASAP, but she never did, NO surprise there! This afternoon our child rode the shcool bus home and was once again assaulted by this child. I immediately called the school and spoke with the principal and was told that they were trying to give the bus driver the chance to put the referral in themselves, but obviously that wasn't going to happen, so she said she would call the boys in tomorrow to talk to them and find out what was going on. I then pleaded with her to talk to this child without my child being present simply because of the fact that it would do the same thing it did last year and cause more problems for my child, to which I was told that was not an option, my child needed to be present for the confrontation. I then asked if my husband or I could be present and was told that also wasn't an option.

So what is an option? For my child to CONTINUE to be assaulted because these assholes REFUSE to take care of the situation? I DON'T THINK SO! My option is to do what I have already done, contact my attorney!

What happened to the safe school act? Why is it a child can continue to assault my child and nothing is done about it? Does my child have to be hurt enough to require a doctors or hospital visit in order for something to be done to stop this?

So, if there is anyone on staff at TPS that reads this, know you know WHY people pull their kids out of your school district! You sit back and do nothing over something this significant, lord only knows what is done over simple things. TPS SUCKS! It always has and it ALWAYS WILL. Until you get idiots like my childs principal out of the schools and get people in there that truly care about the school district and it's children, this is the type of crap that will contiune to happen over and over. Parents pull their children out of TPS because TPS makes it obvious that they don't care, if they did situations like this would be dealt with immediately. OH, but if it were the principals child that this were happening to, I can guarantee you that not only would it have already been dealt with, but that this child would no longer be on the bus, let alone in school.

Now you know who I am, if you thought you did and thought it was me! I'm sorry that I didn't "come out" sooner than this, my hope was that this year would be different, but it's not. I've already pulled one of my children out of TPS, I'd pull this one also, but they want to stay in. So when you talk to your attorney after they've talked to mine, be sure to show them this blog and tell them that you've pushed this parent over the edge!

3 comments:

Hooda Thunkit (Dave Zawodny) said...

Jo,
Sorry to hear of your child's problems.

IMO, it will take a multi-million dollar lawsuit before anyone at TPS will take your concerns seriously, and then only until the suit gets settled, then it's back to business as usual. . .

Unless it happens to their children, they just don't seem to give a s**t.

Jo said...

Kate,
I've already told you, but I am sorry I missed the board meeting, it might have been a great place for us to really bring this situation out to the public and the media. I'll talk to our attorney and see if they think it's something that would be ok to do at another meeting.
My own personal experiences with TARTA busses are a joke! How TPS allows these busses to bring children to school AND allow any joe blow to ride them at the same time simply blows my mind. Yes, TARTA is public transportation, but to my knowledge TPS pays them for transporting school children, so wouldn't that be double dipping? If TARTA is being used for school children no one else should be allowed to ride for safety reasons. But, once again, another instance where our childrens safety means SQUAT to TPS or TARTA! I had a few times where things happened to my children when they rode them to school with other school children and got the same run around, TPS told me to call TARTA and TARTA said to contact TPS. Then I was told I had to have the bus number, route number and drivers name, I was like "WTF"? My child didn't tell me until we were walking from the bus, and by that time the bus was long gone, how can they not know what bus/driver picked the kids up from school? Oh well, thankfully our TARTA days ended and we went back to yellow bus when we moved here, but well all know now how that ended too.

I'm glad all turned out well with your son, that could have been a horrible situation and I'm sorry that you had to go through it!

hooda,
my point EXACTLY and I said that in a letter. If this had happened to one of their children I can GUARANTEE you it would have been dealt with immediately and the most harshest of punishments would have been handed out without hesitation. Just another reason why I'm thrilled to not have to deal with TPS anymore!

Anonymous said...

I had a situation on the bus Tarta - a highschool girl took a lighter and made remarks about burning my daughter's hair, and this was when it was long. I had called the school , the bus station and the police and was not given a reply to my questioning of the issue of her safety. We ended up arranging parent carpool rides back and forth.