The school system threatened to take away my child because I wanted him to be in school. The <Name removed> of Hall County Schools told me that if I didn't come and get him she would call Family and Children Services on me. When I asked her not to threaten me she told me it was "just policy" and she wasn't personally threatening me. I got upset and said a bad word so she said I was being abusive on the phone and when I reminded her that she had threatened to have my child taken away she denied she ever said she would call Family and Children Services. This was on August 19, 2021 about ten o'clock, about 20 minutes ago as I am writing this. I did get upset and say that I thought if they wouldn't let my boy go to school and they didn't want to teach them that I thought they all should lose their jobs. So I wasn't a real nice guy, and I am sorry about that. But my children are already behind on their education. They have missed too much school in the last eighteen months and I won't let fear of a bureaucracy and how impossible it seems to hold them to account for failing to teach my child stop me from making every effort in my power to get my little boy an education. So here is the story from the beginning.
Kingsley is my nephew. He turned 6 in May and started first grade almost 2 weeks ago. My wife has had legal custody of him and his big sister since he was 2 and she was 4 and I am the only father figure they have ever had. We also have two little girls who are biologically ours. Kingsley is a great little boy, and he is very much a little boy. He cries a lot and plays tricks on his sisters. He is trying to play football this year so far he isn't that good at it and is mad for days when somebody knocks him down on the field. He is really good at karate though, and was so proud when he got his orange belt. He isn't great at school though. Part of it is cause he is really shy and hates direct questions. And part of it is because he would rather trade punches and Pokemon cards at school than pay attention.
So, I guess by now everybody suspects that this is a COVID story. It is. But I hope you won't let whatever you think about any of the politics of this make you forget that this is really a little boy's story and to a lesser extent a family's story, and if you see in it a microcosm of the story of the American people being crushed by an impersonal bureaucracy that they are struggling to find a way to hold accountable, please remember that the main thing is a little boy who needs teachers to teach him how to read and do math and science. We would rather leave the unaccountable bureaucracy alone. We will happily make peace with them any time that they stop interfering in my children's education. But not before.
Tuesday morning, August 17, Cheyenne, my wife, got a call from White Sulphur Elementary School. The school said that Kingsley had been exposed to someone who was COVID positive, that his last exposure was Friday, and that he was going to have to be picked up and quarantined. We had a lot of questions about what the exposure was, how close, and if they had been sick, but they didn't answer, probably because of legitimate privacy concerns which is cool. But I can't give you any details cause I don't have them. So Cheyenne gives up her first morning alone, with no kids at all, that she had been looking forward to for a month, to go and pick him up. She was upset. And while we are calling everyone heroes for how they have responded to the pandemic, how about the mothers, who have given up their plans and their time on a moment's notice time and again throughout this whole mess to answer the call of someone else's "abundance of caution", someone who can afford to be cautious, without thinking about whether the caution is reasonable, because they aren't the ones who pay the price for their abundance of caution, Cheyenne is. All the parents are.
Kingsley cried when he found out he had to get another COVID test up his nose. He hates them. But like I said before he cries at the drop of a hat. Some things he is pretty tough about and some things he is a total baby. But Wednesday morning he took his test and we got an email from his doctor before lunch that he was negative. So, Cheyenne immediately called the school to let them know and to get him cleared to go back. Which is where the problems started. They said that even with a negative test he couldn't come back to school, because they were following CDC recommendations and that was policy. But really they aren't. They are picking and choosing. The CDC recommends masks for all schoolchildren. I can't show video of other people's children but I watched them today and I promise none of the children are masked. The CDC recommends 3 ft of social distancing in Elementary schools. I watched kids walking with their teacher just like kids walk, laughing, touching one another, playing, teacher standing right there. No social distancing. Which is fine with me. I don't have a problem with that. But they can't blame this on the CDC if they pick which rules to follow and which ones to ignore. The Georgia Department of Public Health has confirmed for me that it is the Hall County School District that is making these decisions. And the The Hall County School System is responsible for keeping my kid out of school and no one else.
<Name removed 1> emailed us from the Hall County School District Central Office and said that Kingsley couldn't come back to school until Monday, 8 days from his last exposure. So I called her and told her how important it was to us to have him back in school and how much he had missed last year because of COVID, and she was very nice and helpful and understanding. And she agreed that he could return to school today August 19 if he had a signed note from his doctor to that effect. I found out later that that was not the case. I don't know if she thought I couldn't get the note or if she just wanted to stop talking to me but Longstreet Pediatrics Triage Department was very helpful to provide proof of Kingsley's negative test and told me that he could return to school the next day and they sent the school a note to that effect. And I hoped that it was over, that my little man could go back to school, but my gut and my wife told me that this wasn't over.
Kingsley got on the bus this morning, and thankfully I had the day off work. Chey and I were taking the girls to preschool when Kingsley's <Name removed 2>, called. She told me that Kingsley was not supposed to be back at school, and that they had him in Isolation. I explained that it was a misunderstanding and she told me that to clear it up she needed to hear from <Name removed 3>. So I promised she would hear from her soon, and I called and left her a voicemail, I think she wasn't in her office yet, this was about 9 AM. <Name removed 3> called me back 30 minutes later. She told me that Kingsley could not come back, that the school district was following CDC guidelines and that nobody could change that, nobody could do anything about it and I had to come get him right away. She told me that his doctor didn't have any say in it. She told me that I didn't have any say in it. This was guidance from the Ivory Tower of the CDC and that if I didn't come get him that she "didn't know what they would have to do about me". I told her that all I cared about was getting my boy back in school and that her threats didn't mean anything to me. It sounded like a veiled threat. I thought that this morning and I still think so now. As we finished our pancakes and talked it over, Cheyenne pointed out that they weren't following CDC guidelines. That the children didn't have to wear masks, they didn't social distance. So the defense of an all powerful, unassailable bureaucracy was a lie. Someone at the Hall County School District was calling the shots.
We were on our way home, just after 11 o'clock when <Name removed 4>, called. And she said the same thing that <Name removed 3> had, but she was more specific in her threats. She told me point blank that if I didn't come get Kingsley from the school that she would call the Department of Family and Children's services. She says that isn't a threat but how would you take it? No offense meant to DFCS, I know for a fact that they protect children that are being neglected or abused, but when you tell a parent that you are going to call them, that is a threat to take their child away. It was a totally asinine threat. Unspeakably foolish. And I called her out on it. I told her that I thought she should do just that. That I was excited about telling this story to a judge or to whoever. And it got heated between me and <Name removed 3> after that. She denied that she ever threatened me and I called her a liar, about the threat and about claiming they were following the CDC, and somewhere along the way I dropped the f bomb. I think that she knew she had messed up. Anyway, we picked up Kingsley because Chey didn't like the thought of him in Isolation. Isolation, by the way, was pretty bad for a first grader. It is sitting alone, in a chair in the hall. They required him to wear a mask, I'm not sure who authorized that but I do know that they didn't have his parents permission, and if there is a protocol for Isolation and it wasn't made up on the spot, then it needs to be reviewed. I think it was made up on the spot because Tuesday after Contact Tracing identified that he had been exposed he sat in class the rest of the day participating in class sans mask, sans social distancing and when Cheyenne asked about him being left in class she was told that they were "doing their best". I don't know if Isolation was made up by someone who was taking out their ire at an uncooperative father on a first grader, but I can't help but wonder.
Not long after that a nice lady from the Georgia Department of Public Health called, I didn't get her name. None of this was her fault. They told her I had "some questions" and thought maybe I would be intimidated by a state bureaucrat since local bureaucrats weren't doing so well. She was very nice and helpful. She confirmed for me that the Hall County School District made their own decisions on what health guidelines to follow and was sympathetic and apologetic that they had lied to me and threatened me. But she wasn't really any help. She probably would have been if she could find a way to. But she wasn't. And then <Name removed 5> called not long after. He was very understanding. He agreed that they should have took responsibility, which he did do. He said that someone saying they are gonna call DFCS to get your kid isn't a threat and he sorta used a strawman about they don't just call DFCS and come get your kid that isn't the way it works, like I didn't know that. No , duh. A stupid, empty threat is still a threat. <Name removed 4> tried to bully me into complying with their policy with an underhanded threat about taking my child or children. Actually I kinda liked <Name removed 5>. He seemed reasonable and understanding, like he really wanted to make things better for the kids, helpful about lots of things. But not helping to get Kingsley back to school so far which is really the only thing I want. I don't think he is gonna help, but I would be happy to be proven wrong. I don't think the superintendant or the school board will help either. And you might say, "It's only a couple days. This is a big storm over nothing." but this isn't the first time. And I don't think it will be the last. COVID isn't going anywhere. It makes too many people too much money and gives too many people too much power. It'll be around a long, long time. And until the schools do right by my child I am not going anywhere either. This is my family, my child, my life. Give my children the education that we are paying you to give them or get used to hearing from me. Simple. Easy.
Update 8/20/2021
Hall County School District sent out update to parents today. Now quarantine can be served in class, wearing masks and submitting to temperature checks. It isn't ideal but I can appreciate that they are trying to educate students while balancing that with "public health needs". What they didn't say but I found out yesterday, is that only ~1% of students placed in quarantine are found to have COVID, I think that this means a positive test whether symptomatic or not but I am not sure about the metric. So, essentially, under that policy students are missing 100 times as much school as there is any reason for. If people want to have an "abundance of caution" with their own things fine, but when it means my children miss out on their education, I expect to have some say in it. And to Hall County School District's credit, it appears that they are listening to parents concerns. They are trying to educate our children. But it is more important than ever for parents to be on top of what is happening. When the parents fear the schools that is tyranny. When the schools fear the parents that is liberty.
