We don't love the public school system in Nevada. I'm not sure I will love them anywhere based on how our current system is working, but I definitely don't enjoy what we are seeing here. A few weeks ago, we were presented with a permission form allowing Sarah to participate in a "understanding violence" program. Tracy pulled up the program on the computer and read through it. Based on what we saw about the program, we chose not to have Sarah participate. It was not for grade and took away from the day of learning to "program" our child. We didn't see the need since we have spoken to her about most of these issues and don't feel she needed to take time away from studies. I would much have preferred she study during that time.
Unfortunately for us, they disregarded our "not" permitted to attend. Sarah felt she had to go since the "authority", a substitute teacher insisted. Sarah did tell the teacher that she wasn't supposed to go, but she shuttled her in, anyway.
I do want to say there was nothing particularly objectionable in this program. She learned about a kid, who because he had a tough life, decided to try to steal a pizza and ended up killing the delivery boy. The delivery boy's father chose to forgive the killer and set up a program to prevent violence. They had larger discussions on why you should not behave in a violent manner, but to use conflict resolutions.
I think the school system is dealing with a bunch of parents who chose not to talk to their children. That must be the case since they believe they need to stand in as the parent and give moral instruction. It's as if they are saying "please step aside so we can do the proper instruction here". I was not inclined to be happy about this...sorry, just how I feel.
Tracy and I walked into the vice principals office as soon as we heard about it and filled him in. He was really just clueless and didn't have anything to say except he would check into it. So today, I thought I would start by emailing the councelor and her advisory teacher. The email account follows:
I am writing on behalf of my daughter, Sarah ***, regarding her forced attendance of your violence program. Perhaps I misunderstood that when signing the letter exempting her from this program, that our wishes would be followed in this regard. I understand that there was a substitute during this hour but it seems a fairly common practice to leave instructions and lists for a substitute. Also, since Sarah directly addressed this issue with the substitute, I believe she should have verified that all students should be attending. We requested that Mr. *** check into this matter but I also wanted to make you both aware of our concerns. Please know that we did the research on this program and felt Sarah did not require this instruction. I do not wish to cause any larger issue in regard to this, but need to understand more clearly on how we can prevent this from happening again.
I imagine the school system will be happy when we are finally able to leave it. I don't think they could be more happy than I will be.
Originally posted on Facebook Blog 3/11/10
