"Hi Mom!"
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https://reason.com/2020/12/21/cops-arrest-mom-school-id-crossing/
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You may recall the saga of the South Carolina mom who granted her kids—ages 9, 10, and 11—permission to walk the mile home together, without her.
School officials refused to let them to do this, on the grounds that a nearby intersection (with walk/don't walk signals) is too dangerous. This particular mom's kids happen to cross it at other times, unaccompanied, on their way to and from extracurriculars.
Has the school never heard of crossing guards? No matter. The children were required to be picked up by an approved adult. If not, they would have to take the school bus.
The mom, Jessie Thompson, didn't understand why it was up to the school to decide what her kids did after leaving school property. She offered to sign a liability waiver. This did not move the needle and the issue came to a head this past week.
I'll let Thompson take it from here. She's a surgical neurophysiologist, which means that she monitors a patient's nervous system during surgery. In an email with the subject line, "It's Over!" she wrote:
Hi Lenore,
Just wanted to give you the final update.
We quit.
I pulled the kids and I'm homeschooling.
The school was making me go into the office to show my ID at dismissal. That worked for a time, until one day I forgot my ID.
When the secretary (who has known me for three years) said to me that she couldn't let me take the kids, I responded, "Just try to keep my kids from me" and then told my kids to exit the office.
My kids stood there, not knowing whether to listen to their mother or the secretary. I had to ask them twice to exit. That was the day I stole my kids from their school, because after all, the school has the primary authority and I, the parent, am only so lucky to be given access to the kids when the school allows.
The next day, my kids were all held in their classrooms until I showed my ID (to the same woman who has known me for three years), at which time she called each classroom individually to tell the teachers they could release the kids.
The following day, I refused to show my ID until they dismissed my kids, per the usual dismissal routine, and did not hold my kids hostage in order to play games with me.
They called the police.
I had about a 30-40 minute interaction with two police officers, almost being arrested at one point. I was successful that day, as the police instructed the office secretary to dismiss my kids and then I showed my ID before leaving with them.
The officers informed me that if I did the same thing the following day that I would be arrested.
And so for the next two weeks, the school held my kids in their classrooms, hostage, until I, their mother, showed my ID to a secretary who has a three-year history with me.
My attorney was unable to have that stop and I just couldn't take it anymore.
This lawsuit was going to cost us $10-15,000.
So my homeschool journey begins.
Wish me luck!
Thanks for your help. It was quite a ride.
Jessie
I do wish her luck. Her case has me thinking about Voltaire's observation that "those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities."The absurdity here is not just that kids can't cross a street by themselves. It's also that the mom picking up her kids must show proof that she is the person everyone knows she is. As if the ID is more reliable than her own kids saying, "Hi mom!"
And the cruelty is that those rules allow the secretary—and cops—to torment the mom while claiming this is just for safety's sake.
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They do that here too in elementary school at least. Most of the time it makes sense, since it’s so occasional they would not recognize the parent. But a friend who picked her son up every day for 6 years (don’t get me started on her), volunteered in the school and knew everyone there still had her ID in hand every time.
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As for this lady I don’t know why she wouldn’t just go private. Is she going to quit her job? Does she think she can do this in her spare time over coffee in the morning?
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As for this lady I don’t know why she wouldn’t just go private.
Who knows? She says in her letter the lawsuit was going to cost her 10-15k and that seemed like an impediment to her. Private school is probably one or multiple lawsuits per kid every year, and even then the private school might still insist on her showing ID every time she wants to pick up her kids.
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As for this lady I don’t know why she wouldn’t just go private. Is she going to quit her job? Does she think she can do this in her spare time over coffee in the morning?
My thoughts as well. If she has a full-time gig as a "surgical neurophysiologist" she's keeping odd and long hours.
Good luck.
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As for not needing to show ID because she has a three year history with the school secretary, ask @Jolly if in his head he’s willing to waive the “must show ID” requirement at the polling station if the person attempting to vote has a three year history with the folks checking the voter rolls. Betcha he’s going to tell you it’s for voting security too.
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I wish her well. Among other things, her decision is teaching her kids the wisdom of sticking to your guns and not caving in to stupidity. That may be the lesson that is most key, in the end.
A small separate point: From the little that she wrote, I applaud how the cops handled the deal. Got the story, rethought their decision to arrest her, then warned her she would be arrested if she did it again after her interaction with them. A matter of deciding between a dumb application of law/bureaucracy and citizens' rights.
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As with many of these stories, we're only getting her side of it.
And even reading only her side of things, she doesn't exactly sound as though she's the most normal person in the world.
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FWIW I pick up my 2 year old daughter from daycare each day. All I do is show up and they bring her down and release her to me. They don't even ask my name, or my ID, because.....common sense. They know me. Glad I don't have to show my ID each time.
I didn’t either at his private nursery schools. Might change in elementary school if you go public.
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I can only imagine what would have happened if a school refused my brother access to his children...would have been life altering for school personnel. One altercation I know of that he had resulted in public hearings and ended with a school administrator being fired. A reporter from the local paper asked him to let them know in advance the next time he had any issues with the school because they didn't want to miss it.
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FWIW I pick up my 2 year old daughter from daycare each day. All I do is show up and they bring her down and release her to me. They don't even ask my name, or my ID, because.....common sense. They know me. Glad I don't have to show my ID each time.
I didn’t either at his private nursery schools. Might change in elementary school if you go public.
True. Although I’ll be in minnesooooota by then and there are only nice people there.
