Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy DS MUST go on field trip

My ssn is not on my license....I wonder what states do that?

Never heard of an SSN on a license either.

My DS's public elementary school has 800 students and is in an urban area. If they didn't check id for people entering the school, it would mean that ANYONE could go in. The front desk staff can't possibly keep up with the parents, step parents grandparents aunts and uncles of 800 kids.

Personally I don't have a problem showing ID to enter a school. A parent not being allowed to enter or to observe their child's classroom? That I do have a problem with.

All last year we were not allowed to spend even 5 seconds in DD's classroom. With a teacher who was utterly out of her depth and didn't seem to make even token efforts to implement the IEP, no efforts whatsoever to accommodate or differentiate, a child with school based anxiety and reports of paras and other adults making amazingly inappropriate comments to and about her we were absolutely helpless. DD required alternate lighting in order to help with her migraines - we were never even able to see if the proper lighting was set up for her. And when our education consultant asked the principal why she had singled DD and our family out to be treated so badly she told him it was because she believed at some point I had entered the building without properly signing in. I don't remember ever doing this and wouldn't have been allowed past the office in any case, not to mention that someone would have had to buzz me in. but in her mind this possibility justified intentionally making my then 7-8 year old's life as difficult as possible.

Again safety concerns I understand. But the type of thing we experienced was purely an attempt to desperately clutch onto power and control. And the worst is that despite a crescendo of complaints by parents outside the school building no one said or did anything because they feared retaliation. That has nothing to do with fear of shooters or pedophiles. That has to do with fear of the person entrusted with your child's safety. How sad is that?

I was surprised and shocked by this as well but turns out that it is legal for the Social Security number to be used as the Driver's License number. http://www.ssa.gov/history/reports/ssnreportc6.html

In most states that use the SSN as the ID#, you can ask to have an alternate ID# generated.

I agree that it is reasonable to require an ID. My DS's High School only requires that you sign in and that you look like you know what you are doing.

Locking down the schools in my area of California to the above extent would be practically impossible. The elementary school classrooms all have doors to the outside. Parents often wait outside these doors to pick up in the afternoon. And that is the brand building only a few years old. Officially during the school day you are supposed to go through the front door, sign in, have a appropriate reason, and show ID if the staff ask. But if a teacher is having a party parents often skip that are go straight to the room.

Our school also has MANY doors to the outside. They dealt with this by putting up an 8-foot chain link perimeter fence. Most doors are also now locked during the school day.

At my child's preschool, which was also a private school, they put codes on all the doors.

There is also a police officer assigned to every school in my district now. YES. EVERY SCHOOL. I don't know if they are always there, but it seems like it. I shudder at the cost. I live in a mid-sized city without any notable history of shootings, gangs or school violence.

I wasn't "offended" at the idea of showing ID -- I can't recall really ever being "offended" at anything, to be honest. But I would put up a great show of it, if the question ever arose.

My point was that "driver's licenses" are being used for everything under the sun, when they are about one thing and one thing only -- driving. Same with Social Security cards, which are about one thing and one thing only -- Social Security. Everyone thinks they have a right to see your driver's license and SS card for every piddling little thing, and then people wonder why identity theft is rampant.

We sign in at the office when we enter the school, and are given a sticker to show that we did. This past year, they started putting name and date on the sticker, as well as having a log book for signing in and (theoretically) out.

But having the doors locked, with security cameras rolling and sign-in procedures in place, is no guarantee of security -- the shooter at Sandy Hook broke the glass and unlocked the door, and was duly recorded while doing so. All of these things are only an illusion of safety, while being a real invasion of privacy at the same time. The shooters will get in if they want to, and the child molesters are already there.

Now more on topic, we also have a "blanket permission" form in every year's registration packet, that is supposed to give permission for your child to go on all field trips. I sign it every year, for both children. And every time they have a field trip, they send home a permission slip to be signed. If it doesn't come back (DS is good at losing things), someone calls or emails to make sure it's ok for him to go on the field trip. I don't know why they have the blanket permission form, if nobody is going to do anything with the information.

See this is exactly my feeling on it! And when I state that people look at me like I am insane. But, really, how is this not common sense and obvious? Suddenly since Sandy Hook there is all this "security" (our school immediately put cameras all up and the doors are all locked and you have to be buzzed in, etc) Uh ,if a maniac wants to shoot their way in with some sort of crazy automatic rifle that spews 100 bullets in 3 minutes then he's gonna do it - just like at Sandy Hook (where they had all that security!) Our school spent of $500,000 on it! 500,000 dollars! It made me sick! Particularly because that is not the answer to the problem! However, colleagues pointed out that it wasn't really about keeping kids safe - its about mitigating the schools liability in the event a shooting does happen and since that is becoming ever more likely ...

Having said that, I do think some protocol is needed and schools do need to be careful. In neighboring districts we have had adults either posing as a parent or a family friend come in and literally kidnap (and then molest) a child. Terrible. Awful. Crazy.

ETA: The cameras have proved their usefulness as well - when I went to pick up DS in the middle of the day and the school wasn't sure where he was she looked at the security camera and could see he was leaving the cafeteria and was on his way to the classroom. I begrudgingly had to admit that was handy .

Assuming a police officer earning 100k covers a school with about 400 students full time for the school year, that's less than $200 per capita. That would be an interesting cost-benefit analysis to read. I wonder whether the spend was justified on the basis of threats to the children from within the school, from outside, or both.