Can just anyone have a child called to the office to question?

[Lola Logan]

What is the name of your state? Wisconsin

My friend's boss was trying to locate her (not during a scheduled work time or anything) and after leaving two phone messages, went to her 8th grade son's school.

Her son had never met her boss. The office personnel, as far as we know, did not know him, either and he could have just as easily been a stalker or someone wanting to take a problem with the mom out on the son.

The boss requested the son be called down from class, and the office did call him down. Boss said to the son "I work with your mom; do you know where I could find her today?" The son said no, that he didn't know where she was. He was then sent back to class.

The mom told the boss she didn't think this was right, and the boss suggested that it was no big deal since the son was only out of class for "five seconds." Of course this doesn't count the rest of the day that the son spent wondering if the guy really did work with his mom and why he wanted to find her. She wanted to know if she had legal ground to stand on before complaining to the school.

I've looked as best as I could through state and federal laws, FERPA, Secure Schools, etc., and found a lot of stuff about parents needing to be informed if students being questioned by school staff or police, privacy laws on test scores, student surveys, AIDS status and other medical conditions, etc.

But I couldn't find anything that came right out and said in black and white, anything so seemingly obvious, as "It's against the law for your boss or some other outsider to come into your child's school out of the blue and have your child pulled out of class without your permission to interrogate him about your whereablouts." But that just can't be right, can it?

 

[pojo2]

What the heck was so important he went to this child's school? And yes it should be reported to the school that security is this lax. However, she may lose her job.

And one must ask what the relationship was between them that he felt comfortable doing this.

 

[CdwJava]

The error (if there is any) is on the part of the school for agreeing to call the child to the office under these circumstances. Perhaps the boss articulated some emergency ... perhaps he didn't. Neither you nor anyone else knows what he told the office staff.

Your friend should contact the school administration and talk with them about their policies and procedures in this matter.

If your friend is looking to have someone criminally charged, that isn't going to happen. If your friend is looking for a lawsuit, I doubt that would happen either ... at least based solely on calling the child out of class to ask for her whereabouts.

- Carl

 

[Lola Logan]

Well, she doesn't have to worry about losing her job; that is what was so important; he wanted to tell her in person that she was basically being downsized due to financial problems.

I don't think she wants to sue him, or the school, or have anyone arrested. She did talk to the principal, though, about how this was very bad policy and really beyond the pale. Yes, you have to let the police come to school and interrogate your kid, but your boss??

The principal just sort of shrugged and said, okay, they wouldn't do that again, but she didn't see any big deal in it. I think basically my friend is looking for some kind of chapter and verse she can show the school--state, federal, law or "position paper" or whatever, that no outside person who is not in any kind of legal authority, is not even a person invited by the school, but just basically someone off the street, as far as anyone knows, has a right to come to school, get access to her child, and try to get personal information from him. She just wants them to realize that they were dead wrong to do that.

She's rather shaken at how easy it would have been for an ex-boyfriend, or her son's unpredictable uncle (his father's dead), or whoever it could have theoretically been, to just walk into school and ask to talk to him and the school just trots him out for whoever walks in, and she's also subsequently shaken up by their indifferent attitude toward her being bothered by this.

 

[BelizeBreeze]

The principal just sort of shrugged and said, okay, they wouldn't do that again, but she didn't see any big deal in it. I think basically my friend is looking for some kind of chapter and verse she can show the school--state, federal, law or "position paper" or whatever, that no outside person who is not in any kind of legal authority, is not even a person invited by the school, but just basically someone off the street, as far as anyone knows, has a right to come to school, get access to her child, and try to get personal information from him. She just wants them to realize that they were dead wrong to do that.

If this is truly how your friend feels then she should attend the next school board meeting and demand a copy of the policy and a written reminder sent from the board to all schools within the district regarding any policy for such occurrances.

Hell, I even have to show ID each and every time I pick up my daughters from their schools, and I've donated a hell of a lot of money to both schools.

And I'm the one who wrote the policy for them.

 

[CdwJava]

I think basically my friend is looking for some kind of chapter and verse she can show the school--state, federal, law or "position paper" or whatever, that no outside person who is not in any kind of legal authority, is not even a person invited by the school, but just basically someone off the street, as far as anyone knows, has a right to come to school, get access to her child, and try to get personal information from him. She just wants them to realize that they were dead wrong to do that.

It may be that there is no chapter or verse that PREVENTS them from doing this. There are probably laws that allow them to refuse to accomodate the person that shows up in this manner, but there may not be anything that prohibits them from doing so.

I am not arguing that what they did was right, but there may be no black and white evidence that can be shown to prove they were wrong, either.

As has been suggested, bringing this up the school board or the superintendent might be worthwhile.

- Carl

 

[reclusf]

As far as the principal goes, if he isn't sensitive to her feelings on the issue, it should go to the superintendent. If not effective, it should go to the the county superintendent and so on and so forth. Parents actually weild great power in schools...

But beyond the pale? Having someone arrested for the emotional distress of wondering why you mom's boss came to find her? That's just blowhard tactics that school people laugh about at the coffee pot. And believe me, everybody knows THAT kid after that...ya know the one with the Rottweiler (sp?) mom? Maybe the kid could sue the mom for the emotional distress of being the kid with the blowhard parents that make mountains out of mole hills.

You could get a lawyer...to face the school's retained lawyers that have ions of educational law experience/litigation. Good luck there. Probably should concentrate on finding a new job, and checking to make sure homework is getting done.

Seriously, a sincere apology, explanation, and genuine clarification of the visitor policy at the school should be enough to ease her pain. Schools have plenty to worry about and it could have been an honest mistake. Also, it'd be interesting to see if there was a principal or administrator present when the guy was there talking to the kid. Why a red flag that it wasn't appropriate didn't go up is beyond me. On the other hand, a lot of football coaches end up in administration.

Sincerely,

A former teacher...