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Thursday, September 20, 2007

Taking Kids on a Field Trip now Requires a Background Check

This year, my daughter's school is requiring that any parent that wishes to drive the kids on a field trip be fingerprinted and undergo a background check. We also have to watch a 20 minute video on God only knows what. It's probably something like, "Human sacrifices: should you participate?" or "Driving with children: can you avoid killing them all?"

It's certainly understandable that these precautions are being taken. During a field trip last year, I was driving a car full of kids when I received a call from the principal on my cell phone. Before the call faded, I thought I heard something like, "Please kill all the kids in the car ahead of you." Here's what happened.

Also, many fathers who pick up their kids at the school like to come in full Viking battle dress. There are frequent slaughters (followed by the inevitable pillaging) at our school.

A friend of mine cheerfully gives directions to the fourth grade classrooms before he disembowels this man.

Yep, I bet we're a lot like your school. It's no wonder we need this kind of protection. It's hard to believe that years ago there were no cell phones, no pagers, no text messaging, no fingerprinting, kids walked to school, kids rode their bikes around the neighborhood and car seats weren't designed to withstand direct hits from Exocet missiles.

It's amazing we ever survived.
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3 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:06 PM

    Yeah, KT, and we used to leave our doors unlocked at night, too. Glad my kids are grown. Worry about theirs in this "system" of ours. Nice rant!

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  2. Kelly the little black dog8:26 PM

    Don't forget to give them a sample of your DNA too.

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  3. Rose7:11 PM

    We're dealing with this too. Classroom volunteers have to go through the background check, fingerprinting and all that.

    But if you volunteer to DRIVE, you have to get fingerprinted, bring in your DMV records, proof of insurance, go through a complete vehicle checkup with the busdriver at the bus yard, and receive a clean bill of health. I think you also have to go through the presnetation you talk about.

    One result is no carpooling to games, 50 cars driving from one town to the next for meets.

    Makes me say forget this, I'm not going to help. It's sad because I am in a position where I have time and can be available to drive. This is a small town, it's not like people don't know each other.

    The world has gone insane.

    For one thing - if a guy is an offender, he should be on Megan's list, the school already knows who he is. If he's a molester who's never been caught, all of this isn't going to help one bit.

    It may catch someone operating under a fake name - the fingerprinting might catch that...

    Don't you wonder what is going to happen to us when we are old and in the care of our children?

    They are going to tell us to sit in the chair, they are going to strap us in (for our safety) - no coffee for you, no soda for you, no cheeseburgers for you that's bad for your health... children learn what they live. Scary.

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