On Thursdays, I pick my kids up a few minutes early at school so I can get them to swim club, which is across town. Those few minutes before the days final bell haven't seemed to have changed since my days of lower learning. Students and teachers forego learning and lecturing in anticipation of another school day coming to an end. Most teachers also turn a blind eye to the excited behavior because catching someone doing bad may mean detention. Detention means staying after school. The student's crime would have fall in the heinous category for any teacher to dole out detention and ruin their own excitement that comes with the tolling of the final bell. It is similar to a referee during overtime of the 7th game of the Stanley Cup finals - no blood, no foul. Teachers are a dedicated lot, do so much without fanfare, and put up with so much, so can we really blame them.
In any event, my earliness allowed me to observe something curious. A taxi arrived and a member of the staff escorted a student to it. The student left the school in the taxi. Now I do not know the reason for the taxi being there, nor do I know if it is a common occurrence. I found the incident curious because this is the era of close scrutiny for those of us giving our time as volunteer coaches of kids or leaders of our kids' Cub or Brownie group. This year, to be allowed to coach kids in sports, I was required to complete the encyclopedia-like thickness of various forms and I also had to go to the police station to be fingerprinted. A few weeks later, a polite sounding person from the RNC told me that I has passed the tests and was okay to coach. Fingerprint checks are not the "be all, end all" that some think. The police have a database of fingerprints for those people who have committed or were suspected of committing certain offenses. These databases do not help in cases where a person has never been suspected or caught.
My friends, who are teachers, tell me about the rules and practices they undertake so as not to be put in a possibly compromising predicament with any students. In my previous career as a cop, I used similar tactics to make sure that I could never be accused of mistreating anyone in my custody or any minor person. I'm sure that every industry and individual who deals with "at risk" members of our society now have similar policies in place.
Nothing rings truer than the expression - "Children are our most precious resource." I've heard that my entire life, but I don't think I really ever appreciated its message. It speaks of humanity as seeing itself all together on one team and with a singular purpose. We have a responsibility to protect and nurture our young. We need to ensure that they grow up in a world free of predators, without war, and without prejudice.
I wonder if that man driving the taxi had to undergo the same scrutiny as the teachers of that boy? Has that taxi driver been fingerprinted and had his name run through every police database to make sure he is not a possible predator of children?
The final bell rings for the day but our adult responsibilities don't end there. It's bad enough we put kids on yellow buses that are not equipped with seat belts. We must also do our homework to make sure that anyone entrusted with the care of our kids is worthy of looking after that precious resource. If we fail in any area of that trust, then we will have failed our children.
In any event, my earliness allowed me to observe something curious. A taxi arrived and a member of the staff escorted a student to it. The student left the school in the taxi. Now I do not know the reason for the taxi being there, nor do I know if it is a common occurrence. I found the incident curious because this is the era of close scrutiny for those of us giving our time as volunteer coaches of kids or leaders of our kids' Cub or Brownie group. This year, to be allowed to coach kids in sports, I was required to complete the encyclopedia-like thickness of various forms and I also had to go to the police station to be fingerprinted. A few weeks later, a polite sounding person from the RNC told me that I has passed the tests and was okay to coach. Fingerprint checks are not the "be all, end all" that some think. The police have a database of fingerprints for those people who have committed or were suspected of committing certain offenses. These databases do not help in cases where a person has never been suspected or caught.
My friends, who are teachers, tell me about the rules and practices they undertake so as not to be put in a possibly compromising predicament with any students. In my previous career as a cop, I used similar tactics to make sure that I could never be accused of mistreating anyone in my custody or any minor person. I'm sure that every industry and individual who deals with "at risk" members of our society now have similar policies in place.
Nothing rings truer than the expression - "Children are our most precious resource." I've heard that my entire life, but I don't think I really ever appreciated its message. It speaks of humanity as seeing itself all together on one team and with a singular purpose. We have a responsibility to protect and nurture our young. We need to ensure that they grow up in a world free of predators, without war, and without prejudice.
I wonder if that man driving the taxi had to undergo the same scrutiny as the teachers of that boy? Has that taxi driver been fingerprinted and had his name run through every police database to make sure he is not a possible predator of children?
The final bell rings for the day but our adult responsibilities don't end there. It's bad enough we put kids on yellow buses that are not equipped with seat belts. We must also do our homework to make sure that anyone entrusted with the care of our kids is worthy of looking after that precious resource. If we fail in any area of that trust, then we will have failed our children.
