We’ve Decided to Pull Cole from Preschool

Cole asking about school is heart-wrenching. It’s technically Spring-break now, but he wont be returning to his current preschool anyway. They effed up badly this week.

On Thursday, with our 20-month-old strapped to me, I went outside to the bus stop to get Cole (age 3). He LOVES the bus. It’s the highlight of his school experience so far, so we’ve appreciated it. But on this occasion, things went terribly amiss. The bus normally arrives at 11:50. at noon I was concerned that it hadn’t arrived yet, but I knew it was a substitute driver, so I maintained some patience. At 12:10, I called the school to see what was up.

12:10- the school has me call the transportation department

12:11 I call transportation, and no one picked up, but their answering machine said to call the superintendent

12:13 I called the superintendent. No one picked up.

12:14 I called the school and explained no one was picking up at Transportation or at with the Superintendent’s office

12:15 I hear her calling, the woman who answered did NOT put me on hold, so I heard her say (and I’m not f&*king kidding about this) “some parent is freaking out. Where is the preschool bus?” She THEN puts me on hold. at 12:19, she lets me know the bus is on its way with my child.

12:21 I get my child back.

1:45 The school calls Alex to let him know what happened but he didn’t pick up.

3:04 The school calls me. The woman (different woman) tells me what she seems to think is a funny story about how they dropped my THREE YEAR OLD off at a daycare he doesn’t attend by accident. It’s not run by the school district. She said when the driver called out “Cam”, Cole said “Cam” because they were looking at him (Cole is three with a speach delay, so you could say goldfish and that’s what he would say back).

They escorted him off the bus. She proceeded to tell me the driver didn’t notice the names of the kids on their assigned seats. He also didn’t notice the daycare owner trying to flag him down to tell him he had the wrong student still ON the bus. AND she had the wrong kid (my kid) instead.

The woman on the phone told me she called Alex as this was all playing out. I called Alex after, they had ONLY called at 1:45, so an hour-and-a-half later. When the bus driver came he never apologized. No one did.

I emailed his teacher that evening that the school wasn’t a good fit for Cole, and she said they would put “additional safeguards” in place so it wouldn’t happen again.

My problem is this… you only get one opportunity to lose my kid. Its not a revolving door of danger and idiocy that I’m willing to subject my child to.

If I return my kid to that school, call protective services on me, seriously.

Good news, this fall he’ll be headed to a better school district. Woot. For now, I bought a bunch of craft supplies that should tide us over for a while, and we’re enrolling him into some cool classes too, so he shouldn’t miss too much.

It breaks my heart that we have to do this, but it would break my heart FAR more if something bad happened because I left my kid with irresponsible people.