Posted on 01/20/2005 4:49:01 AM PST by Behind Liberal Lines
SYRACUSE NY--When Lynnee Westbrook thinks about what her son went through her eyes well up. She says her two children take the school bus everyday, so she can't understand why the vice principal at McKinley Brighton told her 5-year-old son to walk home.
Under school policy, students must live more than a mile and a half to be bused. School spokesperson Neil Driscoll says Kevin is listed as a walker and lives on Newell Street, a block away from the school. Westbrook says they actually live on West Brighton Avenue and she doesn't know how the school got that information. She says her son walked several blocks to his daycare, where he gets dropped off after school.
"My baby who is 5-years-old who never walked anywhere a day in his life has to cross over major intersections to get to school to daycare. I felt that was very unacceptable," Westbrook said.
Westbrook says when she contacted the school, the vice principal had no knowledge of her child and said her son may have gotten confused with another conversation she was having with an older student.
"What's the need for him to walk? Why wasn't I informed? If he if missed his bus or whatever, you know that was my point. Nobody contacted me or they didn't contact emergency contact," Westbrook said.
"It was cold and my stuff was falling down, and I had to put my gloves in my book bag. I put my hands in my pocket," said Kevin Jennings, 5-year-old forced to walk home.
Kevin's mom says she wants to get to the bottom of what went wrong. Westbrook says she plans to get to the bottom of this during a meeting with the vice principal of the school Thursday.
I cannot count the number of times I have explained to David that there is a difference between people we know and people we don't know. He is a very outgoing kid--he wants to know everybody, he wants to be everyone's friend. We do not live in the kind of neighborhood where you want to be everyone's friend. Its not the ghetto but we have a few bad apples. Last summer, he and I were in our front yard, doing some gardening, when I noticed (about a half-block away) a local prostitute, heading up the sidewalk in our direction. Before I could mutter "David, don't you say a word!" he was running up the walk, yelling "Hi! My name's David, what's yours?"
> Geez, I hate to sound like a cranky old man, but when I was a kid NO ONE expected a kid to take a bus if he or she only lived several BLOCKS from school. <
You're not only cranky, but totally divorced from reality. Letting a 5 year old walk unescorted for one block in this day and age is irresponsible. Whatever skool administrator allowed this should be fired.
How do you know she doesn't/didn't know the day care people? Besides, the issue is the school, not the day care. The day care didn't do anything wrong.
Most isn't all. It's not much consolation for the ones *not* covered by the word "most" to know that they weren't in the majority of kidnappings.
The child didn't actually live within the mile and 1/2 limit - the child's name was erroneously on the list (if I've read the story properly.)
I have a five year old daughter - no way in hell I'd let her walk home alone.
Yes, I have. Last summer my 5-year-old daughter went into a neighbor's apartment without telling me, and couldn't be found when I wanted to get everyone together to go somewhere. I was quite panicked.
However, I did not call the newspapers or file a lawsuit because my neighbor had believed my daughter when she falsely claimed she had my permission to go in the other apartment and color! I suppose I'm just cold-hearted, but this woman lost my sympathy when she went for her 15 minutes of fame and chance for a payoff.
Uphill both ways? My dad went to that school!
> are the allegedly small government conservatives of "Free Republic" going to start demanding that THOSE kids get "bussed" too? <
The allegedly small government conservatives of FR think George "Big Government" Bush walks on water.
I hope your child or grandchildren never become an 'accetable statistic'.
I think we are just too laid back for some people ;)
In 1960 when I was 5 years old, I know I walked over a mile to kindergarten, and back.
You forgot to mention it was 18 miles one way! LOL
I'm stunned by the idiocy of some of the people on this thread.
I lived a few miles from the area that Amber Hagerman was kidnapped from. Not only was she kidnapped and killed, she had unspeakable things done to her, that the most seasoned policemen couldn't even talk about without crying.
NO CHILD should be left alone in public. Why on earth would anyone think it's ok to take a chance with a childs life? I have seen small children walking to school and it's lunacy. I talked to a policeman about it, he said it was a tragedy waiting to happen.
My kids to go a private Christian school, I drive them to and from every day. It's a small price to pay to at least try to keep my children safe.
Why don't ya'll ask some of the parents whose children were kidnapped and murdered to see if it's a good idea to leave small children alone in public.
And not only that, this boy was already safely at the daycare center before his mother knew anything about the situation ... so her panic at his being missing was totally retrospective.
If we would begin the executions on these animals, we would have a world safer for the children. it's past due.
ContraryMary said: "...In this story the kid was probably not traumatized until his mother went off the deep end. Even at the age of five, there are lessons to be learned about dealing with life's missteps..."
The Mother's concern and reaction was appropriate to the situation, to the times we live in and was a demonstration of correct parental responsibility.
A critical life lesson is accepting the responsibility for and facing the consequences of life's missteps. Some consequences are more hazardous than others.
This "misstep" by the school was a big one. The Mother is correct in making certain the school accepts the consequences and responsibility for what might have been a very tragic "misstep."
But, apparently, the child's day care was within the mile and a half limit, meaning the child was, for all practical purposes, in no more danger than the children who live within that limit.
And if you don't want to let your five year old walk home alone, that's fine. But if she does, mistakenly, once and doesn't get hurt, I don't see the need to call in the local "action news" team.
And I like to think you wouldn't boast you "never let [her] walk" at all.
Yes and we each had to bring a piece of coal for the stove.
If there had been some bad outcome, I'd probably think it was worth being upset over. But there wasn't.
Exactly. That says lawsuit to me, not that she was upset about her child. The last thing most people would do is call the newspaper. Just like the last thing most people would do is go on Greta's show after you lost a loved one to murder the day before. I don't get it!
I hate to admit it but this mom reminds me of one of my daughters.
She has two strapping boys ages 12 and 10 whom she still refers to as her babies!
Makes me absolutely want to puke!
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