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.
Original link on story isnt working now.
Here is updated URL
http://news10now.com/content/all_news/central_new_york/?SecID=86&ArID=35309
The 5-year-old ended up walking 14 blocks to his daycare in the cold.
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14 blocks is very long for a little kid to walk.
I agree.
But, as you can see from the original story I posted, the reporter said the child only walked "several blocks" and implied the distance was less than a mile and a half.
Also, in the updated version, the mother has gone from sobbing and hysterical to open minded. She now admits it was probably simply a "breakdown in communication" and is "thankful her son made it to his daycare safety."
Perhaps the real point of this thread is that, once again, the media trumped up something minor into a major case, exploiting the story's subject and exhibiting a disregard for the facts.
Nor would I. Our world is not like the one I grew up in any more.
Carolyn
ooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...........
Publicity can be helpful. Perhaps other school administrators will read this and take action that it won't happen at their school. This incident is not uncommon.
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