Blake and I decided we needed more info on the whole incident with Katie. I just couldn't let it rest and my mind kept going over and over all the "what if's". And I felt like I didn't have enough details of the whole thing. I thought about just calling the teacher, but I really wanted to meet face to face. And I was mean and wouldn't tell them any specifics, just that I wanted to meet again... because I wanted them to worry for a few days. So we met with them on Friday. I told the teacher I'd like to meet with her, but she said she would invite the principal. (They were probably worried about what we were going to do.) The principal was super accommodating - got us water, etc. before the meeting even started. I think they were scared. And I let them be for a little while because I was scared for Katie.
The meeting went really well. I had a list of all my questions. Blake started it off by saying that we didn't want to make it into a big deal, we're not calling the news or anything, we love the teacher and just wanted to get more details. He's SO good at handling stuff like this. And the principal started out by saying she considers this is a VERY SERIOUS incident, one that she never wanted repeated. My main concern is why they didn't call us after it happened. The principal openly admitted that she dropped the ball on that. I honestly think she was so caught up in handling it at school that she didn't even think to call us. And she admitted that and then apologized. She assured us that it wasn't "swept under the rug" (even though I never said that out loud, it's what we were thinking and she addressed that right away). Immediately after it happened,
the principal called her boss, and he called his boss. So the higher ups know about it. They have a new safety policy in place for Katie's classroom. And they all promise they'll call us if anything - even things a lot more minor that this - happens. If you remember, they were considering firing the para (aide). That got resolved amazingly quick as well. She is no longer working in the special ed classroom. I think (don't really know because they couldn't give me more details) that she is still working in the school. I'm ok with that though. It was an honest mistake and mistakes happen. Luckily this one had a good outcome and everyone learned from it so it (hopefully) won't happen again. So I didn't want the poor lady, who I'm sure is beside herself, to loose her job. But I didn't want her working with Katie either.
I also learned that Katie was only gone for about 3 minutes. That eased my mind a ton because I had all these scenarios going on in my mind that really couldn't have happened in 3 minutes. The reason the teacher didn't notice Katie was gone once they got back to the classroom is that they were still out in the hall getting drinks and she hadn't actually gotten back to the classroom yet. And then in walked Katie with the 2 principals. So yeah, she didn't know Katie was gone. But she wasn't gone nearly as long as I thought. And I'm sure the teacher would have realized it once they got back in the room. That explains why they didn't call the police. No one really knew she was gone until she was found.
The poor teacher was about in tears. I felt SO BAD for her. She's tough as nails on the outside, but has a heart of gold on the inside, and you could tell her "tough guy" outer layer was fighting a losing battle. I sent her an email afterward telling her that we appreciate all her efforts in this and that we still trust her... because I really do.
So the final outcome is that we all learned from this and I'm sure everyone is going to be extra vigilant. I'm going to get Katie an ID bracelet (and made sure the teacher wouldn't feel bad ). We're all going to practice what to do if she's ever lost again. In fact, the teacher is going to take her class on a field trip to the nearby high school and then have a high school teacher (so trusted to the teacher, but a stranger to the kids), approach the kids and then see how they respond. That way they can address issues immediately like, "oh you did good not talking to a stranger" or "you did good coming to get the teacher", etc. And they might let them "get lost" just to see how they react.
All in all, everything went well and my mind is at ease and we're moving on from here. We got our concerns addressed, everyone learned some good lessons, I'm not so stressed out about it and most importantly Katie is safe.
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