I thought I might have lost Isaiah tonight. The way our evenings work is that I get off work at 3:40. I drive to P-burg and get my little two from daycare at about 4:20. We usually drive home and I get dinner around while the little ones play. Isaiah goes to an after school program called challenger four days a week. It is supposed to run until five pm and he does homework and works on things like positive decision making and being more respectful to adults. He is supposed to get out at five and walk home.
There have been minor things about this program that bothered me that I let slide because we can rarely get our way in things. He is supposed to get out at five and walk home, but they usually keep him until five fifteen or five twenty when all the other kids are picked up before telling him he can walk home. There are days I need to pick him up early, days I have class or days we have appointments, and it is never a matter of walking into a building, getting an eleven year old kid and walking out. One time I called ahead and told them I needed him and it was over half an hour and two more phone calls before someone sent him out. Some times it seems like instead of helping him calm down and he comes home upset and surly and unwilling to tell me why.
Tonight was a HUGE last straw. He usually doesn't get home until five thirty or a little later. I was out of pullups and had two diapers left, and needed some supplies for a lab I want my students to do tomorrow, so I picked up my little two and went to walmart. Got fruit, a little food, eggs, diapers, pullups, gloves and hats for the little boys, and checked out. As I am checking out, I start calling the house with my cell phone, to tell Isaiah that I was on the way home.
And the phone just rang and rang and rang. I was concerned, but figured that he either was in the other room, not paying attention to the phone, or it's battery was dead. So I drive home with my little guys and I notice as we pull into the drive, that his scooter isn't there. I go in, call for him, no Isaiah. Its almost six, where is he.
I call my contact person at the program. Nothing. I get in the car and call again, nothing. I drive to the school and call again, nothing. The school looks empty and I call her again, still no answer. I think hard. There's a building the staff uses. I go that direction, still calling, still nothing. I get to the building, still calling. Its got people inside. I go in. There's a reception area with a locked door and a window that's closed and locked. I knock on the window, panicing now. NO one answers. I can see people doing paper work and making copies in an office. I ring a bell and knock louder, starting to cry. They don't aknowledg me. Finally a woman comes out.
I introduce myself, tell her I can't get the case manager to answer the phone. Tell her I can't find my son. Tell her he should walk home. She makes some calls. I wait. I tell her I'm going to call 911 if I can't get an answer.
Turns out that Isaiah decided he was too big a wuss to walk home two blocks and begged a ride with the van. That was the first person in the wrong. He should know that if he's supposed to walk home then he needs to walk home. It was not that cold today and he has a coat, hat and gloves. The staff said he could ride the van and let him on, without calling his mother to tell her of the change of plan, this was the second point someone was wrong, and in my opinion it was a much bigger problem, you don't mess with a kind without telling his mother. They didn't bring him home first, even though it is only two blocks, and when they did, I wasn't home yet. I was on my way home. The adults are telling me that Isaiah claimed he was locked out, Isaiah is claiming he went in, realized I wasn't home, and the staff told him he couldn't stay there.
So he spent the next hour riding the van. With his mom in a panic. And NO ONE BOTHERED TO CALL HIS MOTHER'S CELL PHONE.
So, I finally got him, told the woman there that he didn't have permission to participate until the flaws in the program were fixed, and took my kids home.
I had been home half an hour when the one and only contact person with the group, the person who is supposed to be Isaiah's case worker, finally called me back. And this is what I get. "I can see how that would be upsetting, I was in the middle of a big crisis and couldn't answer my phone." and that's it. No, "This is a flaw in our system we will fix", no "I would be upset too if I couldn't find my child." Nothing. And of course that got me even more upset. And I end up on the damn phone crying. Asking if I have the right to go to walmart.
So now I have this big hairy meeting tomorrow afternoon with her and her supervisor. I'm sure their gonna use their mental health/social worker wiles to make me feel like I'm being unreasonable and over reacting.
But here's what I want. I want a policy IN WRITING THAT APPLIES TO THE WHOLE PROGRAM. Kids who usually walk cannot ride with out a staff member calling a parent and recieving permission. Staff cannot keep kids after five with out calling parents. Parents will be informed of any and all changes in the usual schedual. Parents who need to pick kids up early will be able to retrieve their child in less than ten minutes. IF a parent is not home when a child is dropped off, the staff on the van will IMMEDIATELY call a parent and inform them that the child is riding the van and can be retrieved at teh FACS building. If the cannot get a phone message through, THEY WILL LEAVE A NOTE ON THE DOOR.
No one should have that feeling of going from certain their child is safe, to uncertain where their child is, what he's doing, if he's safe, if he's warm, if he's even alive. NO one, it was completely unnecessary to put me through that. And if I can't get a decent honest we were wrong apology out of those people, I'm at least going to make sure they change their policies so that no one else has to go through that.
Its after ten. I need to show and write a chemistry test. What an evening.
1 comment:
I'm so glad you found him and he is ok!
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