Schools calling parents about the wrong child..

[disneysnowflake]

I went to visit my sister who just came home from the hospital after having emergency surgery. She lives about 40 minutes from me and her kids go to a smaller school district with about 500 kids in grades 7 through 12.

The phone rang. It was the high school. The secretary told my sister that her 8th grade daughter Kylee had called on a cell phone to the school. Kylee told the secretary that since she missed school on Wed, Thurs, Fri her grandfather was going to be in to pick up her work. Kylee was at school those 3 days.

My sister tried to tell the secretary that they must have the wrong person because Kylee got on the bus with her twin sister this morning. The secretary was really snotty and put my sister on hold.

The principal got on the phone and told my sister that Kylee has missed 5 days of school so far this year, and has either been late or left early another 5 times. He needed to see my sister today.

My sister explained that this is a mix up. Kylee got on the bus and was at school all week. The principal said no she wasn't. My sister explained that she just got home from having surgery and that her husband would be in on Monday to speak with him. The principal said that he's required to report Kylee to youth authorities because her grades are bad, she's getting into trouble, etc. He's had several complaints from teachers about Kylee. He needed to see her today.

So, my poor sister got dressed and I drove her the 7 miles to school. She had staples in her stomach from surgery and was very tired.

When we got into the office the secretary chuckled and said that the office made a "mistake". It wasn't Kylee after all. It was a girl named Rachael and since the names were so similar (Yeah, Kylee and Rachael.. close) they got them mixed up.

My sister just cried because she came all that way for nothing. I was so mad. I told the secretary I wanted to see the principal. The principal told me that since I wasn't the parent I shouldn't even be there. I didn't care. They should have made extra sure that it was Kylee doing that stuff before they called my sister and threatened to call youth services. I told him I was furious at what happened. He apologized to my sister, but said that was all he could do.

Kylee is a good student. She's in the band. She's in school plays. She's never been in trouble.

If the school could mix up Kylee with Rachael (and their last names aren't even close either) it makes me what else they get wrong. Kylee has a short plain last name and Rachael has a very unusually long last name.

Has anyone else had something like this happen? How in the world can the school get a mix up like that? It makes you wonder how many kids are punished or given marks for something they didn't do. I doubt it's the first time this has happened.

Sigh. So much for a nice peaceful day.

 

[DVC-Don]

Nothing like that but, the school keeps spelling our last name wrong and insists they are right. I get it straightened out, then a few months later it starts all over again.

Then a couple of weeks ago I got a message to talk to my son about his behavior and to call the school back the next day about what they were going to do with him. Trouble was my son does not attend that school.

 

[Keli]

There was a student at my dd's hs while she was there with the first name "Ashton" (my dd's name is Ashli) and the same last name that we have. One day I called and left a message that my dd was NOT to get on the bus because I would be picking her up that day. Unfortunately the school secretary didn't pay close enough attention to the name and gave the message to Ashton. So Ashli got on the bus as usual and I'm guessing that poor Ashton did not. I spent a loooonnnngggg time at the school trying to find Ashli. I finally thought to call home and there she was, lol. We didn't find out until the next day about the mix up and I always meant to ask what happend to Ashton that day but I never did.

 

[pammypooh]

What a terrible experience for your sister! I am sorry she had to go through this and hope her recovery is going well.

I also say good for you for taking care of & defending your sis!

Our school is quite small and everyone knows each other.

Pam

 

[Beth76]

Yikes, that sounds pretty bad. I would be very angry, especially since your sister told them they had the wrong child.

 

[amid chaos]

Sounds like a letter to the superintendant of schools may be in order. especially since they were nasty about it.

 

[Nancy]

Yep...a letter to the super. and the school board. Even if they mixed names up or phones numbers...by the second or third time they were told they had the wrong kid they should have backed off and looked into it more. I feel so bad for your sister....not what you want to deal with after major surgery.

 

[decker96]

So sorry for all your sister had to deal with! Now what Keli posted I can kind of see, similar first names, same last name, not an excuse, but I could understand the mix-up. But Kylee and Rachel and two totally different last names. Come on! The principal sounds just plain rude, insisting your sister come in even though she told him she'd just had surgery! Plus, if your sister was insisting that it wasn't her daughter, they should have checked again before making her come in!
Last year my DD was in kindergarten. Our district has an all-day kindergarten program, but the state only funds half-day. So to try and save a little money, our district decided to make Wednesdays an optional day. If you wanted to send your child you could (they mostly did crafts, had free-play, no actual work was done) but you had to sign up and pay for those days. Since I'm a SAHM we decided to keep DD home on that day. About 1/2 way through the school year, the secretary calls me one Wed. morning and asks me where Emma is. I tell her she's at home. She asks, very rudely, why I didn't call and tell the school she wasn't coming. I ask why they are just calling me about it now since she hasn't been coming to school on Wednesdays for over 3 months. Dead silence on the phone and then a quick, sorry, you're right and she hung up. Check your facts before you jump down someone's throat!
Hope your sister is feeling better soon!

 

[caitycaity]

Originally posted by amid chaos
Sounds like a letter to the superintendant of schools may be in order. especially since they were nasty about it.

the situation is ridiculous! i'm so sorry that your sister had to go through that.

 

[KatelynnsAuntie]

That reminds of something that happened to me when I was in Jr High. At lunch the principal came up to me and told me to come with him to his office. He then proceeded to ask me why I was fighting with so and so, and when so and so said she was going to tell the principal I said I didn't care. I said, that wasn't me! He said yes it was, then told me so and so had said I had hit her. OMG! I didn't know what he was talking about!! I said, you have definately got the wrong person. He said isn't your name Mary Jones? (or whatever her name was). I said, um, no, my name is Susan! Of course he apologized and felt bad but geez! Make sure you've got the right kid before you call them into your office! I was a wreck!!

 

[Hillbeans]

It's bad enough the principal made your sister go all the way down there, but then to treat you and her the way he did was inexcusable. Nothing is worse than a person in such a high powered position who can't apologize when they make a mistake.

I'm very glad to hear you stood up for your sister, and told the principal how you felt.

 

[HoneyPooh]

My co-worker got a call from her 11 yo's school a few days ago saying that he was not in school that day. She informed them that he WAS in school since she had dropped him off that morning. They insisted that her son was not in school and gave her an attitude about it. She asked them to double check and they gave her a hard time about it. Finally the secretary said she would check (grudgingly) and call back. So for about 20 minutes my co-worker was frantic thinking her child might be missing. Of course when they called back, they told her that he WAS in school. No apologies at all. She told the secretary that they might want to double check before they scare the you-know-what out of a parent!

 

[Morganpics]

You and your sister acted much better than I would have. I would have refused to go to the school and let them call youth services. Then I would have called the newspaper and the school board and the superintendent. By the time I got done my daughter would probably have wished she was the other girl.

 

[EsmeraldaX]

That is terrible. I'm so sorry your sister had to go through that.

 

[MELSMICE]

I would definitely write a letter to the superintendent & school board.

A few years ago I got a call asking why Ashlyn was absent from school that day. I told them she went to school & they should double check their records. I was a bit nervous waiting for the phone call back, wondering if something had happened. Well, lo & behold, the teacher had asked Ashlyn to go deliver something to another teacher & in the meantime took attendance & marked Ashlyn absent!

The secretary called back & apologized for the mix-up.

 

[Nebsky]

Sorry to hear that this happened to your sister...That sucks

Sort of happend to me when I was in Middle and High School.

There was another person in the school with the same name as me. He was a grade ahead of me until he failed. So now we are both in the same grade. I would get all sorts of crap sent to my parents telling them I was a bad student etc. Then the guy started fighting with people. It got worse. I was called a couple of times down to the principals office. Got hit with all these accusations and just laughed them off. Told them the had the wrong guy.

Did I also mention I am a twin?

My brother would also get into some trouble. Someone would "ID" me to the teacher. I would get called down to the principals office to get talked to. I would laugh at them and say, sorry, you must be looking for my brother....

Of course when I was screwing around and did something that warranted discussions, sometimes I would just say that it was my brother or the other guy.

 

[Disney1fan2002]

I think what bothers me most about this post, and ALOT bothers me! Is I would like to think if a principal is calling me because of consistant problems with my child, I would HOPE the principal would have MY child's records on the desk in fornt of him/her. If the school has 500 kids, I would want to know the people in charge are accurate in determining what kids are causing the porblems. So, the records of the problem child would be on the desk as the phone is being dialed. They would of seen said child was RACHEL and not Kaylee. Makes me sick to think they could just pick a name out of thin air and make a phone call about her.

 

[lilpritch04]

I'm so sorry this happened to your sister. I hope she is recovering from her surgery well.

I have a similar situation of mistaken identity.
When I was in kindergarten I got chicken pox and the school nurse was calling my dad to come pick me up.

So she makes this call *to my dad's office* and asks him to pick me up. She tells me that he is in a meeting and so starts calling other names on the list. She couldn't get an answer from anybody. Finally she calls *my dad* back to pick me up and he says that since his office is 1/2 hour a way he'll be there as soon as possible. So, she relayed that to me, and even at the age of 5 I knew that my dad worked down the street!!!

She didn't believe me so there I sat for a while until this man came in and she put my coat on and told me to leave--it wasn't my dad! She called the wrong parent!

It turns out that there was a 1st grader with a similar first and last name and she called her dad. He was pretty ticked off. So she called My Dad and he was there in 10 minutes.

I will never forget this story. I just remember the guy and I looking at each other like "And you are???" I feel bad for him because he had to drive so far for nothing.

Just a side note, this girl and I also had similar phone numbers, only 1 digit off (636-1234 instead of 633-1234) and got a lot of each other's phone calls all the way through high school. Too bizarre.