To the Editor:

It has come to my attention that the Mystery Lake School district has implemented a new automated system to alert parents of their child’s absence from school. I do not see a problem with this for the high school. However I was very surprised to learn that the elementary schools were also automated.

Whose idea was this? I was very upset one day when my 12-year-old son was sick and learned of the new system. When I phoned from work to the school at 9:30 a.m. to let the secretary know of his condition, I asked how it was that she had not called me yet at this hour. She then informed me that she no longer made these calls that I should have received an automated call at my home. I told her that didn’t make sense, as we both knew I was at work.

There are many problems with this system as they have removed the human contact.

Here are just a few examples:

So now when you drop off your child to school and go to work, let’s say he or she is in Grade 1 and he doesn’t arrive to class. The automated system then calls your home to inform you. Now let’s say he is in the lunch program. You will not learn of his absence until you arrive home from work at the end of the day. Did he wander away, get hurt outside or get abducted? No one is looking for him for the next six hours or longer if he is expected somewhere else after school;

Now let’s say the child is from a split household. That would mean every time the child changes homes the school secretary now needs to be called to change the system over to the proper number. Would she not then be wasting valuable time making these changes for the parents of potentially 400 children? Was it not more productive to have her just look up the information on record and contact the parent where she knows she will get hold of them?

Now let’s say the child is older. He decides to go back home for the day and removes the message from your answering machine. He has now missed school and you had no idea he was home or somewhere else all day. It won’t be long before he figures that one out.

I took the initiative to call the school board office. I was then informed I could change the phone number to my work number. How does that help if I am away and someone else is looking after him? Why did I have to learn of this on my own? Are they planning to inform the parents of the danger of not updating the system?

Can you think of more problems with this system? Let get this changed back so we can have peace of mind when we drop of our kids.

Maria Hykawy
Thompson