I’m out and about, picking up the kids from daycare this afternoon and my cell phone starts playing the dulcet tones of John Carpenter’s “Halloween” theme. Thinking maybe it was my wife, I pick up and…it’s the school superintendent with one of her broadcast messages. This was one was legitimate though, letting us know that yesterday someone was arrested at the high school after showing up and having no business there. The school staff asked why he was there, he couldn’t come up with anything reasonable, left, and the cops picked him up on the way out. In short, the system worked as it should. Had she not called, I probably never would have even known about it.
So here’s the weird thing, I get that call. The gist of the call, linked below, is that ‘we weren’t going to tell you, but since the media found out and decided to send trucks, we thought maybe we should tell you before you see it on the news’. Even that’s not so terrible until you also factor in that the preschool classes are being moved to the high school next year. I have to be buzzed into my kid’s current school, evidently there’s no such system in place at the high school.
Like I said, aside from the nutter who was arrested, I don’t think anyone did something wrong, per se. But if you’re going to use the broadcast system, do it the day of; this was actually a good message for a change, feel free to gloat and assure parents that you have the kid’s backs.
By the way, Massachusetts is a dual consent state for call recording, however the message was left on my voice mail, granting consent by the caller for the recording. My phone service delivers a copy of the message to my email.
The call: highSchoolArrest_04142010
UPDATE: Funny how she left out the part about him being a sex offender and attempting to sign someone out of the school. Hmmph. Missing info here.