I won't get too much into what SARB actually stands for. To be honest, I don't really care. What I do care about is them calling me up there for some stupid meeting because my daughter has been out due to being sick too much this year and for the first few times I didn't provide a stupid note. I didn't realize that from the last school year to this one, a new leaf wasn't turned over.
Anyway, I am still pissed. I don't like to be made to feel as if I'm a liar and though I don't know for certain, I believe this is a meeting where they tell you what a bad little parent you've been because your child has been absent too many days (so they lose money . . . boohoo at this point). Well, being bipolar, you can imagine how wonderful this added stress had just helped me so much keeping my symtoms under control . . . It has totally screwed up my sleeping and everything. I HATE these people - especially one in particular and I hope to God that she's not there today because I will be very hard pressed not to go up to her and tell her what a fucking bitch she is!
However, I settled for writing a letter which will be given to EVERYONE there. Though it has all the information I want to them to know, it also reflects my anger and irritation and the amount of stress this stupid shit has put me through and how it is affecting my symptoms and the anxiety level of my daughter. I REALLY HATE THIS DISTRICT. I wish to God I could move her out of it and tell them all to just KISS OFF!
Anyway, thought I'd post my scathing letter here. Not like anyone is going to read it. LOL! :-P
October 22, 2008
To whom it may concern,
Because I am no public speaker and this event has left me far too emotional to express everything I need to in a coherent fashion I have opted to write it out. That way there are no misunderstandings of my meanings. This is too important for me to not be heard and to state clearly what has been on my mind since the end of the last school year. And yes, I do mean from the end of the last school year.
First let me explain that I am bipolar. I am on meds, but stress makes my symptoms worse as does lack of sleep which both have been caused by this event. I am in NO WAY saying that my daughter has missed school because of my illness because I have always gotten her to school EXCEPT for her being SICK or family emergencies. The few other exceptions have been caused by those that work for the district in the school – Gage Elementary.
Mrs. Sherry Maldonado was the cause of much of my grief at the end of the school year last year. It was agreed by all parties that I would bring Doctor’s notes (stupid me assumed it meant for just the end of that school year) to prove when she was really sick (which she always was). But if you check my daughter’s cume carefully you will see a couple of instances where I DID bring a Doctor’s note and yet Mrs. Maldonado still felt the urge to send in a note to SARB. I have no idea what the woman had against me, but obviously she was trying to make my life miserably, not to mention that it was completely unprofessional at that point. On top of that, it created more stress not just for me, but for my daughter as well. She would call her in to speak with her about her absences. According to my daughter (who I believe) she was mean and had my daughter in tears many times, even if she didn’t cry in front of this woman. In fact, toward the end of the school year I called all over the school district headquarters just trying to find someone that I could lodge a complaint with AND to find a new school for my daughter where Mrs. Maldonado was NOT a counselor. I did find someone who told me that I should just leave my daughter at Gage because the woman would be getting a pink slip with all the other counselors in the District. But imagine my surprise at the beginning of the year . . . guess who I find out is still at Gage; Mrs. Maldonado! NOT ONLY has this made me angry that I was lied to, but it has undermined my faith and trust in this School District and if I had a choice I would remove my daughter from it without hesitation.
Now that I have also explained that I didn’t know the new school year did not roll over a new year for this particular problem, I have done my best to correct it. If you LOOK at her CUME you will see that for her last several absences there ARE Doctor’s notes. So, as soon as I realized you all thought I was no longer complying I quickly remedies the situation, but apparently that was not noted anywhere and I find myself HERE.
On to the next bit of business – My daughter, Cassandra, started getting stomach aches and headaches shortly after the school year started. Most mornings I kept her home she was either in so much pain I couldn’t see sending her or she was throwing up. Shortly there after, she was diagnosed with a UTI. Now, for those of you who don’t know, she is prone to these or has been. She hasn’t gotten too many recently though. However, to make a long story short, there is a correlation between girls that were molested and UTIs (the research is there and I can pull up several websites on my computer to verify it). My daughter was molested when she was 7. But recently she told me that the boy who had molested her had not done it just the one time, but had been molesting her since she was 4 years old. THAT was when her UTIs started, only I didn’t know the correlation at the time. As I said, only recently has she told me the full truth of the matter. The memories just recently came back, triggered by something she was reading. This information was revealed to me only a week or so BEFORE I was told of this SARB meeting. It was about that time I started wondering if the stomach aches and headaches that had become everyday were caused by anxiety from these events and not just lingering anxiety of Mrs. Maldonado’s continued presence at the school; especially after I had taken her to be seen by doctors for it several times and they could not pinpoint a reason for the aches, though had no doubt they were real. I also arranged for her to get back into therapy. She is now seeing a Dr. Cross. Since Cassandra also is showing a lot of similar behavior to when I was her age, I have also made an appointment with a psychiatrist to evaluate her for anxiety disorders and bipolar disorder. This added stress has done nothing to help the situation. All it has done is bring out more symptoms and emotions issues for her and I.
And as for her getting sick with anything else - she is prone to getting colds. I have had her immunity checked. She’s fine, though I can have it tested again since it might be a little out of date. But this has been an on-going issue. Since she doesn’t spend a lot of time out in the neighborhood or with friends, she is subjected to more germs at the school than she is at home or anywhere else. I have expressed my concern to the teachers every year and try to ask them to remind her to use her hand sanitizer which should be in her backpack every day. She takes vitamins daily and she eats pretty healthy every day as well. STRESS is a known factor for lowing immunity so I have to wonder where else she is getting stress other than at home with other members of my family. The answer to that question? SCHOOL. She has come crying to me after school (mostly the last few months of the previous school year though a couple of times this year) in tears because of ‘lectures’ from those at the school about how even if she’s sick she needs to be in school. I don’t see how making my daughter feel like she’s lying about feeling sick helps and particularly now. Her own father accused her of lying about being molested just the one time when she was seven so she takes things VERY hard when adults accuse her of lying, even if they don’t come out and say the words. As we all know, it can be implied without it being said.
Let me conclude this by saying that if you want me to keep furnishing doctor’s notes I will. In fact, I intended to regardless. But I have lost any confidence and faith in this school district and at least one person in particular that you have at Gage – Mrs. Sherry Maldonado. The only reason I didn’t write out a formal complaint at the end of the school year was because I was assured she was going to be gone and I was told this by the woman that handles Special Education Coordination for the District – Laura (unfortunately I don’t remember her last name and I can’t find the paperwork I had it written down on at the moment). From now on, I will not be able to believe a word the District tells me when it comes to matters such as this and I will do what I think is in my daughter’s and my best interests, such as writing out formal complaints when necessary regardless of what I am told by anyone in the District since I cannot count on the truth.
This has caused my daughter and particularly myself undue amounts of stress to the point where I have almost found myself back in the hospital for a bipolar episode caused by this event. Though I am on medication and in therapy, any psychiatrist will tell you that medication can only do so much. It has crossed my mind that should I end up in the hospital I know where a lot of the blame lies at this given point.
Like my daughter, I don’t like to be made to feel that I am a liar since I do NOT keep my daughter home just to let her stay home. I have never just let her run wild and be truant. This has been an emotional blow that I personally don’t feel my daughter and I deserve. I am angry and if I could I would remove my daughter from this District all together because of this alone. There is no amount of interest or caring for the truth here. There is only blame to be assigned and threats to be made for non-compliance and in my personal opinion, it’s sickening. Those that should be brought here are the parents whose kids are ACTUALLY TRUANT, not sick. The parents whose kids run all over the city instead of school should be here. Not the ones whose children are actually sick. And as I have said before in this letter, I have lost any faith I had in this District and I doubt it will be renewed.
To whom it may concern,
Because I am no public speaker and this event has left me far too emotional to express everything I need to in a coherent fashion I have opted to write it out. That way there are no misunderstandings of my meanings. This is too important for me to not be heard and to state clearly what has been on my mind since the end of the last school year. And yes, I do mean from the end of the last school year.
First let me explain that I am bipolar. I am on meds, but stress makes my symptoms worse as does lack of sleep which both have been caused by this event. I am in NO WAY saying that my daughter has missed school because of my illness because I have always gotten her to school EXCEPT for her being SICK or family emergencies. The few other exceptions have been caused by those that work for the district in the school – Gage Elementary.
Mrs. Sherry Maldonado was the cause of much of my grief at the end of the school year last year. It was agreed by all parties that I would bring Doctor’s notes (stupid me assumed it meant for just the end of that school year) to prove when she was really sick (which she always was). But if you check my daughter’s cume carefully you will see a couple of instances where I DID bring a Doctor’s note and yet Mrs. Maldonado still felt the urge to send in a note to SARB. I have no idea what the woman had against me, but obviously she was trying to make my life miserably, not to mention that it was completely unprofessional at that point. On top of that, it created more stress not just for me, but for my daughter as well. She would call her in to speak with her about her absences. According to my daughter (who I believe) she was mean and had my daughter in tears many times, even if she didn’t cry in front of this woman. In fact, toward the end of the school year I called all over the school district headquarters just trying to find someone that I could lodge a complaint with AND to find a new school for my daughter where Mrs. Maldonado was NOT a counselor. I did find someone who told me that I should just leave my daughter at Gage because the woman would be getting a pink slip with all the other counselors in the District. But imagine my surprise at the beginning of the year . . . guess who I find out is still at Gage; Mrs. Maldonado! NOT ONLY has this made me angry that I was lied to, but it has undermined my faith and trust in this School District and if I had a choice I would remove my daughter from it without hesitation.
Now that I have also explained that I didn’t know the new school year did not roll over a new year for this particular problem, I have done my best to correct it. If you LOOK at her CUME you will see that for her last several absences there ARE Doctor’s notes. So, as soon as I realized you all thought I was no longer complying I quickly remedies the situation, but apparently that was not noted anywhere and I find myself HERE.
On to the next bit of business – My daughter, Cassandra, started getting stomach aches and headaches shortly after the school year started. Most mornings I kept her home she was either in so much pain I couldn’t see sending her or she was throwing up. Shortly there after, she was diagnosed with a UTI. Now, for those of you who don’t know, she is prone to these or has been. She hasn’t gotten too many recently though. However, to make a long story short, there is a correlation between girls that were molested and UTIs (the research is there and I can pull up several websites on my computer to verify it). My daughter was molested when she was 7. But recently she told me that the boy who had molested her had not done it just the one time, but had been molesting her since she was 4 years old. THAT was when her UTIs started, only I didn’t know the correlation at the time. As I said, only recently has she told me the full truth of the matter. The memories just recently came back, triggered by something she was reading. This information was revealed to me only a week or so BEFORE I was told of this SARB meeting. It was about that time I started wondering if the stomach aches and headaches that had become everyday were caused by anxiety from these events and not just lingering anxiety of Mrs. Maldonado’s continued presence at the school; especially after I had taken her to be seen by doctors for it several times and they could not pinpoint a reason for the aches, though had no doubt they were real. I also arranged for her to get back into therapy. She is now seeing a Dr. Cross. Since Cassandra also is showing a lot of similar behavior to when I was her age, I have also made an appointment with a psychiatrist to evaluate her for anxiety disorders and bipolar disorder. This added stress has done nothing to help the situation. All it has done is bring out more symptoms and emotions issues for her and I.
And as for her getting sick with anything else - she is prone to getting colds. I have had her immunity checked. She’s fine, though I can have it tested again since it might be a little out of date. But this has been an on-going issue. Since she doesn’t spend a lot of time out in the neighborhood or with friends, she is subjected to more germs at the school than she is at home or anywhere else. I have expressed my concern to the teachers every year and try to ask them to remind her to use her hand sanitizer which should be in her backpack every day. She takes vitamins daily and she eats pretty healthy every day as well. STRESS is a known factor for lowing immunity so I have to wonder where else she is getting stress other than at home with other members of my family. The answer to that question? SCHOOL. She has come crying to me after school (mostly the last few months of the previous school year though a couple of times this year) in tears because of ‘lectures’ from those at the school about how even if she’s sick she needs to be in school. I don’t see how making my daughter feel like she’s lying about feeling sick helps and particularly now. Her own father accused her of lying about being molested just the one time when she was seven so she takes things VERY hard when adults accuse her of lying, even if they don’t come out and say the words. As we all know, it can be implied without it being said.
Let me conclude this by saying that if you want me to keep furnishing doctor’s notes I will. In fact, I intended to regardless. But I have lost any confidence and faith in this school district and at least one person in particular that you have at Gage – Mrs. Sherry Maldonado. The only reason I didn’t write out a formal complaint at the end of the school year was because I was assured she was going to be gone and I was told this by the woman that handles Special Education Coordination for the District – Laura (unfortunately I don’t remember her last name and I can’t find the paperwork I had it written down on at the moment). From now on, I will not be able to believe a word the District tells me when it comes to matters such as this and I will do what I think is in my daughter’s and my best interests, such as writing out formal complaints when necessary regardless of what I am told by anyone in the District since I cannot count on the truth.
This has caused my daughter and particularly myself undue amounts of stress to the point where I have almost found myself back in the hospital for a bipolar episode caused by this event. Though I am on medication and in therapy, any psychiatrist will tell you that medication can only do so much. It has crossed my mind that should I end up in the hospital I know where a lot of the blame lies at this given point.
Like my daughter, I don’t like to be made to feel that I am a liar since I do NOT keep my daughter home just to let her stay home. I have never just let her run wild and be truant. This has been an emotional blow that I personally don’t feel my daughter and I deserve. I am angry and if I could I would remove my daughter from this District all together because of this alone. There is no amount of interest or caring for the truth here. There is only blame to be assigned and threats to be made for non-compliance and in my personal opinion, it’s sickening. Those that should be brought here are the parents whose kids are ACTUALLY TRUANT, not sick. The parents whose kids run all over the city instead of school should be here. Not the ones whose children are actually sick. And as I have said before in this letter, I have lost any faith I had in this District and I doubt it will be renewed.
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