Sunday, June 10, 2007

Tragic story that happened to my daughter at school

Wednesday June 6Th

Alina came home with tears running down her face and yelling that they stoled her coat over and over before she even had both feet in the door. James and I both ran to her trying to find out who stoled her coat and when did it happen. After getting her calm down she explained that she got off the bus and went to morning recess before school started she was playing with her friends when this fourth grader named Taylor said Alina had her coat. She told the recess lady that Alina had her coat. The recess lady told Alina to give the coat to Taylor and Alina proceeded to tell her that it was her coat, but the lady proceeded and made Alina take the coat off and give it to this girl. Alina said then she went to Mrs. Botenhagen and told her that they stoled her coat she said let go to the principal Mrs. Carsley, so Alina did and told Mrs. Carsley what happened. We then asked so what did Mrs. Carsley do she talked to Taylor, but Taylor still has it Alina said. Now James and I are upset. James calls Mrs. Botenhagen but all we get is her answering, so James leaves a message. He then calls Mrs. Carsley and the Secretary said that she was in a meeting and then asked is this about the coat! Of course it is said James and she said well you can leave Mrs. Carsley a message, so James does. We did not get a call back and Alina had her swimming lesson at 6:00pm so James called at 4:50 pm and no answer so he emailed Mrs. Carsley and this is what the email said,

Dear Leslie,


My daughter Alina Gerke says she had her jacket stolen by a yard duty this morning and given to another student. She came home again with a shirt she said she was told she had to wear . the jacket had no name in it today which doesn't mean there wont be one in there tomorrow but we want the jacket back . what do we need to do to get this resolved?

I called and left a voice mail for you but Kathie said you were in a meeting and then i called back at 4:50 and nobody answered .




James Gerke

Now let me go back a bit and to let you know that we bought this coat for Alina the beginning of the school year for first grade. We bought it larger then normal because it had horses on it and Alina loves horses along with, she grows really fast and we did not want this to last for only two months. When we saw it we had never seen one like that before along with it being a coat. Now this is not a Heavy coat, it is a sweater coat for spring and fall type weather. Alina was wearing for awhile because the weather had permitted it, but then it started raining, so Alina wore her rain coat. The Weather started getting nice again so we told Alina that she could wear her horse coat again but she could not find it so we told her to check lost and found at school maybe she had left it there. Sure enough she came home with it the same day. She only had this back for two days when this all started happening.

When we got back home we had a message from Mrs. Carsley. We had just walked in at 6:55pm and she called at 6:50pm
She said that she had talked to Alina this morning about the coat and that she said she wears a 7 and this coat is a large Mrs. Roady ( recess lady) said that she has seen this girl Taylor wear this coat and did not think it was Alina's because it was to big. And then Mrs. Carsley said that she talked to Mrs. Botenhagen ( Alina's Teacher) and She shed ed some light that Alina had come in one day with no coat and went to the lost and found and found that coat so she did not know if that was Alina's coat or not. So Mrs. Carsley said if we could shed some light on this coat.

James called and no one answered so he emailed again while I started looking for the receipt. This is what the email said,


Lesley,

We are looking for the receipt for the jacket we know we purchased it at the beginning of the school year . we also bought a large for the fact we had never seen one like that with horses on it (Alina loves horses)and we wanted Alina to enjoy it for more than 2 month . when the weather started getting nicer and not so much rain we had Alina wearing the jacket . Then it rained and she wore a different coat . When the weather permitted we told her to wear that jacket she said she lost it so we told her to go to the lost and found to look for it .Low and behold she came home with it that day .


we have not yet found the receipt but we found the First day of school pictures when Alina wore it to Mable rush . I am sending the attached to this email. If you zoom in on her in the picture you can tell it was large and way baggy on her

James Gerke

this is the picture of her coat!http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/6940/alinacoatyd9.jpg
We did not hear back that night.

Thursday June 7Th
I woke up in the morning with a major headache because I did not sleep well. I was going to take Alina to school that morning, but because of not sleeping well and was still very upset that I was spitting nails literally! James took Alina to school and went to go talk to Mrs. Carsley, but of course she was in a meeting again!
James came home and we decided to call the superintendent to get this situation handled, but of course they were in meeting as well so we left a message.
So while James and I waited for calls, we decided that if this is how schools run that we do not want Kyla to have to experience this nor let Alina experience any more hurt. We went to CSLA (C.S. Lewis Academy) and get them registered there. When I told Mrs. Sedevy (principal) on what happened with Alina and why we changed our mind and that both girls would be coming here. She dropped her mouth and shaked her head in disappointment and said they just ruined the trust for her. I said exactly and along with she already does not like school so lets just compound that even more. I told her that I really like CSLA because we feel welcome and that Kyla loves school and that I am hoping that we can get Alina turned around so she love school as well! We talked a little more and also set an appointment for Alina to come in and take a test for what grade, because of the public school and CSLA having different programs. Now Alina is suppose to be going into second grade but depending on the test Alina could go into third grade. So we will have to wait to see on Monday.

When we got home we got a message from Mrs. Carsley and she said that she got the coat back from Taylor this morning. She said she went to Taylor and asked her again where she got the coat and Taylor said she got it from her friend Jessica before she moved. Mrs. Carsley said she had changed her story from the first so she took her to her office and showed Taylor the pictures of Alina wearing that coat and told her that they sure look alike and demanded the coat back. She said that she was going to call the parents and that Alina would be getting it back in the morning We call and left a message because she was in a meeting again. We were trying to figure out why would she need to keep the coat for one more day. So now we are looking at that we will just get Alina out of school and not have her go back. We looked at she only has a week left and they are not going to be learning a whole lot on the last week of school. So when we went to pick up Alina from school we let them know that, but then Alina reminded us of her talent show is on the last day of school, so we said she would come back in on Tuesday and finish school for the last four days, but will miss Friday just because she was hurting about her coat and Monday because she is going to get tested at CSLA.
It was time for the girls swimming try outs for the swim team and we still had not heard for the school, So James called Mrs. Carsley and told her that we are applaud in how this was handled and that both girls will not be going to your school next year because of this situation. We were getting ready to leave for the girls swimming, so James let Mrs. Carsley know and our cell phone numbers.
She did call back on James cell, but we could not hear his ringer in the pool area (enclosed) because of all the nosies.
She said that she was hoping Alina was coming back because she wanted to talk to both girls and was disappointed to her that the girls would not be coming in for next year and she was wondering if we could talk tomorrow in her office at 9:30 am.
James called back to let her know that we would be there on her message.

Friday June 8Th
Mrs. Carsley must not got the message because I answer the phone and she wanted to make sure that we could come in this morning at 9:30 am. I told her yes, and then she said she was hoping Alina was going to be here this morning but notice that she was not so she talked to Taylor alone.
When we walked into Mrs. Carsley office she handed us Alina's coat back and then she said that she had Taylor come in this morning and she was looking at the coat. Mrs. Carsley then asked her again were she got the coat and Taylor said that she found it a couple of weeks ago on the bench with her friend during recess. She had put it on and was wearing all day. Mrs Carsley then asked her did you put it in the lost and found and she said no she wore it home. Mrs Carsley then asked her so then what did you tell your grandmother where you got the coat and she said that she told her grandma she got it from a friend. Mrs. Carsley then let her know that she lied to her grandma and to the school and stoled, which is theft, from another little girl. Mrs. Carsley then said to us that she told Taylor that she wanted a written apology letter that will go with Alina and a verbal apology to Alina. She also told her that she is going to call her grandma to let her know that she lied, and that she was going to have a police officer come in and talk to Taylor about the seriousness about steeling and what could happen if she keeps going down this path. James then asked did the girl have any problems in handing the coat over and she said I told her to take it off that it was mine now. James then said what I mean to say, did she have any problems in handing it over, did she cry or act out. And Mrs. Carsley said she showed no remorse about the coat.
Then Mrs. Carsley said that Mrs Roady said that she saw the coat on Taylor so she assumed that it was Taylor's when she saw it on Alina and it looked big.
She then said that she was disappointed that the girls would not be coming to there school next year that she has them set up with really great teachers! And that Kyla is with a teacher that will challenge her for 1st grade.
I told her will have to think about it!
And then she said she was hoping that Alina would come back because she wanted Taylor to apology to Alina and that her, Mrs. Botenhagen (Alina's teacher) , and Mrs Roady ( the Recess lady) wanted to talk to Alina as well.
We told her that Alina would be back on Tuesday and to finish the rest of the school and so she can do her talent show that she has been working very hard at and we did not want her being disappoint then she has already.
I also told her that apologies are nice, but Alina will not for get she is not a person who easily for gives and forgets
so if she sees Taylor she will probably point her out to her friends that she stoled from her. I also told her that she did not make it easy that Alina will trust them or to like school, as for now she does not like school and now you made it even harder for her to like school.
We told her again that Alina will be back in on Tuesday.
I will make sure to be there when they go to talk to Alina and it better be an apology from them as well and not to make Alina emotional or stress. Other wise there will be words.

We are playing phone tag with the superintendent and we never heard from Mrs. Botenhagen We are hoping we get to talk to the superintendent so we can get this fix so it does not happen to another child.

If you have any suggestion or comment on the situation or what we could do better on we would be greatly appreciated. Thank You