lake Travis high principal/parent freak out... (Austin, Murchison: renting, neighborhood)

[BentBow]

You can please some some of the time, but you will never please everyone all the time.

Remember that!

[CarnivalGal]

I don't have kids at LT, but we are in Steiner, and they locked down our schools as well. Seems like a bit of an overreaction, but I'd rather they overreact than under-react.

If I had a kid at LTMS or LTHS, I probably would have gone down there too - if for nothing else to find out what the hell is going on. There were websites and I believe one news station that reported there were shots fired at one of the schools. If I thought someone was shooting at the school my kids were at, you're damn right I would go down there to make sure they're OK.

[Gorfml]

but u couldn't make sure they are okay by going down there since the schools were on lock down 0_o...

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by mm57553

I don't have kids at LT, but we are in Steiner, and they locked down our schools as well. Seems like a bit of an overreaction, but I'd rather they overreact than under-react.

If I had a kid at LTMS or LTHS, I probably would have gone down there too - if for nothing else to find out what the hell is going on. There were websites and I believe one news station that reported there were shots fired at one of the schools. If I thought someone was shooting at the school my kids were at, you're damn right I would go down there to make sure they're OK.

I think the point of the original poster is not that they shut down the school, but the principal sounded panicked instead of calm cool and collected. The leader can never show fear.

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by Gorfml

lol @ attacking my cell phone grammar...

i bet those delirious parents would not have been hanging out on the side of a dangerous road if the principal wouldn't have frightened the kids...causing them to send out frightened texts... or maybe they would have?

yeah it was handled great...

It's a tangent, but I and everyone I personally text with or send emails to or receive them from using a cell phone are perfectly capable of using correct grammar, punctuation, and spelling in those messages, and do so.

All of which, of course, has nothing to do with the thread. I agree with you that the principal, IF she was as freaked out in transmitting the information to the students as you say she was, was remiss. Again, we only have your word that you have your child's word that this was the case, and we have other parents who report otherwise, so there's no way for us, here, to know what actually transpired.

Your use of "helicopters" in this context, without first clarifying which use of the word you intended, was naturally confusing, as in a situation where there was an armed person on a campus, actual helicopters flying over the school is the more likely meaning than the one you intended.

Which is to say, if you really want people to hold the principal responsible and to take you seriously, you're going to also have to accept some responsibility for the confusion created by your own posting style rather than trying to laugh it off.

[CarnivalGal]

Originally Posted by Gorfml

but u couldn't make sure they are okay by going down there since the schools were on lock down 0_o...

No, but you could get information. If there is one thing I learned during the fires, it's that the local news media absolutely, positively sucks. They were reporting over and over again that houses were burning in Canyon Glen. In fact, no houses burned in Canyon Glen - the houses in question were in another section. Some people who were worried about their pets went to Steiner where firefighters gave them the accurate information. News stations on the other hand, were still giving out the incorrect info. Even after three people I know called them FROM STEINER to tell them they had it wrong and directing them where to go for the correct info.

[Gorfml]

hmm, well I had all the information I needed from my home via text messages. I felt no need to go sit out on 620 for the possibility of an inside scoop...

it's helicoptering...plain and simple...

[nonexpat]

Originally Posted by austin-steve

My apologies. The excessive histrionics induced an unfounded and sexist assumption on my part that you're female. I do apologize.

LOL! I also thought the OP writes like an eleventh grader. Using terms like "spazzing out", and then I figured that particular term is probably not in use from teens and dates to the 1980's when I was a teen.

I wouldn't want to be a principal or a clergy person. Neither will ever please everyone, and someone will always make a stink about a particular action--which reminds me, I need to write an email to my daughter's principal about a biology teacher who isn't doing her job.

[austin-steve]

Originally Posted by Gorfml

hmm, well I had all the information I needed from my home via text messages. I felt no need to go sit out on 620 for the possibility of an inside scoop...

it's helicoptering...plain and simple...

Well, if you want to talk about the definition of a helicopter parent specifically, let's do it. I don't think the parents you describe meet the definition.

A "helicopter parent" is one who excessively intervenes and inserts himself into the scholastic goings on of a college student. For example, sending the teacher an email instead of letting the student discuss a poor grade directly with the teacher. Dictating which classes a student will take, etc.

The term in fact was coined in reference to college parents, not Middle School or even High School parents. It references the inability of college parents to "let go" of the level of control and influence they exerted over their children prior to college.

I don't think the definition applies to a Middle School parent who, upon hearing news of a gunman loose on school grounds, decides to physically go to the school. I would not consider such parents to be "outliers" or "out of step" with the normal range of parent behaviors that might be expected under such circumstances. It's more of a fear-based, emotional response than an indication of ongoing chronic disorder of excessive over-involvement in the child's life. And one could argue that a high level of involvement in middle school is more than appropriate anyway.

Your characterization of these parents as somehow lacking, and your incorrect application of the pejorative expression "helicopter parents" is, however, out of joint with what the average person might think about the situation.

This makes you and your assertions more "out of step" or "disconnected from reality"" than those parents who went to the school. I think perhaps you wanted a parent like that and didn't have one. Is that what this is about?

Steve

[centralaustinite]

Steve rocks it as always! Middle school and high students need highly involved parents.

I imagine that most of the parents out on 620 were running the worst case in their minds: their child is wounded, if so, being on the scene might mean being able to ride in the ambulance and help with care immediately. Realistic or not, I do not fault them.