Do you get an SMS or a phone call if your child doesn’t arrive at school in the morning? Some parents do, some don’t. The way Ann Golub sees it, that could mean the difference between life and death.
The Sydney mum has launched a petition to make it compulsory for schools to contact parents if their child doesn’t turn up. She believes there’s a danger of children being abducted as they walk to school. It’s a scenario that goes through her head.
“Between 8.30 at their home and 8.40 when they reach school, a car pulls over, grabs the child and puts them in the boot,” she says.
“Things like that are giving me shivers all over my body. Abductions still happen. We know that from the child Daniel [Morcombe] in Queensland.”
Golub says if a child was to be abducted on the way to school, it’s possible their parents wouldn’t be aware they’d gone missing until the end of the school day. She says if parents were told their child hadn’t turned up first thing in the morning, it would help.
“It would give the police a chance to maybe recover the child.”
She says there are other reasons why a child might set out for school but not make it there.
“They could fall and lie there unconscious with a cracked head, bleeding on the pavement. It could be anything. The point is, we must minimise risk to our children.”
Golub’s daughter is almost eight. She doesn’t let her walk to school alone, but she says other parents who have kids of a similar age do.
“I observe lots of kids her age and slightly older than her walking along our road every morning and afternoon by themselves. I don’t know how far they have to walk but it freaks me out that anybody, very simply, can stop, grab them and take them, and nothing would stop them.”
The school that Golub’s daughter attends doesn’t get in touch with parents if their child is absent.
“Last year my daughter was home for three days, sick with a cold. As an experiment, I did not contact the school. And guess what? They did not contact me either.”
Golub’s petition has already had several hundred signatures. One supporter says she’s afraid to let her children catch the bus to school because she won’t know if they’ve arrived safely. Another says she would happily pay a higher school contribution to have this system introduced.
Several parents mention that they receive a text if their child at high school is absent, but not if their child at primary school is.
Golub believes it would be easy for schools to set up an electronic system, linked to the rollcall, to notify parents automatically.
“In my daughter’s class, the rollcall is done on an electronic whiteboard,” she explains. “Children see pictures and each of these has a name. They come up to the whiteboard and press their finger to the picture with their name and it disappears. If one of the children doesn’t activate their button, that should send an automatic SMS or a call to the parent.”
Golub says if that’s too technologically advanced, then the teachers or the front office should contact the parents. She thinks if some schools can do this, then all of them should be able to.
“It should be a law for every school, no exception.”
Do you agree with this petition? Would you support receiving notification if your child hasn't arrived at school?
Top Comments
Could be a good idea, but sometimes I feel like the schools are expected to be responsible for everything. Where do they get all the money and extra staff to provide all this stuff that they are supposed to do, in my day they were just supposed to teach us and that was it. The other problem is that if they sign up to this procedure and the system falls through the cracks then of course the school will be sued if anything happens to a kid.
yes I can see that it could really make a difference for some kids that end up getting abducted, but it does seem as if overworked, underfed schools have to be responsible for everything in a child's life these days.
I wonder if parents would be better off installing the iphone find my home app, give the phone to the kid then check each day where they are. yes a lot of work (and they are essentially stalking their own kid) but then hey it's is just as time intensive for a school to have to do this too. But then I know some parents don't want their kids to have phone either, so I don't know what is the best way.
Maybe have them microchipped like my pet! then gps em! Ha Ha!