In writing this article, I had many reservations about possible retaliation against my children from San Francisco Unified School District. However, if I do not say anything, more Black and Hispanic parents will continue to be harassed by the public school system. The problem is, 80% of Child Protective Services referrals are coming from San Francisco public school administrators. Many of the reports filed by public schools are allegations of neglect. Under the Unified School District, public schools are protected by certain laws for reporting issues to Child Protective Services. Public schools are abusing CPS to force parents into the public schools' opinions on parenting.
I do not believe schools have the right to abuse those laws for the purposes of retaliation, discrimination or harassment against Black and Hispanic parents.
Many public schools never notify the parents about their concerns. Parents are left in the dark about their own children, until Child Protective Services arrives at their doorstep. The scary fact is this is happening more often to Black and Hispanic parents. 60% of CPS referrals are on Black and Hispanic parents. Most of these are working parents, who love their children, volunteer at their child's school, make it to teacher meetings and so on. As a society, what is happening, it appears, is San Francisco public schools is on a witch hunt to put our children in the CPS system, and to put Black and Hispanic parents under investigation.
I interviewed many Black single mothers voicing their concerns with the San Francisco public school system. They say they are afraid of speaking out on the subject, for fear of their children being removed out the home.
One parent told me her story. Nancy's children attended Lakeshore Elementary School in San Francisco. In January of 2013, Child Protective Services came to her home, accusing her 6-year-old son of not being registered in school . Nancy said she was confused because her 6-year-old son was attending school every day at Lakeshore Elementary. Nancy asked CPS who had reported those accusations. The CPS caseworker responded, “The principal of the school called.” Nancy said the caseworker accused her of being on AFDC welfare, and she responded that she is not on any cash aide. The caseworker was shocked by Nancy's statements. Again, Nancy was advised that the Lakeshore school principal had reported the information. The Unified School District set up a meeting about her 6-year-old son's truancy. When Nancy attended the meeting, she learned that Lakeshore Elementary reported her son had missed 46 days of school. Nancy was shocked. She said her child had attended school. Nancy had a meeting with the Principal and her son’s kindergarten teacher, just to find out the information reported to Child Protective Services was misleading. Lakeshore wrongfully reported the information to CPS. The case was never closed. CPS still has an open case against Nancy. Twice a month a caseworker visits her home, and shows up to school parent meetings. Nancy is scared that her children will be removed from her home due to Lakeshore's false allegations.
Nancy's story is just one of many. I also have a story. I have two boys who attend Creative Arts Charter School. I thought Creative Arts was a great fit for my 8-year-old son. Such a great fit that I wanted my 4-year-old son to attend the same school. All went well, and now both of my children are attending Creative Arts Charter School.
However, suddenly in February of 2013 Creative Arts made a decision to kick my 4-year-old son out of the school, due to his age. I fought and wrote letters to keep him in the school. I received a call from the principal stating he could stay in Creative Arts, yet I did not expect the retaliation aftereffect. I started receiving phone calls left and right about my 4-year-old son. First about him not passing his vision test, so I had his vision retested, and my son passed the test done by a private doctor. I received another call from the school counselor accusing my 4-year-old of sexual harassment. I later found out the story was a lie, and the school counselor apologized.
In May of 2013, I was picking up my children from school at 1pm. I asked my 8-year-old to pick up his now 5-year-old brother from class and meet me outside. Apparently, there was a miscommunication between my 8-year-old son and the afterschool teacher. I found out through an email sent to me at 3pm, stating the following,
"hi there- son cannot take his brother out of school. He is too young. Both boys are registered for After School and so are technically in After School the minute school ends until they are picked up by a responsible adult who is on your list of people who are allowed to pick up your children. Therefore, they are my responsibility from the moment school ends until they are picked up. Today when I saw them outside of school, I asked them where they were going and they said you were waiting for them up the street. I said you needed to come in to sign them out that they were too young to leave on their own. They ran away from me up the street where the construction is. There is no actual sidewalk there for them to walk on and so they ran into the street. They were very unsafe. Your children's safety after school ends is my responsibility until you or a responsible adult on their list comes to pick them up. Please let them know."
I thought, wow, what is this teacher talking about? I never received a phone call from Creative Arts on this issue. I was confused. I never saw my children run into the street. I also wondered, if there were any questions about releasing my children, then why didn't anyone contact me from the school? I thought the email was strange and alarming. The next day, I met with the Creative Arts principal. He was making false accusations of hearsay from strangers and the afterschool care teacher. The principal admitted he questioned my son on who takes him to school. I asked the principal why that is a question, and furthermore why my son is being questioned without a parent present.
Things became clear that the afterschool teacher was covering her ass for some reason, and accused my children of being unsupervised. I explained to the principal, and the afterschool teacher that watched my children leave safely. So what is going on? Funny no one could answer that question.
After the meeting, I believed the misunderstanding was cleared up.
A week later Child Protective Services came to my home. I was advised that Creative Art Charter School called, making accusations of neglect and concerns about me being a single parent, and my children's clothing attire. I was greatly shocked. I have never neglected my children. This was my 8-year-old's second year at Creative Arts, so why all of the sudden the accusations of neglect? The CPS caseworker shocked me with the details, which all were false. Funny, in the report Creative Art Charter School said, "oh the parent is nice." I realized this is in retaliation for the letter I sent in February 2013 to keep my 5-year-old in the school.
What's even more interesting is that I spent the summer getting my children up to grade level. However, my 8-year-old slipped two grades behind. I realized my child did not understand the concepts of reading, math and so on. I'm glad I caught it in time. Both of my sons are smart, so I will advise the public schools to focus more on teaching and academics than calling CPS on parents.
No parent should have to go through this type of retaliation.