Being Unbiased

Unbiased was a word I heard far too much of last week.

It started with the incident surrounding the letter I received from the school. I did talk to the principal and then the attendance committee's ringleader, and they explained their case. They used to only send this notice to parents of children who were obviously skipping school. However, those parents claimed it was biased to send the letter to the children whose parents were not calling in to report that their child was sick. Those parents feel that every child should receive the letter. So the policy changed to prevent a lawsuit over biased/unbiased behavior.

I still disagree. The reasoning per the school is that the past three years has shown an increase in the number of children whose parents are either not calling the school or whose children are skipping school without their parents' knowledge. Those are the people being targeted with this letter.

As a parent, it is their duty to call the school when their child is sick. So if they fail to do so, that's their problem. The deserve the reminder.

If the child is skipping without the parents' knowledge. Again, they need the letter.

To claim the school is being unfairly biased by not sending the letter to all students is asinine. First, it is our tax money that pays for the postage used up to send out the unnecessary letters.

Second, I know people with horrible credit ratings who are then charged higher interest ratings because of it. Does this mean it is a biased world and that EVERYONE should be forced to pay the penalty of bad credit? Can you imagine if the bank suddenly declined you a loan because you live near an area known for higher levels of debt, even though your own credit rating is stellar?

In essence, that's what these complaining parents have done.

It's just like at my husband's place of employment. A half dozen workers were abusing the ruling on personal calls. Some were spending more time on their phone than they were working, so the company decided no personal calls for anyone. It's unfair. Now if I need to get my husband a quick message, the receptionist comes on and denies me access. It has to be a life or death emergency before she will put a call through. She even admits that she has only recorded me as having called him twice this past year, while he has co-workers who were getting calls 6 times a day. Yet, phone privileges were taken from everyone.

It's absurd. I'm not sure I like the message we are sending our children. Doesn't matter how you behave, you will be punished for other people's irresponsible behavior.