Devoted Reader Mike sends along this great story, which Joanne Jacobs also noted:
Fourteen-year-old Lauren Lee recently got some great news in a progress report sent home from Sherwood High School in Montgomery County [Maryland]. The freshman got an "A" in a tough honors-level geometry course.
Not bad, thought Lauren's mother, Lauren Asbury, especially considering that her daughter never attended the school. "She doesn't go to Sherwood," explained Mrs. Asbury. "She goes to Good Counsel High School."
And you guys thought Blair Hornstine was the master of getting good grades in classes that she never attended.
Lauren, who lives in Olney, has never attended Sherwood High School in Sandy Spring, but that hasn't stopped teachers she's never met from giving her high marks. Two of the four teachers at Sherwood whose classes Lauren never attended gave her A's anyway, according to the Sept. 26 progress report school officials recently mailed home.
"It was kind of funny at first," Mrs. Asbury said. "But then it's really scary when you think about it. I mean, if they thought my daughter was really going to school there, then why didn't anybody call me?"
I agree; it would freak me out as well. What's also bothersome is that Sherwood's administrators aren't returning Ms. Asbury's phone calls, although the school's automated system is still pinging her phone to inform the Asbury's of "upcoming school events and other information. "
"I've called the school," Mrs. Asbury said, "because I want to make sure no truant officers start coming after us."
I don't think she's overreacting. The school has her address, phone number, and is convinced that her daughter is supposed to be there. If a school can send a grade to a student who never attended a class, surely they can send a truant officer after the child if her "attendence" starts to slip!
Posted by kswygert at November 13, 2003 09:44 PM