CCHSAD

I'm doing government right now. Government projects are not very fun, to put it mildly. I have a story about COMPusa vs Circuit City, but for now I want to share an email my Grams sent me.

SCHOOL ANSWERING MACHINE

This is the message that the Pacific Palisades High School staff voted unanimously to record on their school telephone answering machine. This is the actual answering machine message for the school. This came about because they implemented a policy requiring students and parents to be responsible for their children's absences and missing homework. The school and teachers are being sued by parents who want their children's failing grades changed to passing grades - even though those children were absent 15-30 times during the semester and did not complete enough schoolwork to pass their classes.

The outgoing message:

"Hello! You have reached the automated answering service of your school. In order to assist you in connecting to the right staff member, please listen to all the options before making a selection:
* To lie about why your child is absent - Press 1
* To make excuses for why your child did not do his work- Press 2
* To complain about what we do - Press 3
* To swear at staff members - Press 4
* To ask why you didn't get information that was already enclosed in your newsletter and several flyers mailed to you - Press 5
* If you want us to raise your child - Press 6
* If you want to reach out and touch, slap or hit someone -Press 7
* To request another teacher, for the third time this year -Press 8
* To complain about bus transportation - Press 9
* To complain about school lunches - Press 0

* If you realize this is the real world and your child must be accountable and responsible for his/her own behavior, class work, homework and that it's not the teachers' fault for your child's lack of effort: Hang up and have a nice day!

*If you want this in Spanish, you must be in the wrong country."

The Truth
This voice mail message never actually appeared on any high school voice mail system in Pacific Palisades, California, but the written version of it was created as a humorous and sarcastic response to an actual controversy at one of the schools.
In 2002 there was conflict between parents and school authorities at Pacific Palisades Charter High School over an attendance policy.The school is a part of Palisades Charter Schools, which operate under the Los Angeles Unified School District, but independently.The school tried to crack down on absences by deciding that any unexcused absences of ten or more days per tem would result in automatic failure for the student.A result was that during the first term of 2002, more than a hundred students who had otherwise passing grades were flunked because of absences and tardies. The parents cried foul. They said they had not know about the policy and some threatened to take the issue to court.Then the Los Angeles Unified School District got into the fray by saying that since the attendance policy had not been cleared with them, the failing grades would have to be set aside. The school disagreed, saying it had the privilege of operating autonomously because of being a charter school. In the midst of that, someone created the fictional answering machine message, which has circulated ever since as a monument of what teachers and administrators would like to be able to say to some parents.