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What to Make of This?

I wonder if I didn’t witness a sign of a school’s decline.

With the new school year approaching, I have Cub Scout business to attend to. Most importantly, I had to make sure I reserved the school’s cafeteria for our upcoming Joining Night activity, where we will hopefully pull in a new battalion of future Scouts. In order to do so, I have to stop by our school and fill out a building use form.

When I stepped into the office, everyone was busy with whatever business needs attending to by the office personnel. So I quietly stepped around the welcome counter to where most of the pertinent forms are and pulled out a couple of building use forms. I’ve done this action many times now since taking over as Cubmaster for our town’s Pack. I figure it saves everyone time and hassle since the office people don’t have to stop what they’re doing and I don’t have to wait. I then returned to the visitors side of the counter and started filling out my form.

At which point, I was disturbed by a tiny, pleasant looking woman with brown curly hair. “Hi,” she began. I lifted my eyes to look at her, but didn’t really lift my head. She put some kind of a smile on her face as she continued “I’m with the office police and you’re not supposed to come back here.” She pointed at the floor behind the counter. “Someone is supposed to help you by getting the forms for you. I have to warn you about this, so, um, considered yourself warned. OK?” She then flashed me her biggest smile.

I politely smiled back, nodded and said “Yep, I guess I’ve been warned.” She then returned to her desk at the rear of the office and I finished filling out the form, turned it so it was prominent on the counter, and left.

I can’t help but wonder if this isn’t a sign of something, what I’m not sure. I mean, this is a small town and I’m pretty recognizable around here. I was actually a bit of a running joke last year for the school’s office because I visited regularly. I’m not asking for special treatment either- anyone that the office personnel recognize as being with any of the many school related organizations should be able to go grab one of those forms. I mean, what’s important is that the form gets filled out, not who gets it right? And, well, when someone introduces themselves as “the office police” and acts like they are standing on hallowed ground, call me crazy, but that ain’t right. I’m also wondering, what are the consequences now that I’ve been warned?

Also, for some reason, this person came to mind.

4 replies on “What to Make of This?”

As a Connecticut resident, you should be able to think of at least one horrific reason why office personnel may be a little less lenient with visitors now a days. I am not saying you should be suspected of anything, but it is always the people that people least suspect. Additionally, I find it encouraging that someone in that office has the guts to stand up and say something that puts everyone on notice that “we are watching”. Would you rather have them not notice?

You may be known, but how many times does the crazy person have to calmly walk into the office before everyone is comfortable with that individual too?

Liability is a scary thing, and when the lives of children are at stake, it might be best to support efforts at security and encourage a second glance or an extra question. Unfortunately, it only takes one person letting something slide to change the course of a life forever.

Wow. I can see both sides of this. But it is strange they would say something to you especially if it is someone who has been there. Makes me wonder about the new superintendent. Our introduction was the new absence rules letter. I understand where your friend Noel is coming from but there is still something odd in the air. I don’t like it either.

Yeah, I think a letter of some sort would have been, and still could be, the correct thing to do. I’ll be curious if anyone else gets that treatment. Part of me wonders if I wasn’t singled out due to the fact that I’m male, to be honest.

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