No trench coats....the kid's will freeze

Unless you are the parent of a school age child you will most likely find today's blog a boring one. Don't knock me off my soapbox just yet.........I enjoy it too much.

As many of you know today was the first day of a new school year so I am spending much of my evening signing off on all the papers that my 16 year old son has so responsibly brought home. I extend a BIG HATS OFF to you parents with 2 or more children in school. It takes some effort to sign this many papers and a devoted parent to read everything they sign.

PLEASE, please read this stuff before you sign it, make copies of the papers you sign and return and most importantly keep your student handbook. File them away in your filing cabinet or do what I am doing put them in a Wal Mart bag and throw them in the bottom of your underwear drawer. It's really not important where you keep them just keep them. After hearing a teacher or principal say to me on more than one occasion "it's in the handbook or it was in the paper I sent home for you to sign at the beginning of the school year," I now read, sign, copy and save.

There are a lot of interesting things in the county school handbook and particularly in the 4 page Brooks High School handbook distributed to the students today. Page one of the BHS student handbook regarding student absences states that excuses must be turned in within 3 days after the absence and before 7:50.... will the excuse be refused if a student attempts to submit it at any other time of the day? Students are only allowed 3 parental excuses per trimester. What about children with chronic illnesses that might render them incapable of attending school on more than 3 occasions but do not require a visit to the doctor's office each time? Oh, and parents make sure you put your child's full name, date of and reason for absence and also include a contact number on that excuse. If you send a note for your child to check out of school it must be in the office by, you guessed it, 7:50 with the reason for checking out clearly stated. Only 3 parental excuse notes will be allowed for checking in or out per trimester.


The dress code section declares that baggy pants and pants that are too tight are not acceptable. Should we hire tailors to design custom made pants for our children so they will not violate the BHS dress code? Is a perfect fit required or will the administrators be happy if their little cracks aren't showing and they can bend at the knees without busting a seam? I guess I'll be one of the first to know considering the fact that my son's pants have never been a perfect fit.


No hair in the eyes, no non-traditional hair colors , trench coats, decorative contact lenses, visible piercings except ears also made the list of no-no's at BHS. Most of these don't concern my child since he has no piercings, does not color his hair, and wears glasses (so decorative lens are out). The hair in the eyes might be a problem but if worse comes to worse I can whip out my kitchen shears and give him an emergency trim.

I am on the fence about some of this stuff. I really hate body piercings. Every time I see a pierced tongue or lip it literally makes me hurt. Do they distract me to the point that I can not function in whatever capacity I need to? Never. Strange hair colors don't bother me at all. In fact, I think pink hair looks good on some girls.... just not mine. I secretly admire people who don't conform and I hate to see that taken away from the kids who want to harmlessly express themselves.

I think it is important to have rules and regulations. I fully intend to have my child comply with the rules whether or not I agree with them. At least I won't have to say no if he has an urge to dye his hair green and pierce his tongue. I can rely on BHS to take care of that for me.