Dc absent from school, so school called police

[angelinheaven]

Hi all, wasn't sure where to post, so posted here for traffic.
My dc was absent from school today, and I wasn't well either so at 7:10 am I emailed school so didn't have to think about ringing them at 9am.
Anyway where I live I get no mobile phone signal if downstairs, and the school tried calling me twice, and then called my mum, who was at work so did not answer her mobile either. So the school then called the police to say they where concerned that dc wasn't at school and they couldn't get hold of me.
So I then had a police officer knocking at my door!!!!!!!
Head teacher said she was worried and the reason why they didn't read my email was because the receptionist was off ill and no one else can access the school emails.
I am in shock that this has even happened, is this normal. My dc is never absent from school, and before anyone asks we have no issues with care of my dc or social services etc.
So just really confused, teacher did apologies, but still!!!!!! X

Message from MNHQ: We've been asked to put a trigger warning on this thread because there's some distressing content further down about a recent news story involving a child.

Ridiculous waste of police resources. The onus is on the school to improve their system for emails. There should always be someone responsible for checking these daily, it can't be reliant on one person who may be, as in this case, absent.

Beyond belief.

Best to be safe, not sorry.

Thank them for their work.

They did the right thing.

policebenevolentfund.com

It's a tough one. I'd want to know if my child hadn't made it to school and if there wasn't an answer from any phone I would hope that my dd school would be worried especially as they can't be sure you're not somewhere and that your child is somewhere else (or in danger). It's not a waste of Police time as it could so easily not a list of unfortunate events. If your child is usually at school then this in a way makes it more unusual and therefore more urgent.

Deploycharitygoats - I remember reading that. Tragic.

*Perhaps, it's the usual system on the schools you know, but in my DCs school, email is stated as being an appropriate way to let them know (after the phones weren't working properly for most of a week, and no one could let them know about children who were ill).

Probably best not to make sweeping judgments on what is acceptable at a given school - unless the school has specifically said NOT to email, you'd expect them to be able to see their email every day, not to depend on one member of staff looking!*

This.

My DS attends a school who ask you to email, not call. So for them to not check the emails and send the police round would be an asbolutely ridiculous waste of police time as they'd be missing out the most usual way for parents to communicate. If the school the OP's DC has the same policy then the OP is absolutely right to find their actions OTT.

In light of the sad deaths of the hackney boy and his mum, our school has recently sent out a new absence policy and request for 3 different adult contacts. The difference with ours though is the school will send 2 members of staff to the child's home if no one has been in contact or is contactable. If they still can't raise a reply, only then will they call the police.

I think the school did what they could with the information they had, but it is a massive failing of theirs that they apparently had no one else who could access the emails in th regular secretary's absence.

Yes that is the correct thing for school to do. In June 2015 a Guildford High School girl did not turn up to school, the school called the police when they could not reach the mother, and when the police did a house visit to investigate they found the daughter and mother murdered . It is not a waste of police time at all.

I don't think there is anything remotely wrong with how this has been handled , I'm sure if the police were really busy then the welfare check would just be shunted along until they aren't busy later in the day

Don't you think there is anything remotely wrong with failing to check emails? If they had done so, a lot of their own and the police's time would have been saved.

And no, the police can't just shunt the check into later in the day. They can't take the risk that, say, OP was seriously ill and that was why no-one was answering.

I would trust the police to decide whether and when to pay a visit in these circumstances.

The school did try hard to make contact by phone. I think they were right to report it, esp as the absence was out of character for your dc. I know a family personally where 1 parent was away and the other died in the night. Toddler was only saved because childminder thought the absence with no phonecall was unusual and càlled police.

I don't know what to think about this. I suppose if it was a worst-case scenario - the child had got abducted on the way to school - then it would have been right to call the police. And if they hadn't done, then you have a situation where the papers would say why didn't the school notify the parent, phone the police etc.

On the other hand, it does seem extreme.

Most schools have a special number to call for absences: you leave the message on an answer machine/voice mail and then they pick them up afterwards. It means you can call at 7am if you want without any problems.

Also seems crazy that only the receptionist can pick up emails.

The heart of the problem here was that the school couldn't access the email which had been sent. This is what was unacceptable and the school needs to address this. Other emails could have been sent to that address which contained vital, urgent information about safeguarding or other concerns which needed immediate action and for the school to not be able to see them is totally unacceptable. They must ensure that whichever email addresses they make available to parents or other groups who may contact school, people in school can access them every day, regardless of which individuals are in or not.

Given the school couldn't access the emails and so didn't know one had been sent, they did the right thing. However, they should not have needed to do this if their communication systems were effective and it is because of this that OP is right to be annoyed. Yes, it is right for schools to follow up unexplained absence ......but the key point is that this had been explained.

If I were the OP I would be contacting the school to ask what they will be doing to ensure that emails can always be accessed. And if they want phone calls as well as emails, clarify where this info is and if it isn't clear, what they will do to make the situation clearer.

This isn't about feeling grateful and glad that schools and the Police etc follow up, so people don't slip through the net. It's about the school communication systems.

After reading that article I'd rather they were overly cautious. A pain in the tits I'm aware as you had done everything you thought you needed too op but in worse case scenario could save lives.

One of the primary schools local to us have this as policy.

The last time it was used a single mother was found dead. Her children thought she was sleeping, so the older one dressed himself and his younger sibling in their night clothes and put them both to bed

Thankfully, due to the school's diligence, they were found by police shortly after 9:30am.

Do the school not have an answer machine? We can leave a message at anytime- when mine are ill, I prefer to do it as early as I can (7,7.30) rather than having to wait until 9.

Lots of posts about what different schools do as always but not relevant to what happens at the OP's school, it's quite obvious that the only wrong thing is the not checking of emails.

I think the OP has said the school only has 32 pupils, it's tiny of course it doesn't have elaborate systems for absence and as long as they now make sure they know the log on for the email it'll be easily sorted.

It's more important to check on pupils who are rarely absent without notification as this means there's more likely to be a serious problem.

We can't leave a message at dds school until at least 8am. I once tried earlier and the system wasn't switched on.

It is not a waste of police time at all.
Yes, it is. They should have read their email.

If I sent the police to check on someone, when that person had emailed me within the last couple of hours, I think they'd regard that as quite a serious waste of their time. This is no different surely?

Sounds a bit extreme but at the same time reassuring to know if someone bad has genuinely happened how quickly the police were at your door to check all is ok

The flip side of this is the importance of thinking about how the school can get hold of you and the emergency contacts in the event of something serious happening to DC while at school should they need to ...

I am heartbroken for that little boy. How did no one notice? I think the school should have sent a member of staff rather than police but I'm glad they were so proactive. Email is not the most reliable form of communication. Iv been up all night with an ill child & still made sure I set the alarm to call the school.

Mumoftwoyoungkids - totally. It always makes me laugh that our infant school is really strict about anybody other than a parent collecting, even if it's another parent in the school. But you can ring and leave a message in the day time if plans change, saying "My child will be picked up by so and so." In the unlikely event that I was planning to kidnap said child I could ring up and say I was the mother, how could they possibly tell?

Our school is really crap at responding to email so I would never rely on it for a message, but if the school generally responds to email and accepts message by email then I think the OP was reasonable in this situation.

However, you do need an 'in case of emergency' number that will work for other things eg an actual emergency while they are at school. You wouldn't want your child to be in hospital and you not be told because your phone had no signal in your house would you? So you either need a landline and / or several other family members or friends who could go on the emergency contact list.

The school did absolutely the right thing so you are being ridiculous.
The rules are there to safeguard the children and for child protection.
I'm sure you'd be unhappy if something had happened and no one had checked up to see if they were ok...because that's essentially what they were doing.
You say the secretary was absent, who else do you think then will check the emails? You could be in a smaller school where there are no other admin staff and the headteacher may have been teaching, dealing with something else, working with pupils etc.
You should have phoned the school, left a message etc but emailing is not enough!