How blogging can get you called into the Principal's office...

Yesterday I was supposed to volunteer in the School Library, which ended up not happening since when I arrived I was asked by the ex-husband's wife if we could talk. There had been some other drama that happened between the ex-husband and my older daughter that while very disturbing was not appropriate to drag into the school. She has the right to not be harrassed by him and if she doesn't want to have a relationship with him even without going into the history that should be respected. Her right to privacy should also be respected, which it hasn't. So, I said no and basically that any personal drama that was happening didn't belong in the school and unless I had done something wrong as Library volunteer? Didn't think we had much to discuss.

Then, I was told that "someone" had printed out my post that I had written mostly in humor of my experience of trying to get into the school and my discovering that the ex-husband's wife even worked there and supposedly, placed this printed document in the ex-husband's wife's mail box at school, let's just refer to her as EHW to make it easier...

Obviously the EHW and the Principal had discussed this blog post because I was then asked to go into his office. He was not happy that I blogged about my door experiences and felt I should have come to him first. Perhaps he is correct on that aspect of this story, however from my perception as far as what I was told by other parents it seemed as this was not an unusual circumstance. He said that the buzzer system normally works and the door that I found open isn't usually left open, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt at this point. As to his concern about my blogging causing a poor reflection on this school or him, I see his point but I am blogging about my personal experiences and no one can dispute that what I wrote is not what happened. Nor do I mention him, the school or even the EHW by name.

After the EHW left the room and we discussed other issues that I figured since I had blogged about I better let him know such as my issues with the uniform dress code and how unhappy my daughter was there, and how I was handling that here. He wasn't aware that she had been made to eat her lunch alone since she wasn't one of the "clique". Then, I started to think about the whole issue of how this particular blog post ended up in EHW's mailbox at school. When I had questioned that she stated that I had told the parents at the library that morning that I was a blogger so "someone" must have searched me out.

However, none of them seemed really interested or even really knew what a blog was, so it was kind of strange that they would try to search me out on the internet and then print this one post out and take it to school. Especially since I don't use the name that I write under for my blogs at school. I never mentioned the names of any of my blogs, so they didn't search me out that way. I did express concern to the principal that given you can't find my blog using that name I found the claim that this had mysteriously ended up in EHW's mailbox pretty troubling. Especially since I've written several other posts about issues I had with TPS and none of those were included, just this particular post.

When I came home after having missed the whole time slot I was suppose to volunteer and felt a bit disgusted (yes that is an understatement - lol) that this whole drama was dragged into where I didn't feel it was appropriate or belonged in the first place, I checked my ip logs and I checked to see if you could find this blog using that name and what search terms had been used recently to find this blog. I also discovered that my oldest daughter had told the EHW that I was blogging because she was proud of what I was doing so EHW did know I was blogging before she heard me say I was in the library. I also know how many of you that visit here actually live in Toledo and know exactly who EHW is and where my daughter goes to school. So the list of people who could have actually printed out that blog post is pretty short.

I have no idea what the goal of this whole situation was, if it was to embarrass me? It didn't work. If it was designed to make me not volunteer at the Library? Not very likely unless of course I go with what I am feeling right now after the way this whole situation came about and the earlier concerns and pull her out of TPS. If it was merely about the door and the possible negative perception I could have created for this particular principal and this particular school? That was dealt with but I'm not going to stop blogging about things I want to blog about. It does really irk me that someone is trying to make me feel unsafe for my youngest daughter if "someone" is trying to create problems where she attends school. Considering the EH has no connection to her and he signed away all legal rights to my older two over 20 years ago it's unfortunate that this has come to this. The way this situation came about given the facts I know now compared to what was said yesterday could very well be my straw that broke the camel's back. However, unlike some...I try not to over-react.

Now, if whoever printed out the last post wants to print this one out and deliver it to the school too? We could have a weekly meeting to discuss what I blog about and I can provide weekly updates, perhaps we can even podcast them....

:-)