Dad Pens Facebook Post To Explain Why School Attendance Rules Don’t Apply To His Kids

There are certain facts about public school of which we’re all aware: the lunches are crappy, standardized testing is an unnecessarily big deal, and vacations during school days are marked as unexcused absences, regardless of how cool they are. There’s at least one parent in the world who doesn’t know these things, though, as evidence by a recent response to a school policy form letter that went viral.

Mike Rossi, a Pennsylvania part-time radio personality, recently took his kids on a three-day vacation to watch him fulfill his dream of running the Boston Marathon. Since vacations are unexcused by most school districts — unless it’s a funeral or something, of course — the principal mailed a letter letting them know that the absences would be recorded as unexcused and that an accumulation of unexcused absences could result in a referral to an attendance officer.

Outside of the names and dates, the letter reads like pretty much any other form letter notifying parents of the school’s absence policy. It’s not a threat. It just says, “Hey, a compulsory attendance law exists and this is how it works. Just letting you know in case you plan anymore vacays on school time, mmkay?”

Rossi didn’t take it that way. Rossi told Yahoo Parenting the letter was a “nasty-gram” and posted it to his Facebook page with the most self-congratulatory, eyeroll-inducing response one could muster. He wrote:

Dear Madam Principal,

While I appreciate your concern for our children’s education, I can promise you they learned as much in the five days we were in Boston as they would in an entire year in school.Our children had a once-in-a-lifetime experience, one that can’t be duplicated in a classroom or read in a book.

In the 3 days of school they missed (which consisted of standardized testing that they could take any time) they learned about dedication, commitment, love, perseverance, overcoming adversity, civic pride, patriotism, American history culinary arts and physical education.

The response goes on. And on. And on. It details everything they did on their trip and everything they got out of it that they couldn’t possibly learn in school and how the kids are actually ahead of the game now from learning so much.

In addition our children walked the Freedom Trail, visited the site of the Boston Tea Party, the Boston Massacre and the graves of several signers of the Declaration of Independence. These are things they WILL learn in school a year or more from now. So in actuality our children are ahead of the game.

They also visited an aquarium, sampled great cuisine and spent many hours of physical activity walking and swimming.

According to Yahoo Parenting, Rossi said his intent wasn’t to shame the principal, but to express his anger at district policy because it doesn’t make any sense. After all, his marathon was super special and that means his kids are exempt from rules that apply to everyone else in the district.

Here’s the thing: absence policies aren’t a secret. They’re in the handbook. They’re on the website. And the principal is required to let you know when you’re in violation of the district-stated policy. It’s not personal. It’s not, as Yahoo wrote, shaming you. It doesn’t require a multi-paragraph response on Facebook outlining your exemplary parenting in excruciating detail.

This could have been brought to the attention of the principal privately, or even taken to a school board meeting or to the superintendent if he cares that much about changing district policy. Instead, he plastered it on social media with the principal’s name attached and he needlessly made an example of them when they were just doing their job. I’m sure running a school is difficult enough without having to take abuse from internet strangers because parents can’t tell the difference between an FYI and a personal attack.

(Photo: Facebook)