My Single Mom Life

Yesterday was just not a good day here.
At 11:25am, one of Sebastian's teachers called me, not the house phone, but my cell phone.
The cell phone is the emergency contact number on the call list if they call the house number first and do not get an answer.
The school knows that I am usually at home 24 hours a day unless I have a doc appointment, so why she called that number I haven't a cue.
But it's what she said to me that was the problem.
She asked me where Sebastian was.

I told her he was at school, she told me that he wasn't, that he never showed up at Riverview High School at all, he was marked absent by all of his teachers for the 3 class periods that had already passed.
I told her that was impossible, he left here at 6:45am, he walks to school, he wouldn't ever skip school, that's not the kind of kid he is, he's got to be there I told her.
She kept repeating to me that he was not there, that he never arrived, her exact words to me were "Sebastian Cooper has not been on Riverview High school property at all today, he is not on property."
I started to panic, Mark was now listening to me very closely.
I asked her again where he was, how did the school misplace a student, I said that I knew they got 1,600 new students this year, but come on, how can they not know if he was there?
She repeated it again, he was not on school property at all.

I hung up on her and immediately called the school's main number and demanded them to find my son.
I explained to the poor secretary what the teacher had told me, and the secretary was baffled why such a call was made to me by a teacher.
She said that anytime the school thinks a student is missing, it is not the teacher's job to call a parent, but the administration's, she asked me what number was called, I told her my cell phone, she said that was also odd because she was looking at Sebastian's information, and it clearly stated to call the home number first.
I was really panicking now, the secretary had not confirmed if Sebastian was there, she was just talking about the teacher's actions, so I asked her if my son was there.
She said that he had indeed been marked absent by all of his class teachers that morning.
I demanded that they find him, to have security go look for him, that he had to be there, he left here at 6:45am, he just had to be there.
She told me that they would go look for him and call me back.

When Mark heard me say that, he quickly got dressed, he grabbed my other cell phone and his ID card, and said he was going to the high school to find his brother.
He tore off out of the house, he was going to either find his brother at school or on the side of the road if he had been hit.
The street he walks to school has also been under sidewalk construction, so all kinds of bad things had gone through my head, I was Twittering the events, I had to do something while I waited for the school to find my son or for Mark to find him, I was in a complete panic.

When she called me back, she said that security was still looking for him, that they were speaking to his teachers and asking them if they had seen him at all, and she wanted to ask me what clothes he was wearing, security needed a visual to search for.
I told her, khaki cargo shorts, a black t-shirt, white sneakers, he has blond shaggy hair, blue eyes, he's carrying a gray backpack.
She said that they would call me back again.
When she called me back, she told me that he was there, he was in his PSAT testing all morning like he was supposed to be doing, and that the teacher's had marked him absent incorrectly, but that they all knew that he was in testing, all of the teachers had been informed and knew about it for weeks.

She then told me that I needed to file a formal complaint against the teacher for causing me to panic, for telling me incorrect information and causing me to worry, that the teacher knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Sebastian was in PSAT testing all morning.
I told her that I wanted him to come home, that my oldest son was there, to release Sebastian to his custody and bring him home, I was too upset to just leave him there, if he was done with his testing, I wanted him home.
I had now been in a panic for about 40 minutes, my heart was racing, I was dizzy and lightheaded, nauseous, I wanted my child at home.
She said she understood completely, she's a mom to, that if a teacher had called her and said the same thing, she would also want her child at home immediately.
She reminded me to file the complaint, gave me the name and number of the person in charge at the school board to call and make the complaint to, she said she herself was upset about this, that it simply wasn't right for the teacher to make that call, not only wasn't it right, but it wasn't school protocol for a missing student.
She was going to release him to Mark who was now there, but an administrator, Dr. Moore, told her to hang up, that she wanted to speak to Sebastian, the teacher who called me, and Mark.

Dr. Moore called me a few minutes later, told me that the teacher had told her what she really said to me, that I was wrong.
She said the teacher told her that the teacher had asked me why Sebastian was absent 2 days last week, and wanted to know why.
I told Dr. Moore that was not true, that she never asked me or said anything about his absences last week, she told me point blank that he was nowhere on school property today, she did not say anything about last week, and if that's the story the teacher told Dr. Moore, she was lying because she now understood to severe gravity of what her phone call to me about him being missing, would mean to her job.
Dr. Moore told me that was not true, that I had simply misunderstood her, that the teacher did not know about PSAT testing, that none of the teachers did.
I told her that was complete bullshit, that letters were sent home to parents 2 weeks ago, that his teachers did know, the secretary had even confirmed that, all the teachers knew.
Dr. Moore said the secretary did not know what she was talking about, basically, Dr. Moore was calling the secretary a liar.
She yelled at me that I was stupid for wanting my child home.
She called me stupid.
WTF kind of administrator is this to call a parent stupid??
I was furious at this point and demanded to know her name.
She screamed into the phone "NO!" and hung up on me.

I called the cell phone that Mark had, I asked him who the administrator was who had called me, spoken to him and Sebastian, he asked Sebastian, and then told me, Dr. Moore.
I wrote the name down on the same piece of paper where I had written the name of the teacher and the school board contact name and number.
I called the secretary again to have my son released, she was very upset, she said she was yelled at for giving me any information.
I told her I was sorry about that, really sorry, but I wanted my son released to his brother immediately, and she said she had just let them leave.
I asked for her name, I told her that I would make sure that when I filed my formal complaint, that I would make sure the school board knew that she did everything she could to help me and that she was now in trouble for helping me find my son and releasing him.
She thanked me and gave me her name, she kept apologizing for what had happened, I told her that it was all ok, not her fault, that she was amazing, kept me calm, found my son, let him leave with his brother and got in trouble herself for helping me find my child.

During all of this mess, I was still waiting on my doctor to call me back with news on my medication and insurance battle, I was in pain, my heart was racing, I felt sick to my stomach over this whole ordeal.
I was on the phone with the school, my insurance company, and the doctor's office all morning, going back and forth with 3 places, my head was splitting.
I have a blood pressure monitor at home now because of my high blood pressure which I take meds for, and so after I calmed down a little bit, I took it.
Not good, not good at all.
It was 165 over 107, that is really super high if you don't know.
If I had gone to a doctor at that point, they would have immediately thought I was having a heart attack and strapped me down to a table and ran all kinds of tests like an EKG, and probably would have called for an ambulance.
I took another bp pill, and laid down on the couch and waited for my sons to come home.
When they came home, Sebastian told me that the teacher who had called me and started this whole mess, had actually told him on both Monday and Tuesday, to NOT go to any of his classes, to go to his PSAT testing, she was reminding him about the testing, so she did know where he was, she herself had reminded him about the testing, so why she called me and told me he was missing, he didn't know.

I called the school board and made the formal complaint verbally, and they are sending me forms to fill out for the written complaint.
Not only did I file against the idiot teacher, but I filed against Dr. Moore as well for her extremely inappropriate and unprofessional behavior for calling me stupid, refusing to give me her name, and hanging up on me.
Dr. Moore is the high school assistant principal.