Saturday, March 06, 1999
Lack of calls angers parents
BY LISA DONOVAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Some parents were angry officials didn't call them Friday after their children were evacuated from Quebec Heights Elementary School.
School officials say there's no protocol for notifying parents in cases like this. Parents normally are called when a child is injured.
One parent, Sue Mayfield, 30, Price Hill, found out something was wrong by chance. Between noon and 12:30 p.m. she was driving by her son's school and saw firetrucks, ambulances and television news crews lined up around the building.
“I was very upset, highly upset. I just live up the street. They (school officials) know that if they can't call here, that my husband has a pager. He wasn't notified,” said Ms. Mayfield, whose son James “Matt” Mayfield is in kindergarten at Quebec.
She said the only way parents learned of the problem was through the noon newscasts or word of mouth, which she said is insufficient.
School officials said late Friday they didn't know whether any parents had been notified.
The students taken to Children's Hospital Medical Center were given their school emergency notification cards. Hospital officials took the slips and called parents or guardians, said Eileen Houston-Stewart, school district spokeswoman.
The parents of five children could not be reached by hospital officials. Instead of going home, they were released to their teachers and finished the school day — along with the rest of their classmates — at Elder High School, which is near Quebec Heights.
Richard Ward, Safety and Environmental Services Coordinator for Cincinnati Public Schools, said it would be almost impossible to reach the parents of hundreds of pupils in a case like this.
“Really, it's such a mobile society anymore that many parents are no longer at home; it's very difficult to have the communications link we need to have,” Mr. Ward said.
Mr. Ward anticipates that district officials will examine their notification policy.
“With all those kids, I don't know how you set up a system to do that.”
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