Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Letter

(letter I wrote to the superintendent of Cabarrus County schools on Monday night)

Mr. Shepherd,

Hi, my name is Shannon Barrier and we live in the MPES school district. My husband and I took time off to drive to MPES today at lunch time to enroll our twins in kindergarten. We currently have a son attending MPMS and another son ALREADY attending MPES. I took my children's social security cards, birth certificates, physical forms, immunization records, a copy of my drivers license, and a copy of our power bill, AND my car registration. All said documents have our address on them and correct information. We were promptly told we could NOT sign up our twins because we do not own our home (which we have lived in for eight years, my husband has lived here his whole life) and have no papers showing taxes paid or rent paid or ownership. We tried to explain that it owned by my husbands family and we live there rent free, and thus have no papers to show for it. Then we were again told NO. I THEN pointed out that we ALREADY have not one, but TWO kids attending the Mount Pleasant schools right now, and have been there for the past seven years. Again the lady said no. We were told to drag said uncle, that owns the home, (whose wife is a teacher at said school AND drives the bus that takes my fourth grader to and from school to our house) up to the school and he must show the papers and prove that we do, indeed, live in said home. I told the lady that my husband and his uncle are farmers, and it was hard enough to get ONE of them there with me to get the stuff done today. I also told her that this made no sense whatsoever. Our kids even ride the bus to and from school everyday. My husbands family were some of the founding fathers of our area, and WE were sent away. Does any of this make any sense to anyone? We told her that illegal immigrants have more rights than we do around here. Another mom was there and said she would be in the same boat as us, she lives in a family home, rent free, no records to show for it. Why should I have to bring another relative to a school where my kids already attend, to enroll my other children? Fairness? I think not. If you want tax documents, we have those for tractors, and equipment, and everything else that is parked right here in Mount Pleasant where we are growing YOUR food. THIS is how America thanks the hard working farmer. If I have to bring anyone else to the school, they should pay for the time missed from work for this complete inconvenience.

6 comments:

Rockin' it up said...

amen sister! :)

Montee said...

Good for you! Common sense has left the building in this country. I am afraid things will get worse with the government getting into everything. When my son was getting his driver's permit here in TX, we ran into some problems with paperwork and the woman was very rude. I told her that if Brett was an illegal Y'all would have bent over backwards to give him that permit. He wouldn't have had to even know a bit of English and still get a license. Good luck to Y'all.

Nancy M. said...

Great letter! I can't wait to hear what they say about that!

Fantastagirl said...

I am anxious to hear his response.

Amanda said...

Ho-ly crow. Bureaucracy at its finest I see. I've learned form the Army that she who makes the most noise gets the moist oil. Yes it's a complete hassle, but keep makin that noise until they see the light. Common sense does not reign supreme when these people get a little power I'm afraid. I'd also be writing the newspaper and telling every person in town who will listen.

twin power mommy ♥ said...

Oh boy...reading that letter made me angry at the dumb dumbs who run that office.
I'd be so angry.
Sometimes people make me wonder if they really have brains (i'm sorry was that not really Christian-like of me)