One More Story

From a Connections Academy parent about her reasons for virtual schooling and what her next plan would be if Connections Academy shuts down:

Our girls are 17.5 and a junior and 15.5 a sophomore. If it closes I will probably let Katrina 17 get a GED. It pains me as we have move the earth to keep her education going through illness, but she cannot go back to public school. We pulled her out after trying her freshman year there, she confessed to being anorexic and in an unofficial eating disordered pro-Anna club. You know kids who ditch lunch to jog and discuss how to hide it from your parents. After treatment we tried to phase her in by classes in the H.S. learning center and regular electives. She only went 2 or 3 half days in the afternoon. Obviously she was not ready. A group of boys started following her making barfing sounds and saying she was fat again. She stopped eating and could have died. That was our last week at public school. The admin said they could not do anything about it and would not allow us to contact the parents to educate them. SO I GUESS WHAT WE ARE THINKING IS THERE ARE WORST THINGS THAN A GED. She would go straight to community college but be well and living. I asked her about going back, not going to send her but asked. She said after what she has been through she feels very little in common with the average H.S. student anyway. She should graduate before the 2010 closing, but if CA made a very corporate decision to not invest in next school year then I guess plan B would be it for us.

I know as parents we all would give everything to get what we want for our kids. I hope we do not have to go that route, but it is good that we prepare. I cannot stand people who yell the sky is falling and do not put on their helmets. A plan A and B always makes my kids feel like we have them covered and they do not have to worry, leadership is happening.

SD