Last Wednesday, I dropped my boys off at a local outdoor, free, county provided skatepark.
Not that it should matter, but they had both done a bunch of work for the week already. We have Wednesday morning off from “other kids” (I homeschool 2 kids in addition to my own for my income). They had Spanish class scheduled for later that day.
I get a call from my oldest that my youngest “landed on his face”. My oldest evaluates “It’s bad enough to come home but not bad enough to go to the hospital”.
I arrive to see my 2 boys engaged in conversation with 2 police officers (the park is adjacent to a police station). The Officers are not there because of the injury. They are there because “someone called in” that 2 boys were “not in school” and at the skatepark.
That was irritating enough, but one of the Officers then went on to say “I’m not sure, but I think homeschooled children need to be home during school hours.”
In my best Homeschooler for Political and Other Reasons Voice, I said “Officer _________, I *am* sure. You’ll need to check your ordinances because that assumption is incorrect”.
They wanted me to stay so that another Officer could arrive and take information to log the injury. Um, no? Kids get injured and into their parents vehicle all the time at that park without an incident report. I was not staying and making us late for Spanish.
On the way to get popsicles (my method of nursing for lip injuries), I called the Texas Homeschool Coalition, “just in case”. Officer __________ had called my home for “just a report” by the time I got home 20 minutes later. I did call him back. He asked if I “knew my driver’s license number”.
No.
“Do you have it handy?”
“Yes”
“Um, will you give it to me?”
“No.”
“It’s only a report for our log”
“If it’s only a report, my dl# won’t be needed”.
Isn’t there a *crime* they can be investigating?
Ugh! I would be so angry! Once they started asking for my DL# I would have begun asking for their info to file a harrasment report.
I’m lucky to have not dealt with anyhing like that yet, though I did hear about a homeschool girl in my town being picked up for taking a walk during the day. As if the police have nothing better to do!
How annoying! But I think you handled it well. I would have likely stumbled all over myself.
what did the TX Homeschool Coalition say?
That’s silly of him, being a cop, he can easily get your drivers’ license number. They just want to harass.
Heres an off thought although it sounds as if the officer was just being noisy– at OUR skatepark (which btw, is CLOSED to school aged children while the public school is in session) anytime a child is injured where blood is present, a report must be filed. Its an insurance thing.