Not literally.  Yesterday I received a call on my cell while I was working that I didn’t recognize.  So I ignored it, naturally.  If they want to talk to me they will either be in my address book and therefore recognized by my phone, or they will leave a message identifying themselves and I will call them back after adding them to my address book so that NEXT TIME they will be recognized.  Then I was paged over the intercom to pick up a call on line 2.  I should have recognized the sequence of events as notable before I picked up, but I didn’t.  It was my husband, calling to tell me that the middle school vice principal just phoned him (because I didn’t pick up) and left a message that A had been exposed to fumes in the building while at school and was still dizzy, nauseus, and suffering from a headache and they were going to send him to the emergency room unless we were willing to pick him up and either take him ourselves or take responsibility for NOT taking him to the ER.  Our choosing.  Basically CYA at the school, let the parents be the ones responsible.  Obviously they needed someone to be responsible, because it certainly couldn’t be the school, right?  I AM responsible.  Of course I would never do anything that would expose my kids to toxic fumes, but I guess that’s just how you are when you’re responsible for the welfare of some kids, right?  Oh WAIT… that’s supposed to be the school’s job, too…. funny thing.

So when I got to the school it was mayhem.  Literally.  There were fire trucks and ambulances everywhere!!  I went inside and of course they “handled” me, giving me their lame ass  ”be sure to lie to the parents so nobody sues” pat answers to every question I had.  I’m sorry, let me back track a bit.  I phoned the vice principal at her unknown number while on my way to the school.  I questioned her, and of course she dodged giving out any information and said that I would have to speak to the fire chief when I got to the office.  I was able to talk to my son, however, and he said that the fumes were like the gasoline fumes smell when you’re at a gas station only way, way worse.  So I was ready.  I got to the school office and I was already pissed because I knew what was coming and I was in no mood to receive any non committal bs information.  What caused the fumes?  This is literally what they told me… you ready?  ”The kids were exposed to fumes from a non toxic tar material being applied to the paper roof.  The roofer got too close to a vent, but there was no harm done and all of the fumes were non toxic and the material used was also non toxic.  The kids were moved outside to fresh air until the fumes dissipated and everything was checked by the fire department. ”  Really?  Tar?  NON toxic?  I’m not a rocket scientist, but I don’t believe that non toxic fumes send people to the emergency room.  Oh, wait… did I forget that part?  Two teachers were sent to the Emergency Room before I even got a call.  Explain to me again why it’s ok to be applying these materials during school hours?  I’m letting it go how obvious it was that the office receptionist woman who fed me that line had just memorized the information to spit on command.

By the way, the local paper is supporting the tar fumes story of the school here.  When you look at the comments section, another child, not my son, also described the smell as a gasoline smell.  I have no idea who that other student was.  The rapid response system of the school also left a message on my home voice mail stating that the fumes resulted from the EQUIPMENT of a roofing repair taking place.  Different stories for different times.  That message was received after I had already dealt with the school and arrived at home.

Here’s the thing.  My son is pretty smart.  He knows what tar smells like when road construction is being done, roofing repairs, etc.  He’s smelled it.  He’s smelled it recently.  We’re not dealing with a 6 year old here.  He had already described the smell to me.  It was gasoline or gasoline exhaust, not tar.  So right there I already knew that the staff and everyone that I had to deal with at that school was lying to me.  Looked in the eyes of the parents of these kids they are supposed to be looking after, and straight up lied.  To protect the school district from the possibility of a problem.  The district.  Not the kids, the district.  And they wonder why people have an uneasy feeling when they come again with their hand out.