Perhaps even more important than their paychecks, parents were concerned about how the complications caused by the distance to the school interfered with their sense of independence. Six of the seven participants spoke about the difficulty of having to rely on other people in order to get to their child’s school in an emergency. Three parents discussed having to find someone else to give them a ride since they did not have a car or did not drive, and they also expressed how challenging it can be to find someone to help because of the distance. One parent remarked, “Yeah, you have to ask somebody to take you out there, and they’re like, ‘That’s just too far,’ or you know, complaining or
something like that.” Another mother agreed that the distance makes it hard to find volunteers, “So I have grown children that can drive me, you know, sisters and brothers, people I know that would do it for me, but it is harder for me to get someone to drive me all the way out there.”
In addition to having to rely on others for a ride, two other parents stated that they have had to borrow money from other people in order to buy gas to drive to Greene. One parent recalled, “I remember that I had to call someone and ask if I could borrow some change or something in order to be able to get to the school.” Another mentioned, “I ended up calling my niece and borrowing money from her to get out there and get her.” A third participant shared that she would need to call in a “favor” and then find a way to pay her helper back. She explained, “So, she’ll do a favor for me something like that. If he misses the bus, I say, ‘Hey, can you run him out there for me?’ And she’ll have to get her baby up. And I’ll say, ‘I’ll pay your car bill or something. I’ll buy you something. Just do me the favor.”
The distance to the school appears to make an already difficult situation even more stressful for many of the parents who were interviewed. Parents who participated in the study were willing to volunteer information about which scenarios produced the most stress and inconvenience for them with regard to the distance between home and school. Four of the seven interviewees expressed that they struggled when their child was “in trouble” for some reason and needed to be picked up from school. One such parent related, “So, it’s like if she gets in trouble or if things aren’t going their way at school as far as her acting up or whatever, then I would have to get up, put my brace on. I’m not working, so I don’t have gas to keep running back and forth out there to pick her up, you know. It’s just too much. It’s just too much!”
Another parent exhibited even more stress from a discipline situation, replaying
the scene:
They said, “Oh, God! You’ve got to come get him right now, right away!” “Well, I really can’t get him right now because I really don’t have any gas.” “Well, you come get him, or he’s going to be suspended for ten days!”
And I was like, “Just put him on the phone. I’ll discipline him over the phone.” “No, you have to come get him right now. If you don’t come get him, we’re Going to call CPS if you don’t come right now.”
Faced with an extended suspension or even a report to child protective services, this parent maintained she had to find a way to get to the school immediately to get her child even though she did not have a car. Another parent echoed that, “The school wants you to come get them right then and there. Sometimes that’s just not feasible for the parent.”
A second very common occurrence that caused anxiety for parents was when their child was sick at school. Three parents described this scenario. One shared that if the parent could not come to get the child, the student would have to sit in the nurse’s office all day then ride the bus home in the afternoon. Another parent noted, specifically, that the distance to the school was the challenge for her when her child was sick. She shared, “If a kid gets sick during the day -- I have a son at [another SBCSC school]. If he gets sick, and I have to pick him up, that’s close. That’s convenient. But when she gets sick, I have to think about transportation. How am I going to get her?”
In a few instances, participants in the study also referenced “emergency”
situations and how if an emergency did arise, the distance would cause them stress. One comment was about an emergency at school where the parent expressed, “If an
emergency occurred, I’d probably being going crazy trying to get out there!” Another comment was about emergencies at home and how a closer school would be easier. This parent explained, “Some type of emergency at the house, and I needed to get to them, or some type of emergency there, they’d be closer.” In addition to the parent who said she’d go “crazy” trying to get to her child, parents used other phrases in their responses that indicate a level of stress such as “making it on a prayer,” “it was horrible,” “I have to beg,” “oh, God,” “it’s too much,” and, “God forbid.”
An additional concern voiced by parents related to inconvenience. Parents in the study shared that the challenge of getting to Greene in the middle of the day made their own personal issues more difficult than they would have been if their child attended a closer school. As an example, one parent discussed a medical issue that impacted her mobility and therefore her ability to drive. Another participant remarked that she would
have to wake her oldest child’s baby if she needed to go to the school. One parent explained it as “rerouting my entire day” if she had to find a way to get to the school.