Someone Else Will Do
It: When Fear Stops You
by Gina Miller
When I received the first letter stating that my child had
missed a certain number of days of school, and my school district was required
by law to inform me that if she missed any more school they would be referring
her to the County Attorney, my sense of injustice went right through the
roof. I immediately started working to
find out who I could partner with to figure out how something so sacred as the
relationship between myself and my child’s school could be turned into threats
and intimidation, into bullying of my child by school personnel, with innuendo
and public conversations about her attendance in front of her friends.
I have been in this fight for three years. I have worked with amazing, passionate people
who have put their lives on hold to fight for my child and all of yours. I have had the opportunity to meet with
principals, superintendents, school boards, legislators, county boards, county
attorneys, and pretty much anyone else who would listen.
I feel that I have been pretty effective getting our message
out and connecting with decision and policy makers. Through all of my efforts it was not until
just recently that I disclosed that I had a child that was affected by the law. Most of my friends thought this was just one
of my “causes” that I was working on.
Why did I not disclose that my child was targeted, that I
feel that my family has been injured and harassed?
I have struggled with this question for quite some
time. Even after I told people that my
daughter was in jeopardy of being referred to law enforcement, when I was asked
to say something publically about it, I became paralyzed! What was that? I have fought to change this law for three
years. I knew that the one thing policy
makers were impacted by were family stories!
I have privately told people my personal story, so what was stopping me
from going public with our story?
THE DOUBTS, THE FEAR, THE INTIMIDATION….yep, that was
it. What would other people say? WHAT IF “they” were right and my child
really wasn’t sick and just “wanted to stay home.” WHAT IF my child received further harassment
from the school because of me going public with our story? WHAT IF, since we were into year three of
this harassment, they decided to use the clause in the law that said you can
refer at any time if the child has previously gone over 20 days? What if, what if, what if…….
I knew we had “other family stories” and that they had been
effective. What I didn’t know is that once
the policy makers hear a story, they are done with it. They don’t want to hear about it again. They assume these are “one off” situations,
that there is a simple explanation for that one case and they move on. Once we started getting families who would
agree to tell their story publically and we were able to piece together a
“quilt” of stories across districts, across counties, across the state, THEN
PEOPLE STARTED LISTENING.
This is what we need:
We need PEOPLE, we need FAMILIES who can personally recount their
experiences with this law. We need them
to stand up, to be heard, to engage, to let policy makers hear their
story. It doesn’t have to be pretty, it
doesn’t have to be perfect, and it doesn’t have to be detailed. Just SHOW up.
Just start. Just come together
with other families who are experiencing the same thing. You ARE NOT ALONE! There IS POWER in numbers!
What I discovered once I received a “little push” to go
public is that I WAS FREE! I was free
to tell my story! I received support,
not judgment! I was free to go past the typical chain of command to get to the decision
makers to CHANGE my situation! I was
free to GET THINGS DONE! That is all I
have wanted for three years! For three
years I have felt like I have been screaming in the dark, fighting an
unwinnable battle. But since there were
brave families willing to go public I can now say that we are within inches of
getting this law repealed.
We CAN NOT STOP right before the finish line! We NEED NEW STORIES, WE NEED MORE FAMILIES, and
WE NEED YOU!!!!
Please join me in setting us ALL FREE!
Posted by OPS parent Gina Miller, 11/13/13
We love you Gina! Way to go!
ReplyDeleteYou could certainly see your enthusiasm withnin the article
ReplyDeleteyou write. The world hopes for even more passionate writers such as you
who are not afraid to say how they believe.Always
go after your heart.
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