Nothing, nada, zip, zero, zilch, you are owed nothing, you deserve nothing. I know this might come as a surprise to some folks out there, but you are not the center of the universe. All the questions that you think you deserve answers to are likely going to go unanswered, and you have to be okay with that.
As you may or may not know, I work for a public school district in the United States. About twice a month we have public school board meetings at our district like many other districts across the country. Actually, I take that back. Most districts only have one meeting a month, but for some reason our district has gotten in the habit of having two. Yay!
It used to be that the meetings would go pretty quickly. I'd say about fifteen to twenty minutes to cover all the business that needs to be covered and then "adjourned" and we were out the door. More and more lately however, the meetings have been trending closer to an hour long due in most part to one agenda item....
Public Comments
Just like social media, everyone seems to have an opinion these days and they are more than willing to share it with anyone who will listen (and even some of those who aren't listening!). I could literally share a dozen examples with you, but I'm going to take one from our most recent meeting. We had a lady stand up during public comments and go on a three minute long (that's all the time they get thankfully) rant about one of the coaches at the district and how horrible they are.
Finally, at the end of her rant, she mentioned the fact that she brought these same issues to the building principal and the athletic director and they were right on top of getting it taken care of.
I just sat there wondering "then why in the hell are you here talking to the school board about it?". If you brought the issue up the chain of command, and it was taken care of, why stand up in a public forum at all?
And that's the issue...
People these days require shared outrage, they thrive on it. They have this misguided belief that somehow the universe owes them something, that they deserve justice on some level from the cosmic nether. Add to that the fact that people also can't handle disappointment these days, and it's a flashpoint for babbling rants on social media and virtual witch hunts.
Don't get me wrong, I think there should absolutely be accountability, but as I mentioned before, for many things, there is a chain of command. You take something to the person directly responsible, if nothing happens, you go up a level. This whole idea of jumping right to the top of the hierarchy is an "everyone gets a trophy" mentality that is getting tiresome.
I think people do drop the ball, and I think they do it quite often. In those cases, absolutely go right to the top and try to get some answers. At least ask the questions, but you still might not get the answers.
Quite frequently my wife (who also works in the school district) has parents whose child was involved in some disciplinary action with another student at the school. It never fails, they want to know what the punishment was for the other child as well.
You don't get to know that
First off, it doesn't really matter, focus on your own child and they might not be the holy terror that they are. Second, it would be a FERPA violation for us to disclose that anyway.
I'm sure if you spend any time on social media (if you don't, good for you!), you have seen posts from people thinking they are owed answers to some question. Trust me, it doesn't take that long to find at least one post. In fact, there are whole groups dedicated to it. You might recall the "small city complains" groups I have referenced in the past.
As I said in the beginning though, you don't always get to know all the answers. It sucks I know, but you have to be okay with it, because the answers aren't owed to you. You deserve nothing. The hope is that karma or some cosmic force will work it all out in the end. You can either have faith in that, or you can go through life with your bitterness and your bitter friends.
Again, I'm not saying there shouldn't be accountability, and I am also saying there shouldn't be checks and balances in power structures. I understand that given how corrupt the world is these days, it's hard to trust anything at face value.
But I have seen the opposite extreme (twice a month), and believe me, it isn't pretty.
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