South Bruce Peninsular - Fear and Loathing at the Tank Range - Comments

many moons ago

wayne tanner — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 00:21:29 -0400

I can remember when slurpin down a coffee in the staff rooms of more than one school this issue bein discussed over and over and over and over .
Ooops sorry, this is a new issue!!!! Never heard of this before. Gary you must have gotten an typographically incorrect form, or one which was marred by the photocopier ebcause you will get an immediate reply to this and it will be resolved. Thankyou for pointing this out to the BWDSB.
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they may be, but until proven I will show the benefit of the doubt, playin fibsy's...get use to it

Trustee replied

KeeMay — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 00:09:37 -0400

Actually, the trustee replied on Tuesday. He sounded all apologetic on the email. He was away to Kingston from last Friday to this Monday and had no internet access while he was there. I just didn't bother to tell Gary since our insurance agent has assured me that our home insurance provides cover for the liability insurance mentioned.

I refused to put my name down on the waiver though, because it is just plain rediculous. So, I told Gary sign as witness. I wonder though, is a 8-year-old's signiture valid on such an illegal document?

Kaelin went to OEC today for the area schools' cross country meets. He finished the 2km run and had a great time. I am sure he will enjoy it just as much in Meaford next Thursday.

As it turns out ...

garym — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 23:53:20 -0400

I pinged the question off colleagues at work, "Does your home insurance cover you for claims made against your kids over damage they may do to someone's property?" and the universal answer was, "Uh, no. Don't think so." -- reading over our own policy one wouldn't think so either, but Kaelin is really keen to go to that meet, so we called up State-Farm and asked.

"ah ... what exactly happened?" said the worried but helpful voice on the line. Oh, nothing, no worries, we were just curious. "Why?" and so we explained the whole story, about the requirements from the Army for children visiting their land and all and before we could get to the part about collateral damage we were cut short with "No problem, you'd be covered for that."

Oh, really? Interesting. Is this a sly way the military can make massive claims against civilian consultants? Just wonderin' -- the school principle had told us that this was the case, that our home insurance would be the proof we would need and not to worry, to just sign the damn paper and stop making such a noise (not his words exactly). So I let Kaelin sign the papers, witnessed it myself, and he's off to Meaford.

But ... what about families who rent? Clearly no homeowner insurance there, so what happens, their children simply do not go? Or are they then required to purchase that school insurance plan stuff? And why isn't the school board insuring the children for their event? Is this all about downloading the insurance risk and expense on to the parents? We posed that last one to our sharp young new Schoolboard Trustee, but he, ah, hasn't, um, got round to, like, opening his email yet. Takes time y'know, can't learn everything about the job in the first month.

And the really biggest question of all, the real stickler that I find really the very most interesting especially as we round the corner towards another democratic election: Why is it that no one before us had noticed the insane wording on this release form? When brought to the attention of the principal's office, no one in the room had any idea that this is what the release said,.Not one of them. Same with all the parents we asked. Not one had ever actually read the stupid form, they just signed it, witnessed it, and sent it back.

Isn't that just a tad bit strange?

garym: ict evangelist - musician - whatever

Fear and Loathing at the Tank Range

garym — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 02:29:33 -0400

Is our government smoking crack? Seriously, I really struggled with a headline for this story, because the insanity of what I'm about to relate defies any snappy encapsulation. KeeMay went to bed tonight in a shaking rage over it, and it all boils down to a bunch of kids who want to run a race.

Here's the thing: our annual Bluewater East Elementary Cross Country Championships are traditionally held at the Meaford Land Force Central Training Centre, a plot of stubbly land we affectionately call The Tank Range, and normally we just sign the usual permission forms and the kids board a bus and off they go and very often some youngster from Amabel-Sauble comes home with the big prize, only this year the permissions package contains an ominous new document that carries the doubly ominous bold and bordered banner warning

"Note: This document creates legal obligations for you once it is signed"

... and the legal rights it strips from the signers are not just sinister, they are positively frightening.

Now, I can almost justify the clause allowing spontaneous and unexplained personal search and detention, given we're at war, but just for example, and maybe I'm wrong here, aren't we here in the modern civilized world already indemnified from financial debts incurred by our parents? Didn't that go out with the Great Depression? Well, no, apparently it ain't so if your dad had been the unlucky young boy who strayed into our Government Land today ...