Now Entering: The School Zone  Posted by Jenn Jacques on August 18, 2015 

  Well, it’s almost here folks! Can you tell? Parents are smiling, kids are grumbling, teachers are… well, yeah with the kids, so teachers are grumbling too. The 2015-16 school year is almost upon us! Anyone else ready to enter… the school zone?
For some of you, it may have already begun – classes in session, structure restored, homework abound – the kickoff of a new school year is always exciting and the possibilities that await our young citizens are endless. I love this time of year, as I’m sure many parents (and a few kids) do as well.
In the our home, eager to see which homeroom they’ve been assigned to and what their class schedules look like, my young students signed onto the district’s site yesterday only to discover a notice: “This student’s online profile cannot be accessed until the Online Student Demographic Survey is completed”.
Yelling, panic, and angst followed in quick succession with a final cumulation of one loud “…MOOOOOOOOM!!!!!” sounding through the air like a foghorn.

FINE. Everybody just calm down and eat some fruit.

So I logged into my profile only to confirm that I had to complete said ‘Online Student Demographic Survey’ in order to complete an ‘Ethnicity/Race Validation’ for each of my three children. 15 pages in all, among them were basics like home address, family doctor, emergency contacts, and the validation of each child’s ethnicity.

No big deal, online student information updates, right? So I dug right in.
On page 7 for child number one, I noticed an optional question on a required page which raised a red flag for me: “Are there any firearms in the home?”. 
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