About a month ago a younger, smaller child was playing near the stream with his mother and a staff member
And he slipped on the bank and fell into a deeper area.
And it raised awareness to the staff member that the stream could be dangerous.
And so before the accident kids were free to go in there and play whenever they wanted.
When I first heard about it I was like, 'wow, poor kid.'
Then, later on when I heard they were going to make a rule that you can't go down into the stream without a staff member
The stream might be closed completely
I got pretty upset about it because the stream is like the heart of the school.
Hot days you can wade in it. Cool days you just go down and walk by it. It's really pretty.
Amend stream rule to read, 'Students ages seven to thirteen may go to the stream without a staff member if they have a Fairhaven School liability waiver signed by both parents /guardians and notarized.
It was the first time that it had gone to school meeting . So when it first happened, they closed the stream.
And then they took it to school meeting. I think they had an emergency school meeting.
It was really all tense. A lot of the kids were pretty upset about it. They really wanted to not have this rule pass.
Most of the younger kids like the stream and so if it was going to be the five-foot rule none of them could go down there.
They did have to bring out extra chairs and there were a lot of raised hands and commotion in the back.
Well, I remember one point when Mark, one of the staff members, showed up and said,
'I will talk to our lawyer.'
They came up with a lot of ideas.
One of the ideas was to have a pole in the stream. And if the water was over the red line, you couldn't go in it.
And one of the other ones was to have a height rule. Which is what got passed for the first time.
So you weren't allowed to be over five feet.
This school meeting, today, they're trying to pass a rule that says you have to get a parent's approval on a sheet that says 'I am allowing my kid to go down,' which I'm totally all for.
Yeah, I'm definitely going to school meeting today.
You get friends to be on your side and you go and talk to people, 'don't you totally think this is a great idea? Come to school meeting and vote for it.'
Or, 'come to school meeting and vote against it, it's a really bad idea.'
Half of the student body is under thirteen.
Me being one of them, it's not very fun to see if there's a staff member. Especially if you want to go during school meeting.
I think this is a great idea. I get to go in the stream again.
But, when they put the thirteen rule in I felt really annoyed because I wasn't allowed to go in the stream by myself.
So I'm kind of going to take sides with the five and six-year-olds. Maybe they should have another person down there with them.
You see every one who is here. It means they really care about the stream. And probably don't want to go in there with a staff member.
One of the things that we debate. Have debated constantly here. It's kind of like the flow of water in the stream actually is
Exposure. This concept of liability and exposure. And I just want to make sure that that is in people's heads when they vote this.
My take on this and the lawyer's take on this is that we are increasing our exposure. Because I talked to him about this.
And he said this is a more risky way to go.
All in favor of ending discussion?
All opposed?
All in favor of students seven to thirteen can go to the stream without a staff member, with another person if they have a Fairhaven School liability waiver signed by both parents/guardians and notarized.
All in favor?
All opposed?
Okay, it passes.
YES!
I don't usually attend unless I put something on the agenda. But when there's something there that I'm aware of and I would like to say yes or no to then I go.
People don't have to go, which is kind of nice so it's not mandatory. You have to go, You have to put your thing down.
And go all the way to the other building if you're playing in the stream. You don't have to go so it's kind of nice on that way.
You can't smoke here unless you're eighteen.
So I think that's a really good law right now.
You used to not be allowed to eat in every room. That's kind of silly. I don't think you should be able to because now there are messes every-
People can not open doors with their feet. I did not know that rule at all.
A purple cow is not considered a cow unless it is wearing scuba gear.
I thought that one was pretty interesting because it hasn't been broken yet.
And then there's another on about an elephant on campus. I don't completely remember it.
There's a rule that you're not allowed to smile at komodo dragons on Thursdays.
That's a very, um, strange rule. It's funny but I'm surprised it actually got through and it's very weird.