"Graphic booklet sent home with Portland schoolkids shocks parents"

Check out this article in the Oregonian about a pamphlet sent home with kids ages five and up in Portland elementary schools.  http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2010/05/graphic_booklet_sent_home_with.html  The pamphlet was not some namby-pamby stranger-danger stuff, it was actually intended to warn potential little felons on just what their prison sentences might be for certain sex crimes.

(If you read the article, just be sure not to read the comments.  Really, trust me on that.)

Today I actually had to visit what would otherwise be my son's elementary school, beginning this fall.  It took them quite a while to help me in the office because they were trying to figure out where one of their students was.  It seems he had been misplaced. They looked genuinely freaked out. They had determined that he was definitely not on school grounds, but had not been marked absent.  Eventually the problem solved itself when he walked into the office.  They had apparently sent him on a field trip but forgot about it.

My favorite part was how they didn't actually address him at all when he walked in.  They just commented to each other on his presence. Kind of like he was some missing luggage.

They did not ask me why I'm planning to homeschool.