- Jun 13, 2012
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I have kind of an obscure situation in which I'm questioning where to draw the line between extending friendliness and respecting privacy.
My children's school had a custodian for many years who was recently fired. He was a very, very old man, retired from his previous line of work, and I suspect the job was more of a hobby. He was great with children. My children loved him. Rumor is that he got into a heated altercation with a parent, but of course there is no way to really know, nor do I care.
I didn't have the heart to tell my kids he got fired, so I told them he probably retired. Anyway, they made him a farewell card and a gift, so I called the school to get an address, but I guess the situation was so sensitive that they refused to give that out to anyone. (Lots of people were mad at him over whatever the incident was and some made threats.) I couldn't even get a full name to try to look it up myself. So I just brought the card into the school office with his first name, a stamp, and a return address and asked them to forward it. I even left it unsealed in case they were paranoid. Fast forward several weeks, and my kids get a sweet thank you note in the mail from him. With a return address.
1.) Several other parents who were also disappointed in his dismissal have been trying to get a name or contact info for the guy. (I know there's no mal-intent among these ones.) Should I share it, or would that be a breach of his privacy? I already mentioned that the office forwarded the note for my kids, so they could do that too.
2.) The address indicates he doesn't live that far away from us, and my kids have asked if they can make him cookies and bring them to him on their bikes. I think it's too far away for that, but I could drive them. (They got the idea because I do let them make cookies for our neighborhood every Christmas.) Would that be odd or intrusive? Would it be any different to allow them to do so at Christmas time?
My children's school had a custodian for many years who was recently fired. He was a very, very old man, retired from his previous line of work, and I suspect the job was more of a hobby. He was great with children. My children loved him. Rumor is that he got into a heated altercation with a parent, but of course there is no way to really know, nor do I care.
I didn't have the heart to tell my kids he got fired, so I told them he probably retired. Anyway, they made him a farewell card and a gift, so I called the school to get an address, but I guess the situation was so sensitive that they refused to give that out to anyone. (Lots of people were mad at him over whatever the incident was and some made threats.) I couldn't even get a full name to try to look it up myself. So I just brought the card into the school office with his first name, a stamp, and a return address and asked them to forward it. I even left it unsealed in case they were paranoid. Fast forward several weeks, and my kids get a sweet thank you note in the mail from him. With a return address.
1.) Several other parents who were also disappointed in his dismissal have been trying to get a name or contact info for the guy. (I know there's no mal-intent among these ones.) Should I share it, or would that be a breach of his privacy? I already mentioned that the office forwarded the note for my kids, so they could do that too.
2.) The address indicates he doesn't live that far away from us, and my kids have asked if they can make him cookies and bring them to him on their bikes. I think it's too far away for that, but I could drive them. (They got the idea because I do let them make cookies for our neighborhood every Christmas.) Would that be odd or intrusive? Would it be any different to allow them to do so at Christmas time?