Dear YWN,
I read YWN’s heartbreaking article last week about the young girl who tragically lost her life after being forgotten in a hot car. Sadly, this is a story we have all read too many times.
As you noted in your coverage, YWN has unfortunately reported on far too many of these tragedies over the years. Each time, the same painful questions are asked: How could this happen? Could it have been prevented?
As a public school teacher, I would like to point out that there is technology already being used every day that may help prevent such tragedies.
In our school system, teachers are mandated to take attendance within minutes of the start of the school day. If a child is absent, parents immediately receive a notification on their phone informing them that their child is not in school. This happens automatically and in real time.
Imagine if every school utilized a similar system. A parent who unknowingly left a child in a vehicle while rushing to work could receive an alert shortly after school begins that their child never arrived. In some cases, that notification could mean the difference between life and death.
No system is perfect, and no technology can replace vigilance. But if there is even a possibility that immediate attendance notifications could save a single child, it is something worth discussing.
YWN has a tremendous platform and reaches hundreds of thousands of parents, educators, school administrators, and community leaders. Perhaps by raising awareness about attendance notification systems and encouraging schools to adopt them, some good can emerge from these repeated tragedies.
If greater awareness leads to even one child being found in time, it will be worth the effort.
A Concerned Reader
The views expressed in this letter are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of YWN. Have an opinion you would like to share? Send it to us for review.
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
7 Responses
There’s actually someone that is sponsoring the cost for this software for any daycare or playgroup that starts to use it.
https://form.jotform.com/261395206907057
Every playgroup should have an attendance sheet with phone numbers.
About 15-20 mins after regular start the teacher should text the parents.
It’s annoying but it’s worth it.
Every parent should realize that if asking another person to take care of your kids and it’s different from routine send confirmations.
Yeshiva Orchos Chaim in Lakewood already does that. Your child doesn’t show up, you get a text.
My daughters’ school in Lakewood has such a system
There is one think that I can’t understand especially from a teacher that teaches Yidishe children: When Hashem wants a נשמה back near his כסא הכבוד, NO HUMAN-INTERVENTION will help. You can have all the most efficient up to date technilogy, yet the ריבונו של עולם is in charge and NOTHING , ABSOLUTELY NOTHING will help once Hashem decided to want that pure נשמה back. Of course we need to do our השתדלות, but for every technique Hashem knows his way out. HE US IN CHARGE. May her dear parents who were זוכה to be the שומרים of such a high נשמה ,have a נחמה if that is even possible.
A little competition goes a long way. Maybe someone can sponsor an ad on the billboards (or maybe the voice themselves) can post a list of schools who already impelment this system. Watch the list grow…
The situation is weird. I mean the obvious solution is … if you are responsible for driving kids to school check your car before you leave.
When the teacher checks attendance and someone is missing, what is the next step? Does the teacher stop class to call the family? What about classroom time while the teacher is absent?What if the family does not pick up? Or does the school have someone tasked to call all the families when a kid is home sick? The reason the child is not at home is either the family has something else going on or the child is sick. For all intention purposes it is one of those two reasons 100% of the time except for extremely rare situations as above.
We don’t know any of the details of what happened other than someone left a child in the car and left the car. We assume the child was sufficiently small that they were incapable of unbuckling themselves. The story it really does not make any sense. If you aren’t responsible for bringing children to school, I don’t understand how you do not check the card before you leave the car. The story really does not make sense at all.