Smile... you're screwed!

I'm home from work today. The reason? My youngest tripped on a rug at school Monday and chipped a tooth. A permanent tooth, not a baby tooth, of course. So, today is her first visit to a dentist for something serious. We just got back, actually. She did remarkably well, for her age. I'm very proud of her for that. Not so happy that it had to be done in the first place. I've informed her that this should be a lesson to her to not be so careless in the future. Maybe it will sink in, maybe it won't. But, that isn't the part that really bites my butt. What makes me feel like I've dropped the soap in a bad prison movie is the conversation that I had with the school this morning. Keep in mind that I haven't actually talked to the main man in charge of "risk management" for the school system (he was at a conference until Monday), so maybe I'm ranting needlessly here, but according to his assistant (or whoever she was), the school doesn't have any liability for such things unless they were "negligent" in some way. So basically, what they are telling me so far is that I am required by law to put my child in their care for 8 hours a day and they take no responsibility for her safety and welfare. Hmmmm.... what's wrong with this picture? While she's in *my* care, I'm certainly held responsible for any little thing that might cause her harm. I mean, Gods forbid that I let her so much as get a suspicious bruise. But the government, who insist that I turn her over to them as surrogate "parents", refuses to be held to the same standard. Her tooth was chipped while in their care, regardless of how or why it happened. But can we expect any accountability on their part? Most likely not. And these are the people that are supposed to be such fine examples of honor and responsibility to my child? Now don't get me wrong. Teaching her such things is something that falls more on me than anyone else. I accept that. But in taking on the role of mentors, if even partially, the system should freely accept the burden that such a role implies. But they don't. Instead, they employ blood-sucking laywers to weasel them out of having to have anything remotely resembling honor. The sad thing is that our society not only encourages, but admires and emulates such behavior. We consider it a worthwhile skill to be able to successfully push blame onto others. How sad.