The transition meeting I went to at the high school turned out like every other meeting I’ve had in the past 4 months with the education department. It sucked!

Even though the flyer said 5:45 the email I got said 5:00. I showed up at 5:00 asked if the open house was tonight, the lady was very nice and proceeded to take me where I needed to be. She was very friendly. Then, you guess it, it happened.

I made the comment that I was surprised that with 2,000 students only about 50 cars were in the parking lot. The lady stopped dead in her tracks, did this little chicken neck head turn and said, “Exactly who are you?” To which I replied, “just a parent.”

Big mistake. This lady’s demeanor changed drastically and proceeded to tell me, “you are not suppose to be here till 5:45.” Smiling I said, “I thought so too. But my email from the assistant principal said 5:00.”

Then the powers to be troll got that look in her eye that said, “One, I don’t believe you because we do not make mistakes. Two, I’m going to mess (I prefer the f word here) with you because, “you’re just a parent.”

You might not believe me on that “you’re just a parent” statement. But, it is so true. When I’ve had to say it I feel like Miranda did on Sex and the City when she bought an apartment, she kept saying, “it’s just me.” And people would give her this horrible, little stare. When you’re “just a parent” you also get that stare.

I’ve learned that you could have wrote the book on special education (and yes I did write one eons ago) but you still have to be “just a parent” in order to get what you want. Because if they know that you know the same stuff and sometimes more than them they have a way of turning political. For example, and yes, this is a true story. I had a special ed director tell me that “the IEP does not decided placement.” Okay. And we don’t need air to breathe. After quoting just a tiny piece of the placement law she comes back and says, “I meant location. The IEP does not decide location.” Huh?! Did she stop and think about that comment before she said it. Unfortunately she did. It took her almost 12 hours to come up with it but she thought, “she’s just a parent, she’ll buy it.” I just looked at her when she said that. Why? I knew that if I opened my mouth that 4 months were of stuff was going to come flying out. Instead I bit my lip, never letting my eyes leave hers and just sit there as she struggled to correct her mistake. Why can’t these people just say, “I’m sorry.” “Look, I lied.” “I had to tell you that.” Anything is better than a lie. But, when you’re “just a parent,” they don’t care.