We've been urging our son to have a plan B in place in case something happens to him between now and I-Day. We were under the impression that it was common practice for kids who plan on going to a SA to register at a civilian college as well.
Well, our son's GC at school told him that he was not allowed to do that though.
What does everybody here do, and how do you go about it?
Sorry about the long post/rant but...
A couple of days ago, my sons school had their Awards Presentation night and my son was very fortunate. He received what would appear to be the most recognition and scholarships of all the 160 kids in his class. He was embarrassed but, he did work toward this goal for over three years now, and deserved it.
Six Marines (NROTC-MC Option) were there with a big laminated check for $150,000, the AROTC sent a certificate for his Citadel $150,000 scholarship (that was not given to him that night even though the Army Recruiter was there handing out enlistment bonus checks to two other students, they said he had enough awards) and, a West Point rep awarded him his Appointment to West Point Prep and shocked the crowd with a ball park value of over $350,000. It was fantastic, I've never been more proud in my life! He was one of only about a dozen students announced, and then called up to accept the awards, twice!
Now to the bad part of the evening....One of the Scholarships awarded to students in Florida is what's called the 'Bright Futures scholarship, a 75% tuition scholarship to students that maintain at least a 3.0 academic GPA for Florida State schools. My son was not called to the podium when they called all the other 50 or so kids that were awarded that scholarship. After the Ceremony was over, my son was being congratulated and people were shaking hands...etc...then, his senior seminar teacher (kind of a quasi "last semester GC" in course form because we only have one GC in a charter school of over 600 students) and she congratulated him. My son then asked her why he was not called up for the Bright Futures Scholarship award? She was furious! She told him he had to ask the GC and that he's not allowed to have two schools lined up, that would be unfair!!! The next day it spilled over to his HR teacher calling him aside and telling him that he was incredibly selfish asking Ms. so and so about an award when his other awards took most to the spotlight of the night and he should be happy with what he received! My son was caught of guard and this home room teacher was always a friend as well as confidant, DS didn't offer any reason why he asked about the award and he told me he apologized. I asked DS, "Why didn't you tell them you wondered about you GPA first!!?...did you tell them why you were asking about the Bright Futures Scholarship?"...he again said no! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
He said he was shocked and that there was even another student there complaining to my son about being selfish! The real reason he asked was:
~IT WAS PLAN B!!! PLAN B, everyone needs a PLAN B!!!!
He plans on going to a State school if, God forbid, something happens between now and then! They took it as he was tallying his scholarships up! That and they said he was ungrateful for all the work they did to facilitate his awards! What??? What help they did? The last two years of applications were like pulling teeth to get them to help, his Principal went as far to say once to me "Maybe he's setting his goals to high"!!!!
They answered the phone when the Army, Marines and West Point called after....my son set up the awards with his MALO and the local Marine Recruiter! He had even asked the Marine Recruiter to ~not award him the NROTC scholarship as he declined it but, the Captain said no, they would be there anyway, awarding a kid that enlisted a bonus check, and that he had won this scholarship, and they were awarding it whether or not he was accepting the offer. The school also told him the day before, that they weren't giving him his AROTC Scholarship award, he had to chose either the West Point Presentation or the AROTC presentation. He was fine with that, it made sense. We're laying low for a couple of weeks and just going to let it ride, I'm not going to take any chances but again, I'm sick to my stomach over this.
How obvious is it to have plan B in effect as a profession GC, and how do they not understand that a kid works on this plan for over three years, deserves to have the accolades! There is another underlying issue here military presence at this charter school, it's a Visual Arts CH and the Marine Recruiter has talked to me before about problems they have gaining access to this school and the anti-military attitude of the admins there.
