Clayton and Lafayette Student Life Lacks Disconnect

We alternate which parks we walk the dogs in each night.

The pair seem to enjoy the different scenery and scents, with their heads hanging out the window, and clearly enjoying the new spots to smell at the different parks.  

So last Saturday we went to Longview Park on Clayton Road, near Mason Road. When we pulled into the lot there was a “party bus” with dresses and tuxes getting off the bus.

Waiting for them were their parents. The kids then dutifully went to pose with their dates in front of some horses in a corral or by a pond.

On the way back to our car, I mentioned to the bus driver how things have changed. When we used to pick up our dates, we both were anxious to get away from our parents fast; not to go meet them somewhere after 30 minutes, for a photo shoot.

“Yeah I know what you mean, and not one of these kids seemed to have a problem with it,” he said.

Later that night, the Clayton High School principal resigning was the big story on the web, the front page of and on every TV station.

Principal Louise Losos resigned after allegations surfaced that she went on Facebook claiming to be a student and became a Facebook “friend” with over 300 students.

When I went to school, many of my teachers lived in another city in a different school district—as far as we knew. We never saw them in the grocery store, or library, or at the dry cleaners on a Saturday morning.

After six hours a day for five days a week with their students, they didn’t want to be running into them or their parents during their off time. They especially didn’t want to be connected with hundreds of students 24/7, like Losos.

Now it seems like no adults want to be disconnected from these kids for very long, be it the school, parents, principals, teachers.

But it was so different. I'd be surprised if my parents knew the name of my public school teacher every year. And we never knew where our teachers lived, and I doubt they cared where I lived, as long as it wasn't in the same town.

Well, the Clayton principal Losos was “old school” in one way though. She lived in University City, but worked in a different city, Clayton.