Students Not Always Crazy About Having Parent Volunteer At School

Forces are at work to undermine efforts to recruit and effectively use parents as school volunteers - students.

That is one explanation given for the relative derth of parent volunteers in middle and high schools in Spokane.

“Kids get to that age where they are scared to see their parent in the same room,” said Marilyn McClelland, the Spokane School District’s coordinator for volunteers.

Karen Ithomitis, parent volunteer coordinator for Shadle Park High School, found her son Nick leery at the thought of his mom at school.

She offered him compromises - she’d stay in the office and out of the hall between periods.

“I didn’t really ask him if I could or not,” said Ithomitis, a former teacher. “You know the phrase, ‘If you don’t like the answer, don’t ask the question.”’

Nick has since graduated and is heading to college. His brother, Rion, is much more receptive to the idea, Ithomitis said.

“After the initial couple of times, they came to ignore it. Eventually, they would seek me out and ask for lunch money,” she said.

Ithomitis said most students come to see an advantage in having their parents in school. But some students are harder to convince than others.

“You have to tell them, I’m not here to take care of you.”

, DataTimes