Back-to-School Prep: Emergency Contacts Matter

Returning with another back-to-school preparation episode, I focus on the critical importance of keeping your emergency contact information updated with your child's school. 

• Working in schools taught me how common it is for emergency contact numbers to be disconnected or outdated
• Parents often forget to update contact information during school transitions (elementary to middle, middle to high)
• In emergencies, schools sometimes must send police to homes only to find families have moved
• Choose emergency contacts who are reliable, have transportation, and can actually respond if called
• Provide teachers with preferred contact methods (calls for emergencies, texts for behavior issues, emails for documentation)
• Always keep school numbers unblocked on your phone
• Make sure to promptly return contact verification forms when sent home
• Discovered a personal wheat allergy after years of mistakenly believing I had dairy sensitivity
• After eliminating wheat, experienced rapid improvement in swelling, rashes, hives, and stomach issues

Please make sure you're following us on whatever podcasting app you're listening to us on. Make sure you click that check mark in the top right-hand corner or the plus sign. Please make sure you're following us on IG at thegagispod. You can follow my personal page at smartfit_ogie on IG as well, and on YouTube you can follow us at the gag is pod.

Chapters

• 1:09 Welcome to The Gag Is Podcast
• 5:51 Special Letter from Travis Malion Foundation
• 10:42 School Registration and Contact Information
• 15:19 Emergency Contacts and Their Importance
• 18:34 Teacher Communication Methods
• 21:34 Personal Health Discovery: Wheat Allergy

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:35

Hey guys, welcome back to the gag is pod. I am your girl, charlie Shantae. Thank you for kicking in with me on another episode, and you know what I always say if this is a new episode and it's probably Friday, but if it's not a Friday and you're listening to this, on whatever day you listening to it, I appreciate you for being here and before we get started, please make sure that if you are not following us already, please make sure you're hitting that plus sign button or the little checkmark button on whatever platform you are listening to this on. Please make sure you're following us on IG at the gag is pot, and it is the same handle on YouTube as well. If you would like, you can follow me on my personal page on IG. Well, if you would like, you can follow me on my personal page on IG. Smartfit__okey on IG. Go ahead and grab your drink, go ahead and grab your snack or whatever it is you do when you listen to this and we're going to jump right in. Please excuse me if it sounds like I'm a little out of it. It has been a whirlwind of a week and I'm very tired and I don't really feel well, but nonetheless, I'm here, I'm showing up and I'm going to give you all this information because school is getting ready to start back, and how dare I not give you some tips and tricks to be prepared to send the children back to school, whether that be kindergarten, middle school, high school or college? I'm going to make sure that I encompass everyone this year, this go-round, since you guys enjoyed it so much last year and I got my trusty list, so make sure nothing gets left out. So I'm going to start.

Speaker 1: 2:24

As you guys know, this podcast is pretty much born out of. It was created because, you know, my husband got killed and I wanted to tell my story and it has more so kind of evolved into more parenting and things like that. But it's OK. So there is a foundation that my husband's picture in his bio that I wrote is featured on, and so sometimes I just get random letters in the mail how a child has done a project and they had to pick a hero from the site and they write letters and then the letters go to the organization and then that organization sends them out to me and I have been privy to get one. I used to read fan mail and then I stopped getting fan mail, and I don't consider this fan mail, but it is just something that I want to read before we get started, and I'm not even sure how old this kid is that wrote it, but nonetheless I appreciate it. It says Dear Spencer family. I am sending this in honor of Clarence T Spencer. I learned about Clarence through the Travis Malion Foundation's Fallen Hero page. Currently, I'm a freshman who hopes to become a doctor like my parents.

Speaker 1: 3:48

As Memorial Day arrives, I find myself thinking about the brave individuals who sacrificed for this country. I wanted to express my gratitude for Clarence's service and honor his legacy. Clarence valued the ideas of this country Lord, have mercy sometimes. It's right Of this country and was willing to risk his life to protect it. I can only imagine how difficult it must have been losing such a positive and caring individual. Clarence served with courage, ultimately protecting freedom and creating a safer country. I am truly grateful for strong heroes like him. I will not forget the individuals and sacrifices they took to make this country a safer place. I truly wish I could have met such a humorous and loving person. All right, all right. I appreciated that letter very much, so I tried to skip over some identifying factors, because the child does identify himself and where he lives. But I'm not going to put that baby personal information out there. But I thank you for that letter to myself and to my family. We greatly appreciate it. Anytime we are recognized, it doesn't go unnoticed and I appreciate it. We appreciate it. Yeah, it's lucky to be recognized as such, however, nonetheless still appreciate it. It's 17 years later.

Speaker 1: 5:30

Let's go ahead and jump into today. So you know, last week we talked about physicals and stuff like that, and so let's, let's we're going to continue on with a little bit more paperwork, because I didn't want to throw all of that into one episode. I kind of wanted to space it out because I know it can be too much. And you know, we have some people who are moving to different school districts, some people who are putting their kids in pre-K, putting them in kindergarten, and then we have some who are going into college and for the most part the paperwork is pretty much the same. But when I start breaking it down into elementary, middle, high and college, you may hear some of this information again because it's pertinent. High and college you may hear some of this information again because it's pertinent. So, like the way that the series is starting off.

Speaker 1: 6:24

I'm starting off with different I call it like specialty sections. Like last week was like your sports paperwork, stuff like this. This week we're going to talk about your registration and you know, contact information for the school and different stuff like that, and then we'll talk about food, packing lunches, dressing, school clothes and things as such. So, like I said, some of this information may be not per se repetitive, but I may reference it again. So don't be like, oh, she talked about this already, so I ain't going to listen. You may have heard me talk about it, but I may go a little bit deeper into what it is I'm talking about.

Speaker 1: 6:57

So, with last week, me talking about the paperwork, why did the child paperwork get rejected? Yes, and this is one of the things that I talked about last week they make sure you give yourself enough time in case your paperwork gets rejected or something is missing. Come to find out that the form number was the wrong form number. I went line by line for the old form that I had filled out in the new form and there was no difference, just the data at the top had changed. They put 2025 instead of 2024. Okay, fine, whatever. So I had to go all the way back.

Speaker 1: 7:36

Unfortunately, he was sick one day and he ended up having to go to the doctor. And when we was there I was like, look, this is the wrong form, can you refill it out? And they were like, no problem at all, filled it out right on the spot, before I had left the appointment, submitted it. He's good to go. He got cleared to play sports, but that's just a testament. And that all of that encompassed over a week. So that just goes to show you make sure you get this stuff done early. That way you have time to adjust fire. And his doctor's office is like 35 minutes from our house, so it's not like I could just pass by it on my way to or from work, like I literally have to go all the way on the other side of town to get it taken care of. But got taken care of I don't have to worry about that until next June again.

Speaker 1: 8:22

So there's that, the importance of updating school paperwork. So when you register your kids a lot of times you know kids go to the same school year after year after year. When they transition from elementary to middle or middle to high, their paperwork follows them right. I think sometimes we get a little complacent because we don't realize that during those transitions of times we change our phone number, we change who our emergency contact is. We may even change jobs during that period of time, and it's very imperative, especially in today's world, that we have the correct contact information.

Speaker 1: 9:07

I remember working at the school and we needed to get a hold of a kid's parents and we try all the numbers that's on the contact list and guess what? None of them numbers work. And then sometimes I've seen it to where it's been, last resort, that we would have to send the police out to the child's house to try to get in contact with the parent, only to find out that they don't even live there no more. And so we would literally have to, you know, utilize outside resources, like the sheriff or somebody, to kind of find these parents. You know, because you know Lord forbid your child have an emergency at school. I've seen it to where we can't get a hold of nobody and it's because they got the school number blocked. Like why would you block the school number? Like you know you have a child that goes to school, why would you block that number If you're a working parent like myself.

Speaker 1: 10:05

Luckily, I have my cell phone and then I have a personalized desk number. So I don't always provide my desk number but my cell phone. I always have my cell phone on me because just I'm away from my desk, so I always have my cell phone. I always make sure that it's up to date. I always make sure that my contact emergency contacts are up to date with people who I know. I'm not just putting Susie from next door, I'm not just putting my home girl next door. I'm not just putting my home girl on there. I'm not just I'm putting people on there who are reliable, somebody that has a vehicle, somebody that can come pick up your child if need be. I, you know, I just make sure you got the correct people on there.

Speaker 1: 10:50

I'm trying to think who I got on mine. I got like five people on there for New Face, because he has asthma. He does get sick easy. So you know, like if I'm in a meeting and I can't leave, then you know, I know that if one of these five people is called, they're going to be able to go and pick him up. They're not going to be like well, did you call his mama? You know, did you call anybody else before you called me Like what, and I and I think I don't even really know, I think I may be a few children's emergency contact. I think I may be a few children's emergency contact. I don't even know. I'll find out if so ever need, or if they parent text me and be like, hey, I put you on emergency contact, or like they'll ask me like, is that okay if I put you down for you know little Susie Q as her emergency contact? Put me down, that's fine. You know I may have had a day off and I need to pick up little Suzy Q or something, or you know the parent running late and I need to pick you know anything like that. Please, please, please, I cannot stress that enough. Please make sure that you keep your contact information up to date. Oh my gosh, keep it up to date.

Speaker 1: 12:10

I've also seen times where we've had to ask the kids because every child got a cell phone what is your mama number? Do you call your mama on the phone right now and then after that and ain't no school? Try to call me. I know we didn't. We, we tried to call you but we ain't got your number. Don't get them. People up there my number. If they need to contact me, just keep calling me. Like how you doing well, man, if your child is passed out and we can't get in their phone, what good is that gonna do us? So please, please, keep your child's contact information up to date in that front office. I don't know.

Speaker 1: 12:48

Like I said, we live in Florida, so I don't know where, like other school districts or whatever like that I know. Like maybe a month into school they send home the actual contact card. It asks if the information is up to date and if it is not, scratch it out, put the right contact information. You could probably send out 2,500 and probably get about 400 back. Like that's just how much parents don't care. When new faves bring me that, I make sure it's all correct. Boo boo, boo, boo boo. Give it back to them, send it back. If you don't trust your kid, drop it off, put it in an envelope, mail it to the school, get it back to the school. We live in an area where we are very prone to hurricanes. They use this information to get information out about school, to let you know about buses and different stuff like that. So make sure your information is up to date.

Speaker 1: 13:45

And then middle school and high school, and I think they probably do this in elementary, I'm not sure I know. In middle school and high school when you go to a teacher's classroom they have a sign-in sheet. On that sign-in sheet they typically have your name, your student's name, place for your email address, a place for your phone number, student's name, place for your email address, a place for your phone number. They do that because they may not always have the ability to go in the system and look up that information. I know when I was in a school I would have like parent contact information and I was just looking at my phone the other day and I still got a kid's mama in there. It say so-and-so mama phone number, so-and-so mama phone number. I can take it out of my phone because I'm pretty sure they didn't change their phone number a hundred thousand times since they didn't have that. That'd been like eight years ago. They have you write down your contact information.

Speaker 1: 14:42

What your preferred method is, I always write down for New Face, I always put my phone number. I'm like if it's an emergency, call me. If he just needs a little straightening, text me. If it's just something you need to document, email me. You have all of my contact information. I don't give out my work phone number because, like I said, I'm never I'm at my desk but sometimes I don't be at my desk but I'm like the quickest way to get a hold of me is send me a text, cause even if I can't answer my phone, I can see your message pop up on my watch Like that's how in tuned I am um with with my child and his teachers. If he needs some straightening, he getting out of line, shoot me a text. If you need some on the spot correction, go ahead and shoot me that phone call, cause I stopped what I'm doing to, to, to to get some straightening, cause I we don't play, we don't play that.

Speaker 1: 15:33

So there's, I've given you two, two different ways that you can keep your child, that you can provide a link between you and your child school. Make sure you have the updated contact information. Make sure your emergency contacts are up to date. Make sure your emergency contacts information is correct, not just their name. You know, sometimes you know your friends, they change their number a lot, so make sure they have the correct number on there, because what's an emergency contact? And then you ain't got the right information for them. If at all possible. If you can, please make sure that you provide your information to the teacher as well, probably in a different well, I know in a different way, because it ain't going to be today.

Speaker 1: 16:32

In a different episode I'm going to talk about the other means of communication. So when I break it down and I talk about back to school and I start talking about classes and schedules and stuff like that, I'll break down, like the communication, the different apps and stuff like that, like these episodes, when I'm just talking about a certain topic information, are going to be a little bit shorter, but then, probably the week before school, you'll get the long extended version. That's kind of like it encompasses all of this information into one plus a lot of new information. Okay, last but not least, this is just going to be a little quick. You can make this up. There's going to be a short episode today. Like I told you guys, I'm a little under the weather, but I'm just trying to push through so that I can ensure that you have this information for back to school. I don't know if I talked about this last week, but I'm definitely going to talk about it in the coming weeks when I talk about allergies and food allergies. Um, I'm going to do a story time on YouTube. I just had to find some time to film it.

Speaker 1: 17:46

Uh, I hadn't been feeling good for a very, very long time and I just kept brushing it off, brushing it off, and I was like you know, I got to leave this dairy alone because this dairy is going to be the, it's going to be the bane of my existence. So I wasn't feeling good. I went out of town last month and I think I got like some food poisoning or what have you. So I went to the doctor because I was like it's been a couple of weeks now, it is still lingering. I don't know what's going on. So I was like she's like, well, let's go, you know, see if you have an infection, whatever, whatever. Okay, so I said, well, since I got some blood work done, I was like, can I get an allergy panel too? I was like, because my stomach ache could not be food poisoning. It could be something that I'm eating and I'm not aware of. To my knowledge, I know that I am allergic to citrus, lemon, lime, oranges, stuff like that. So I go and I get the allergy panel and I found out that I am allergic to something that I consume every day. And so I'm thinking back and I'm like I am lit. I was literally making myself sick every day and I did not even know it.

Speaker 1: 19:11

I am allergic to wheat, not gluten, and I don't have a gluten allergy. I don't have celiac. I'm allergic to wheat Wheat I eat bread, I eat biscuits, I eat cookies, I eat chips, little Debbie cakes, all that. But guess what? All that has in it Wheat. And it was weird because I would be like, oh my God, like I would eat the stuff and I would be like, oh my God, this has so much dairy in it because I feel like trash. So come to find out I'm allergic to wheat. I'm not even allergic to dairy, so I done switched to like almond milk, oat milk, all this non-dairy stuff, like trying to find dairy-free cheese and all of this kind of stuff, because I think I'm allergic to dairy. When this whole entire time your girl was allergic to wheat and it was to the point like I'm going to have to put like some before and after pictures up or something like that.

Speaker 1: 20:13

I think I've been off of wheat for six days now I'm not swollen, I ain't had no stomach aches. My rashes are going away, my hives are going away. I had hives in my head and I just thought that I came in contact with some citrus and I was just like, oh, I got to be more careful because I done ate something with citrus in it. Meanwhile, the day before no, the day that I found out that I was allergic to weed, I found out after work, and that particular day we had catered carabas and when I tell y'all, I busted down on about seven pieces of little strip breads with a little basil on it and stuff. Yeah, and so since I haven't had any gluten, like my stomach been okay Because, like I said, I'm thinking I got like food poisoning. I think I still have food poisoning, but that's neither here nor there. My stomach has been good, my stomach has been fine. I ain't had no symptoms Like my lips ain't swollen up and I'm not swollen up.

Speaker 1: 21:25

Like I talked to Nick earlier. We was on FaceTime. She's like dang girl, you look slim. I said I'm not swollen anymore. Um, like clothes fitting a little different already. And I was like wow. I texted my trainer. She's like you know what? That makes so much sense. So now you know, I just got to kind of change my protein powders and you know cause I had can't have whey protein because that's made with wheat.

Speaker 1: 21:49

But, like I said, y'all will get a story time. I'm not sure when y'all going to get a story time, but y'all going to get one. But we have come to the end of today's episode. Unfortunately, I don't have a song lyric of the week for you. Like I said, I'm a little under the weather. I've been a roller coaster of a week and I just want to make sure that I get this out for y'all so it's not all jumbled together, so that I wouldn't have to do like two episodes in one week. But if you are not already, please make sure you are following us on whatever podcasting app you are listening to us on. Make sure you click that check mark in the top right-hand corner or the plus sign. Please make sure you're following us on IG at thegagispod. You can follow my personal page at smartfit underscore ogie on IG as well, and on YouTube you can follow us at the gag is pod. Until next time, I am your girl, charlie Shantae. This is the gag is podcast. Bye, guys.