Doesnt the school bare some responsibility for not contacting the parent sooner, to at least let the mother know what accomodations were going to be made for her daughter, at which time the mother could have stopped this caper before it got as far as it did...

Not that surprising actually. Schools dont have to tell the parents anything if they dont want to.

I'd like to know the name of the school and where it is, just to verify the authenticity of this story...

I wonder how Mary Mapes got her start?

Trust is stranger than fiction: Paula Reed lives in Colorado and is an English teacher at Columbine HS. Yes, THE Columbine HS.

According to her bio, she taught English at the time of the infamous shooting. According to its website, she is still a teacher there.

And because of the tragedy, she turned to writing novels as a hobby and has published several books of historical fiction.

Humm...historical fiction...crazy story about a crazy student...truth?

Stories like this make me want to pull my hair out. Of course, so do ridiculous posts, like #1 above. This girl, who went to great lengths to perpetrate a lie, is 100% responsible for what she did. The counselor may be a bit of a dim bulb, but she doesn't share part of the responsibility. When are we going to start holding people accountable for their actions instead of looking around for someone else to blame?

hopping down off my soapbox now

Jason,
I never said I didnt hold the teenager responsible for her actions.. but I do think its also the responsibility of the school to contact and verify when measures are requested that alter normal activities... Verification would be the adult thing to do... especially with such an elaborate story... I'd want the parent to know what we were doing to accomodate the childs needs... if that had been done, the caper would never have got off the ground... I would hope school officials would be more inquisitive next time... you have a nice day, Jason...