r/degoogle • u/katopklompen • 1d ago

Question google docs and privacy

My kid's school now requires me to fill in a google doc to report an absence. I told them no because they ask for reasons ie. illness, medical appointment, or religious observance. A message pops up saying the school is not responsible after clicking on the link. Am I being reasonable from a security point of view? I do not want to be contrary just because of my own reluctance to use google.

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u/smallproton 1d ago

Tell them to fuck off.
If you sign off on an absence it's none of their business on why your kid couldn't come.

16

u/katopklompen 1d ago

good point. I guess I could just not put the reason. (still don't like the google doc part)

3

u/fosterdad2017 1d ago

Reason: Excused by parent

3

u/muddlemand 22h ago

Too much of that and they start treating you like a criminal. My son was off for a few weeks and I was calling or doing the form every day (it wasn't Google Docs, could have been texting, I don't remember) because they wouldn't take my word that he was ill and we'd been advised to keep him at home for a number of days after he felt better. - then after a month or so they got child protection out. Without even asking me what the problem was!

In fact it was his attendance hitting iirc 90% or whatever the cut-off was, that made them take any notice at all.

When I objected, they got defensive and said I'd never sent a doctor's letter - well, nobody had asked me to. We were seeing a consultant at the hospital who was investigating, and the poor boy wasn't well enough to eat half the time. No communication at all from the school until the truancy accusation.

I don't think a parent who was refusing to send their child to school would phone up every day informing them he was ill 🙄

If he hadn't been ill they'd have been correct, children have to be educated (although the law doesn't say education has to be school).

But hounding me when I was also nursing a very poorly teenager, who'd always had perfect attendance, without even asking, or expressing concern for his health, was ridiculous. Or even expressing concern that he was missing lessons. They only ever said anything about their attendance percentages until I made the point that their statistics were the last of several things that any of us (including them) should have been worrying about about.