@DiotimaDM, that would drive me to drink.
@DiotimaDM - how frustrating…since when is your passport not sufficient ID?
@suzy100 They need to have a taco truck parked right outside the front door. One that serves shots and margaritas.
I just made THREE appointments for S, each on successive days. I’m done waiting 2-3 weeks each time if they send us away again.
@labegg According to the DMV, the passport doesn’t prove chain of custody to the parents, and without the parents, the child can’t prove CA residency because the required proof (lease, mortgage bill, utility bill, auto or voter registration) won’t be in the minor’s name.
Apparently the child’s CA address on the passport isn’t good enough.
Some days, man! S missed his Senior Sunrise, an event where seniors gather at the school at 6 am for donuts and raffle prizes, to go to his DMV appointment only to get turned away.
Now the school is being evacuated due to a gas leak, the kids are being bused, all 1600 of them, to one of the other schools for pick up. No, wait, maybe not. The evac to neighboring* school was reported on the local news, but now that sentence is missing from the report, so we’re not sure what’s going on.
S texted to say that he’s safe. Several students became ill, and S got got to use some of his EMR skills helping some of the sick ones and calming scared freshman before emergency and hazmat crews arrived.
- neighboring - well, 12 miles from S's school
ETA: OK, now the news channel says kids are being taken to a different but closer school for pick up.
ETA 2: Now the news channel says the kids are at the other school, but NOT to pick them up yet until the HS decides if it will dismiss for the day or if it’s safe for the kids to come back.
Uh, guys? There’s only an hour left in the school day…
ETA 3: One student has been taken to the hospital. 
Several more are being treated and observed on scene.
I know gas leaks can be deadly, but given recent events, I’m just so glad it wasn’t a shooter. We’ve already had to pick S up from one of his other schools because of a credible shooting threat.
@DiotimaDM That’s a crazy day. I don’t drink, but you and your S’s day may have even made me “hit the sauce.”
Oh my goodness @DiotimaDM, what an experience! Our school would never in a million years have a way to bus everyone anywhere.
We still have 0 applications done here, but we do have access to a couple portals. One of them now has a green check mark that SAT scores have been received! Woohoo!
I am hoping for many green checkmarks on portals to come.
Well, D18 accidentally submitted an application today without me having a chance to look at it. Oh well; thankfully it isn’t one of her top choices. Sigh.
But, CA is FINALLY done. Now she can start ticking off the other schools.
Hallelujah - her fall musical will be over this weekend and then it’s fall break. Looking forward to making a ton of progress over the next week in-between college visits.
A little discussion about ED/RD. Are your kids applying ED anywhere? I think my daughter may apply at one school ED. Seems like the RD admit rates on some of these schools are so incredibly low I wonder if it’s even worth it to apply if you aren’t applying ED.
S is home and crashed for a nap. We got ice cream after I picked him up.
Final tally is three students and two faculty/staff transported, and of those, two were for heat-related issues and three for exposure to chlorine gas.
I’m not sure if they’ll have school tomorrow. The general area still smelled faintly of chlorine when I picked S up, plus I could smell it on his clothes. Have you ever gotten pool water up your nose? I have a mild version of that just from driving through to pick him up, so I’d be surprised if everything is cleaned up and repaired enough to have kids there tomorrow.
The school also uncovered a large flaw in their evacuation plans. There are two places to access the PA on campus, one in the front office and a second one in an office around the corner. Both locations are very close to wherever the leak was so they were evacuated first - which left no one able to get on the PA and tell the rest of the school what to do.
Everybody evac’ed to the football bleachers, but it’s still in the mid-90s here, which explains the heat issues.
The first girl to go down from the chlorine looked serious; I’m worried about her. The other four should be fine.
@DiotimaDM I hope all be well there.
@amominaz D will apply REA. It’s reachy-reach, but it’s her favorite.
@daffodilpetunia 0 apps done here. “What me worry?”
@DiotimaDM - scary! Hope everyone is ok!
@sushiritto - The one D18 “plans” to apply ED (still not 100% sure) is a definite reach for her. I am figuring she will get in where she is supposed to. By process of elimination (on the school’s parts) she may end up at the place she can go for free. Which wouldn’t be the end of the world for her dad and me (but maybe would be for her!)
Huh, the latest news reports don’t name the first girl, but they say she fainted. All I know is that she had to be carried out, so I’m hoping it was from fainting and not from whatever the gas was. News reports aren’t saying chlorine anymore; they’re saying they don’t know what it was and tests were inconclusive.
shrug Smelled like chlorine to me.
OK, enough of that! Things look a lot better for the girl I was worried about, so looks like everything will be fine.
Oh @DiotimaDM I am so sorry for the day you guys have had! I hope everything ends up ok for everyone there.
@amominaz no ED for us, none of her schools are reachy enough where it would make even the slightest difference. She does have 6 EA schools though, all due either 11/1 or 11/15… none ready yet. CA not ready yet due to essay ~X(
But that’s a different story entirely. 
@DiotimaDM , how scary! Hope everyone is okay.
Question about tours… I’m looking at three different schools and trying to book flights for the weekend of Dec 8th (D18 has off from school). Not one of the three lists tours past Dec 7th. Do schools stop tours or is it more likely the schedule isn’t posted yet? Frustrating.
I did call one of the schools and they said the schedule for Dec isn’t posted, but the person didn’t sound very knowledgeable and I’m concerned about the timing with finals and holiday breaks on campus. She said they post them 2-3 months in advance and I didn’t want to be rude by pointing out that we are now within that timeframe. :-w
If the school is already on break they won’t have tours.
Does Dec 8th sound too soon for break? When I was in college we went to school much later in Dec. I guess I’ll check the college break schedules.
Depends on the college. Eckerd has “winter term”, Stanford just started classes two weeks ago!
@Kayak24 - you should be able to look on the schools’ calendars to see if they’re on break
@DiotimaDM I hope everything has settled down by now and everyone has recovered. What a day.