A Higher Authority

Last year, right next to the Congressional golf course in Maryland where the US Open for golf was being  held, 2 little girls opened a lemonade stand. They planned on donating all their profits to charity—pediatric cancer research. But the police came and shut them down.  The girls were fined $500 for operating without a permit.

The Winter Wonderland is a semi-formal dance held every year in December at the high school. There are always concerns about the safety of the attendees and so PTA and the school district work cooperatively to diseminate guidelines in order to derail issues and prevent problems. Information is sent home as well as posted on the districts and PTA’s website.

And one year one of my daughters was invited to the dance and so as an attentive parent I chose to follow the published guidelines. I planned to call the mother of the boy to express my expectations and to exchange appropriate cell phone numbers. I planned on sharing my concerns and establishing a curfew. And the good news was I was acquainted with both the mother and the boy and knew them to be well regarded. But when I pulled out my phone book and all the class lists and sports rosters I had collected over the years, I realized that the boy’s phone number that I had found on a nursery school class list, was no longer in service— the current number was unlisted.

So with little concern I emailed a PTA contact who I knew had access to the information I needed. I explained to the contact person that I needed the boy’s home number for safety reasons. And I specifically contacted this PTA woman because not only did I know that she had access to the listing, but because I also wanted her to know that I was following established PTA guidelines. I had a bit of an agenda to demonstrate what a good parent I was.

But shockingly the PTA contact person emailed me back refusing me the information I needed. While she understood my desire to keep my daughter safe, she explained that giving out the number was a breech of  PTA’s rules--and she did not wish to break the rules.

So I said thank you and immediately appealed to a higher PTA authority that could see the greater good of the situation. She promptly gave me the unlisted phone number. This woman did not even think twice about breeching confidentiality. She understood the concept safety first.

And when the two little girls and their parents appealed to a higher authority—the town’s Permit officer-- she waved the citation. And the girls were allowed to operate their charitible enterprise once again-- albeit recessed a few feet back from the corner. Because while the little girls were in violation of a rarely enforced law, the higher authority saw the greater good of the situation: charity first.

And the PTA contact who ridgidly held to the organization’s rules continued to do. And the PTA higher authority who could see the greater good continued to chose children over organizational regulations. And in the end it was all good. Everyone got what they wanted.