MOUNT JULIET, TN (WSMV) -
Parents are usually asked to provide some personal information when they register their kids for school, but one Mt. Juliet mother says a question on her paperwork was so offensive, she wouldn't answer it.
The form was required for Haley Faughn to enter her child into kindergarten at Stoner Creek Elementary School, so after she refused to fill it out, her son missed class. Now, school officials are issuing Faughn a big apology.
"She said, 'well, are you married?' I said, 'no, ma'am. We've made a choice not to get married, but we raise him in the same house together.' She said, 'well, fill out this form,'" Faughn said.
The required form asked Faughn about her marital status on the day her son was born. That didn't sit right with her.
"Why does this matter? I want to know - do you put these kids in a special class because their parents aren't married? No one could give me a straight answer of why they wanted that form. All they could say was 'safety.' Whatever happened five years ago has nothing to do with my child's safety," Faughn said.
When Faughn refused to fill out the rest of the form, she said school officials refused her son, who ended up missing about a week of class.
"Nobody had ever said anything negative about this form before, so I didn't think about it being an invasion of privacy. It never crossed my mind," said Principal Kathy Stivender.
Stivender said the same registration form has been used at Stoner Creek for at least 25 years to gather child custody information.
"If there's a custody battle, we want to make sure we are following what's going on between the parents, the agreements," Stivender said.
Wilson County Schools officials said the form the school was using was extremely outdated and never should have been given out to parents. They also said it won't be handed out ever again.
The schools' director issued an apology to Faughn and said all future registration forms will be produced in the schools' central office.
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