The recorded message from Dalraida Elementary School in Montgomery, Ala., tells my cell phone my child is not at school. Missing. Truant. Sick? Run over?

I should say in the interest of full disclosure that I once attended Dalraida Elementary. From third to sixth grade, I frolicked on the playground’s floor of pine straw and dusted erasers on the back fire escape. I was a “Green,” as opposed to a “Gold,” for the annual Play Day competition.

I loved that school. The memories are all good, except maybe one day in sixth grade when I spilled red tempera on the fish mural an...

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