Parents in West Tennessee were surprised to learn that their students were absent from school last Wednesday. Why? Because they weren't.

What happened was a glitch in the automated phone system that the Martin Middle School in Martin, Tenn. uses. Only the parents of students who are, you know, actually absent are supposed to get a call. Instead, everybody got one.

According to The Associated Press, Principal Nate Holmes said that, "the new phone system this year isn't as 'user friendly' as the old one."

Picture the scene: you put your kids on the bus, or maybe drop them off at school. Then, at 9 a.m. the same day, you receive a phone call stating that your child is not, in fact, at school. What do you do?
Out of the 475 families that received the erroneous robocall, Principal Holmes told the AP that "dozens of anxious parents" called and about 20 showed up at the school in person. A corrected call was sent out very quickly, which probably went a long way toward easing the troubled minds of mothers and fathers in the Martin Middle School community.

Robocalls are common in political campaigns, but this is not the first time something like this has happened in a school setting. In November of 2008, parents in Jacksonville, Fla., received a similar call, telling them that their children were absent. And in Colorado the same month, families received a reminder robocall about the availability of progress reports -- except that the call came in at 3 a.m., not 3 p.m., as planned.

How would you react if you got a call like this from your child's school?

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