I wasn’t going to post about teachers as my first post back after recovering from being really sick. However, it seems a day doesn’t go by without some asinine thing that is said about or done to the teachers. Today was no exception, and I can’t help but comment.
This afternoon we received an email from the California Teachers’ Association. This email was sent to inform us about a couple of bills that CTA is opposed to. Now I know some people out there are thinking, “Oh, here we go again. A bunch of teachers complaining about something new they are being asked to do. They only work part time and make a bazillion dollars…what are they complaining about?”
Here is what is being brought to the table…
The bill would allow non-medical school personnel to administer Diastat by injecting the medicine into the rectal cavity of a student. The drug is designed to treat epileptic seizures, and the bill could result in teachers and other non-medical school personnel administering Diastat in their classrooms during instructional hours.
CTA believes this is a way for government to get around funding school nurses who are the ones actually trained for this type of medical assistance.
Currently, in addition to the core curriculum teachers teach (reading, writing, math, social studies, science, art, PE, computers), and the “raising the kids because so many parents don’t do it” instruction (drug education, anti-bullying, social skills classes, etc), which by the way the number of hours we are required to teach these things now add up to more hours than the actual hours we are in school. So in addition to that, we classroom teachers often deal with minor medical issues (paper cuts, vomiting, wetting the pants, nose bleeds, slivers, and other small things that a band aid or wet rag and disinfectant can take care of). Injecting a dose of medicine into a student’s rectal cavity is crossing that line of minor medical issues. Ummm, that’s pretty major! Teachers seem to be blamed for everything these days….can you even imagine if we are responsible for this and something goes wrong?
Of course, a child in need of medical assistance, needs to be treated immediately, and if that were the reason behind this bill, it might be received better. As of now, teachers are not allowed to keep medicine in their rooms, and school nurses and their assistants are responsible for keeping track and dosing this medication. This hasn’t caused treatment to suffer, but all of a sudden, when the state is broke, they decide to put this medical responsibility onto the teachers.
I promise, my next teacher post will be what I don’t like about teacher unions, but in this case I do tend to agree with ours.
This is a case of never allowing a good crisis go to waste. But why on earth the Teachers dont get to medics onside for this one boggles my mind.
ReplyDeleteA further why, why are the school nurses dosing kids with anti-seisure medication in the first place. This stuff should only be used where there are monitoring facilities. And if they are having such a snit about the cost of a nurse for schools with a population greater than most small towns. It's very unlikely that they will have brain-trace monitoring equipment.
Extra question. What happens if the teacher injects the kid and the kid ends up with permanent damage. Will the State indemnify.
Further, give the hell on earth caused by a bunch of scumbag priests etc. Why would any parent want anyone going near their kids nether regions. And heck, what male teacher would ever want to enter that nightmare.
All of the above, then you've got the spectre of a kid on the floor trashing about. This before twenty his own age. Think of the trauma where the teacher, the trusted person, rips the trousers from the poor kid then to inject up the back passage a syringe the kids would only have seen used on an Elephant or by Dr Frankenstein.
I'll say it again...I don't even want to touch thier pencils...let alone thier butt holes.
ReplyDeleteThis job...I swear.
While I would do anything necessary to save a student's life, I'm pretty sure this kind of thing going on in my room would make my STAR scores go down. They clearly didn't think of THAT.
ReplyDeleteThis gives a whole new meaning to "pain in the ass."
ReplyDelete@ Vince - All really good points. I agree with the issue about a teacher then being held accountable if something, god forbid, went wrong. After I posted, I also thought about male teachers. My dad was a 6th grade teacher and he wouldn't even pat a kid on the back with the fear that he'd be subjected to a lawsuit. Can you even imagine if a man teacher had to give this type of medication, esp in recent light of the "scumbag priests". The more I think about it the frustrated I become!
ReplyDelete@JLo
ReplyDeleteI know! This afternoon one of my reteach kids got a nose bleed while practicing money. It was a gusher - all over his paper, the desk, the floor, the door handle when he left to see the nurse to get it cleaned up. That was about all I could and got light headed while trying to clean it up.
"This job...I swear!" pin points it exactly. :)
Gross! That is just ridiculous!
ReplyDeleteOkay, before I read after paragraph #2, I need to tell you that you made me laugh. I promise not to complain about teachers. Remember, I'm married to one. But depending on the rest of your post, I just may complain about Unions. Although I won't complain about mine. Alright then, on to the rest of your post. I'm nervous!!!! m.
ReplyDeleteYou deserve a raise.
ReplyDeleteSee how you turned me around.
Your Friend, m.