I love your new design!
The only word for this story: OUTRAGEOUS!
Outrageous but true
I want to say unbelievable , but unfortunately in this system, it's true.
(I thought all city schools were supposed to have nurses, not paras, manning the medical room????? At least she didn't wait to get the principal's permission before calling 911.)
Unfortunately, I've found even with my limited experience that many of the non-teacher staff in schools are on a power trip. Sad.
In my former school system, only the town schools had a nurse; the rural schools shared a nurse. We had her on T and Th mornings, till ten thirty. Same system, different priorities. And most of her morning, she had duty.
I heard that in our horrendously overcrowded high school, we finally have an actual nurse. The previous long time person who "acted" as a "nurse" was actually a school aide. I suppose after the four thousandth kid your school gets a real nurse with the ability to actually help the sick or injured kids who show up. I am afraid,however, to be without those almighty special passes (filled out by the teacher of course) that say the kid is going to see the nurse for some reason. I have had kids return without treatment when sent to the nurse's office with a lowly bathroom pass because I can't find the passes. Then I have had to bother calling and explaining that I can't find those !@#$%^&*! passes and this kid really doesn't appear well or has cramps. Luckily, that hasn't happened in a while. My first concern is the kid, not the type of pass. It's true, as Chance states, that non teacher staff often are on power trips. That's at epidemic proportions in my school, tacitly approved of by demeaning administration.
The last time I sent a student to the nurse, she came back with a form for her mother to fill out authorizing treatment...no, it wasn't an emergency.
No matter why I send my kids to the nurse, they get their temperature taken, and they get ice (even for cramps or vomiting!), and that's IT, unless there is a bloody wound that needs to be cleaned.
I don't know what is more sad: that the nurse felt the need to pull such a stunt regarding having the proper bit of paper, or that she potentially endangered the health of a child who was sick enough to go to the hospital by ambulance. If a teacher feels there is a genuine medical emergency, does he/she have the authority to dial 911 on his/her own, or does he have to go through the official on-site checker of medical passes?
The bureaucratic stupidity reminds me of John Taylor Gatto's story of "Three Holes in My Floor"
The top drawer of my desk is FILLED with little piles of specialized passes: Office for dress code violation, office for "other". Library. Nurse. Bathroom. Computer lab. Etc.
Too bad I just can't use ONE PAD OF POST-IT NOTES. But then I might end up like Mr. Greenblatt.
The next time someone in front of you starts pouring blood down their face, just call 9-11 yourself. You don't need to be a nurse to call 9-11. If the kid had died you would have been blamed. Why try to work with a system that doesn' work?
You're right, absolutely, but it really wasn't me.
That's what you get for hiring Vogons in your school district...
(Please tell me SOMEONE understands that reference...)
Well, you may be right, but you may be wrong. For one thing, I'm certain she doesn't read poetry.
Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy at work:
"...in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people: those who work to further the actual goals of the organization, and those who work for the organization itself... The Iron Law states that in all cases, the second type of person will always gain control of the organization, and will always write the rules under which the organization functions."
Wow. Great quote. Thank you.
I'll be thinking about that.
Misterteacher,
It could've been worse. She could've read poetry to him.
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