Thursday, September 20, 2012

It's B-a-a-a-a-a-ck

Just over a year ago I wrote about a bill working its way through the state legislature, a bill that would allow (not yet require, just allow for now) specially trained teachers to administer Diastat to students during a seizure.  I forgot that the bill passed.  I am not a fan.

Why would I be against this?  Because Diastat is a goo that must be administered with a syringe.  Anally.  While a person is undergoing a seizure.

This is a job for a medical professional, it is not a job for someone with a couple hours of training from a doctor.  This is also not a job for someone who is forbidden to give a pain reliever to a teenager with a headache.

As I said last year:
I'm sorry your kid gets seizures, but I'm a teacher and not a medical professional, and neither do I desire a career related to medicine. If I desired one, I'd already be in that field. "Duh" just isn't strong enough...

You know what my fear is? Eventually they'll make it required that I do this.
That's still my fear.

Our union rep told us about this today, giving us the union's suggestion for what to do if we're asked to volunteer:  Just Say No.  Their reasons are different from mine, no doubt, but the end result is the correct one.

This is not a job for a teacher.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I remember when I went through my credentialing program we had some sort of special ed/health/country office of ed person talk to us about these types of scenarios that we were legally obliged to do.

The one that scarred me the most was that we could be required to catheterize a full inclusion student if it was in their IEP. That one still haunts me, but now I have something new to think about.

Anonymous said...

I made this same point a year ago, and it's even more valid now.

Imagine the youtube video: A teacher forcibly removes the violently struggling (resisting) student's pants, exposing their sex organs, then shoves something up their ass.

Followed by: Lawsuit. Arrest for forcible rape. Sex offender registry. Loss of teaching credential. Public ostracism. Etc.

Oh wait, silly me, that's not what would happen. Everyone knows the teacher would be lauded for performing his/her duties flawlessly. Right? RIGHT?

Ellen K said...

This scares me because right now my district is simply dropping groups of severely disabled students into our classes. I am not talking about mere learning challenges, but severe physical, mental and emotional disabilities. One kid throws chairs for heaven's sake and because Mommy is filing a lawsuit, they refuse to enact any reasonable behavior controls and allow the rest of the students to endure the abuse. I can see our SpEd head right now pushing this. At that point, retirement or not, I am gone.