Sucky Teacher....

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Okay, time now for my tale of woe:

I was in first grade and did not yet have glasses. On one day in winter, I was screwing around with some classmates at recess and one of them threw a snowball at me. A snowball containing a large chunk of ice and some flecks of gravel.

And it hit me right in the eye. Imagine taking a sharp steak knife and plunging it straight into your eyeball. That is how painful it was.

When recess was over. I went straight to the teacher and asked to be sent home. My elementary school did not have a nurse at the time. It also turned out that my regular teacher was gone and we had a substitute instead.

So I got sent to the principal's office and the prinicpla asked to have a look at my eye. But it hurt so bad I could not open it to let him have a look at it. So he assumed I was faking the whole thing and sent me back to class.

I think I then went to the school social worker and got the same answer. Because I couldn't let her look at my eye I must be faking being hurt so I can get out of a test or something. I got sent back to class.

I couldn't focus on any lessons or eat lunch or do anything because all I could think about was how badly my eye hurt. Sometime in the day I snuck out of class and went to the office to try and call my mom or something, and got nowhere there either. In fact, the principal, who was a rather large and intimidating man, threatened to give me a spanking when I returned to the office begging to be let out of school.

I ended up having to struggle through the day and then when school was out I was staggering around the playground looking for my mom's car. She picked me up and whisked me right to the eye doctor, who noticed that I had a massive scratch on my eye and I had to wear an eye patch for a while.

Mom was so mad she wanted to bring me right back to school and tear the principal a new one, but I got terrified and begged her not to, because of the spanking he threatened me with. She did it a different day instead, without me being present. He changed his tune and apologized profusely to me and punished the kid who threw the snowball.

So I can definitely understand how children who are obviously sick get ignored. Some teachers just don't care about the welness of their students,are too busy to even notice, or in my case, assume it's an excuse to ditch class.

And I still have problems with that eye.

[Giggle Goose]

In fact, the principal, who was a rather large and intimidating man, threatened to give me a spanking when I returned to the office begging to be let out of school.

Did you go to Catholic school, IPF? That's the only place I'd imagine a principal would threaten you with spanking.

I've resisted the urge to weigh in until now. I'm a sub, and in my first-grade class yesterday there were lots of kids who were whining that they had to go to the nurse. There was one girl who got a nosebleed at recess, and I could tell she wasn't well because she was laying with her head down and kids came up to me and told me "I think something's wrong with [little girl]." I took her to the nurse immediately. You come to learn with experience what is a legit problem. In the case of NSI's daughter, the teacher should be ashamed. If an energetic child is not acting like themselves, then it's pretty obvious what to do.

[CurlyLocks]

Slightly OT - how about school nurses who seem like they hate kids? When I was in 2nd or 3rd grade, I came in from a normal, active recess feeling quite ill. I felt hot and very nauseous and the teacher let me go to the nurse. So when the nurse takes one look at me she hisses "That one's been running!" Yes, it's shocking, absolutely shocking, that an 8 year old would be running around at recess! She directed such venom at me and showed no concern whatsoever that I felt sick - just seemed totally po'd that I had been running. Since when is a nurse supposed to pass judgment on a patient who is sick? Especially a child!

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Did you go to Catholic school, IPF? That's the only place I'd imagine a principal would threaten you with spanking.

Nope, I went to public school.

[mariamousie1]

Reminds me of that scene in Overboard where Goldie Hawn gets called to the school because the kids are refusing to work, and when she gets there she realizes they have head to toe poison oak. She completely told off the idiot teacher, and it was beautiful. I know it was a movie but it was one of my favourite scenes.

[April]

I must have gone to a great school becaue I was a massive hypochondriac. I was in the nurse's office at least once a day, if not more.

They always took my temp. told me I was fine and to go back to class

I was so bad that the school nurse recognized me ten years later!

[Anakah]

That reminds me when I was in the third grade and I fell from a high distance. I was playing tag (I know, my fault there!) and was getting ready to go down the high pole, slipped and ended up on my stomach.

Now, if a child falls, you don't move them and call 9-11 right? Ha.

The principal and a few teachers told me I was okay and made me WALK to the nurses office where they told me I was fine.

Fast forward a few hours later with me in the ER with my parents.

Turns out I was not fine. I was bleeding internally because I ruptured my spleen. The school was lucky my parents weren't sue happy.

[Skrae]

I hate it when teachers are like that. In the 6th grade, I had recently been diagnosed with bipolar, so I was highly medicated, unfortunately, one of the side effects was drowsiness to the point I was falling asleep in class regularly. My teachers had all been given documentation about it and my mother had requested they contact her if it became a problem, well my prick of an English teacher made no mention of it despite the fact I feel asleep often in his class. Eventually my mom went into the principals office (they were on a first name basis, she was highly involved in my middle school life, that was a joy) saying, "We need to talk about that English teacher." "Now Mrs. X-" "You can have nice little Mrs. X or you can have new york street Mrs. X, make the choice!" "I like the nice little Mrs. X..."

I'm not going to put my mom's real name in for obvious reasons, so Mrs. X has to do.

Anyway, I know it doesn't really compare, but I can relate to teachers not giving a damn when there is obviously something wrong with a student.

[Pezzle]

That reminds me when I was in the third grade and I fell from a high distance. I was playing tag (I know, my fault there!) and was getting ready to go down the high pole, slipped and ended up on my stomach.

Lawls not me! I remember doing that once, except without the ruptured spleen part. I was trying to slide down the high pole and had shorts on... high pole had no grease of course and my legs no sweat so when i encountered friction I actually fell backwards off the pole -laugh!- but I tend to land like a cat o-o;

The only time they should've let me go to the nurses office was when I was playing soccer in 3rd grade. I've always been huge so I was playing with some BIG boys. I go to get the ball from his feet and all the sudden WHAM, his forehead has just hit my maxilla and zygomatic arch. I get launched far and hard... and I hit the ground, and I mean with a horrible slam. I don't know how long it was later, the teacher said it was about 5 minutes but I had a circle of people around me and the teacher trying to smack me into consciousness. Everything was blurry, I wanted to throw up several times during the day, and I had a wicked sick headache naturally... also didn't do very well that day. Kept getting massively confused! But I stayed in class, smart studious one that I am -_-

Anywho... I suppose that's the charming story of my first concussion.

[zzapp the witch]

I feel lucky in this regard so far, last week the school called to let me know that my oldest had taken a kickball to the face and was waiting for his nosebleed to clog.

I could even hear him in the background, "Tell mommy not to pick me up cause I know how to get my nose to stop bleeding by myself."

Ooooh, but the minute they wouldn't take something seriously..../makes throat slitting motion.

[myswtghst]

This makes me grateful for my experiences with school nurses, particularly my nurse in junior high. If I wasn't feeling well, I went to visit her on my lunch, and she'd give me Gatorade and crackers, plus painkillers or stomach meds, and let me nap for a while on one of the beds. Plus, she'd always let me call my mom if I really felt bad.

I've always had it tough, because I do get sick rather often (particularly sinus infections plus I get migraines and have, ahem, lady problems worse than most) so I tend to look like a hypochondriac. In addition, my normal, resting body temp is lower than normal, so I rarely get what looks like a fever, as for me, 99 feels like a pretty big deal.

[Jules Of All Trades]

There's not much that angers me more than a teacher/caregiver ignoring what we see as obvious needs of our kids. That said, try to imagine all of the different types of kids they deal with every day. We all know our kids very well, what's normal and not with them, but can we expect the teachers to know the same when they're dealing with 30ish (in my area - or more) each? Couple of stories...

1. My oldest has ADHD, Tourette's, and OCD. The OCD comes into play here. He went through a hypochondriac phase a couple of years ago. Almost every day he was in the nurses' office, absolutely convinced he was sick. Obsessed about being sick. His teacher was afraid *not* to let him go to the nurse, fearing that the one time he truly was sick would be the time he denied him, and would have to face my wrath. All of this went on without me even knowing until our first conference of the year. We had a long talk about it and I gave him some tips about what's "real" and what's not with my son and things worked themselves out pretty well. I also talked to the nurse and we were able to develop a plan of action for these events, which helped everyone involved and my son spent more time in class where he belonged.

2. My first grader has a b*tch for an art teacher, a replacement that came in right around Christmas. My son was feeling really ill one day, but is really shy about bodily functions, especially when it comes to puking. He was feeling nauseous and asked to be excused to "use the restroom", which she denied. He asked again a minute later, knowing he didn't have much time left before he blew, and she again said no. Being the polite kid he is, he tried one more time nicely... "Mrs. D can I *please* go to the restroom, I'm not feeling very well". She said to him, "Well, I guess since you're not big enough to hold it during my class I'm going to have to bring baby diapers in for you next time you're in my class". Next thing you know......he had pretty good aim and soaked her shoes. Next time maybe she'll listen. I did talk to the principal about her diaper comment and she's been much nicer since then.

3. When I was in 3rd or 4th grade I was playing on a swingset after soccer practice. My Dad was the coach and while we were waiting for all of the parents to pick up their kids I was killing time on the tire swing. Well, goofy me had my legs laying straight across the tire instead of tucked down into the hole where they should have been. I asked my brother to spin me around and *whack*, I slammed my leg right into one of the support poles. I had a nasty bruise and limped around for a couple of days, but that was about it....or so we thought. A few years later I shattered the growth plate in my ankle and when they did x-rays they found an old fracture in my tibia. We racked our brains and the only incident we could think of was the tire swing. It was a big of a moment for my parents, but I healed just fine.

4. I had my own moment just a few days ago. A few weeks ago my oldest came home from school and said his elbow was bothering him a little. He didn't remember doing anything to it but it hurt a bit when he straightened his arm all the way. I took a look and we decided if it didn't feel better soon we'd have it looked at. Right after that I had hip surgery and the house was chaos for about a week. When I got home he said it was better but still bugged him sometimes. Just this Thursday he came home from school again saying that he bumped it on the wall in the hallway and now it really hurt. We took him to the pediatrician who sent us for x-rays and it turns out he has a hairline fracture. Talk about feeling guilty....

Moral of my long and rambly story is that I believe for the most part teachers and parents alike make the best decisions they can at the time, but no one is perfect.

I can't imagine how hard being a teacher is, in a relatively short period of time they have to try to figure out the personalities of every child in their class, and will never know them as we do. I have nothing but respect for almost all of them, except for the pukey-shoed art teacher of course.

[CurlyLocks]

That reminds me when I was in the third grade and I fell from a high distance.

I also had a bad fall in 3rd grade from a height - I was going across the middle bars of the jungle gym. It was winter so I had gloves on and my hands slipped off. I landed hard enough that I was out cold for a short time - I can't be sure but I think it was probably less than 30 seconds. When I came to I couldn't breathe since I also had the wind knocked out of me. I heard my friend Jill screaming to the teacher's aide "Mrs. Orr, Mrs. Orr, CurlyLocks is dead!" I was trying to say "Jill, I'm not dead" but I couldn't speak. I'm fortunate that I didn't get as severely injured as you did but it was frightening all around.

[CurlyLocks]

A few weeks ago my oldest came home from school and said his elbow was bothering him a little. He didn't remember doing anything to it but it hurt a bit when he straightened his arm all the way. I took a look and we decided if it didn't feel better soon we'd have it looked at. Right after that I had hip surgery and the house was chaos for about a week. When I got home he said it was better but still bugged him sometimes. Just this Thursday he came home from school again saying that he bumped it on the wall in the hallway and now it really hurt. We took him to the pediatrician who sent us for x-rays and it turns out he has a hairline fracture.

My brother and sister-in-law had a somewhat similar experience last year with my nephew. He was running around in the garage and fell on the concrete floor. He fell on his arm and he said it hurt, but he wasn't complaining too much and it didn't seem serious. The next day my SIL noticed that he was holding his arm oddly by his side and she remembered that her sister had held her arm that way when they were kids and she had broken her arm. So they took him for X-rays and sure enough he had broken his arm. Here's the real kicker though - it turns out there was a cyst in his arm that had exploded on impact and caused his arm to break. He was probably born with it and they might never have known about it otherwise. It was actually good that the accident happened because if the cyst had kept growing unchecked there could have been much more serious damage at a later date.

[JustADude]

It was actually good that the accident happened because if the cyst had kept growing unchecked there could have been much more serious damage at a later date.

Wow... never thought I'd ever have had to say this, but... um... hooray for broken arms?