Parent off the hook

Specialties School

Published

My wife and I had fun Friday exchanging emails with a parent who took self centeredness to a whole other level. I saw one student at the very beginning of the day. Stomach ache, low grade fever. Mom was here volunteering, so she called grandmom and student went home. Two hours later, his best friend came in complaining of the same thing. He was afebrile, so I chalked it up to sympathy and sent the bucket. Fast forward 45 minutes and student pukes obvious viral emesis. We then receive an email after school stating that another mother was appalled that I would send a sick child back to class to puke in front of a whole class! She then went into the scene from Stand By Me where there was basically a puke fest with students sending each other into status emesis. She went into infection control issues and basically told me I should send home any student that complained of anything stomach related. I told her a half dozen students would be sent home daily. She then said she was going to call the health department to complain. This made for a lot of laughter Friday night for my wife and I. Her daughter wasn't here Monday, that showed us who's in charge here. This was one of those instances where joy is in the words, we won't be returning next year. Her daughter will be home schooling herself in a non guided teaching situation. PTL!

Specializes in IMC, school nursing.

I didn't want it too long, but one of her demands was to remove her daughter if there is another student that vomits in class and call mom to take her home. My Principal told me it would be unexcused without availability to make up missed work. Doubt this mom cares.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in NCSN.
Yipee!!! Until she re-enrolls at the beginning of the year next year in the same grade she left due to not doing her work as needed. I see this often. However, I have has several successes.

We had one this year and the family is still awful. The kids attendance is only at 70% this year, but its teacher's fault he isn't at grade level. :banghead:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in pediatrics, School LVN.

Yesterday one of the 4th grade teachers had a sub. I had 5 students from that class with stomachaches within 30 minutes of school starting. Could you imagine if I sent them all home, by the end of the day you'd hear crickets chirping in that classroom. There are days I wish I could tell a parent spend a week in my shoes. I bet they wouldn't make it through the first day.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Wow, good luck to that mom and child in life.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
The beauty of private school, we won't be accepting her. Not the first run in with this mother. Hope her children will be employable after this, she is doing hands off home schooling. It is a model that allows children to self teach on the computer. You follow whatever interests you during the day. Not sure how students who may not like a subject are supposed to know anything.

Yikes. It takes a lot of motivation to self teach as an adult college student...the motivation usually being a very costly tuition for the class that the student is paying for themselves. I cannot see this working for many young children who aren't exactly sure what the purpose of learning some subjects are...every night I'm questioning my child's need for common core....

Up Vote Up Vote ×
In my schools I would be sending 20-30 students home a day for everyone that complained of a GI issue. Then the health department would be investigating.

My daughter's school doesn't have an onsite school nurse. They have a secretary who tells sick children to go have a seat in her 'clinic'. She asks what's wrong and takes their temp. Then, no matter what she calls the parents on the phone and says that their temp is normal but they're complaining of this, this, and this, do they want to pick them up?

My daughter frequently feels sick to her stomach after PE because she tries to train too hard (fastest runner, most number of pushups, etc) and then needs to rehydrate and eat something small to settle her stomach. By the time I get the message and drive in to check on her myself, she has had about an hour and some fluids and lunch and is feeling fine....either get a school nurse on site or give my child the saltines in her backpack before I come all the way in just to be told "I'm okay now mommy" and have to turn around and leave...

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Psych, Peds, Education, Infection Control.
Yikes. It takes a lot of motivation to self teach as an adult college student...the motivation usually being a very costly tuition for the class that the student is paying for themselves. I cannot see this working for many young children who aren't exactly sure what the purpose of learning some subjects are...every night I'm questioning my child's need for common core....

This is the thing - self-lead learning can be good for some people, but definitely not all, and definitely not for super young kids. I've seen the "unschooling" work but only in structured environments. My friend has a high-spirited kid that's in an alternative school that claims they "unschool," but they really are just letting the kids make choices. "If you get your (subject the kid isn't into) done, then you can spend the rest of the class period studying what you want to." That, I can get behind. And 100%, online courses even in college require structure and dedication. Otherwise you miss deadlines and run out of time really fast...

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Same! I'd have no kinder or 2nd graders left by lunchtime!

No, you might have the ones whose parents didn't come to get them left.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
....every night I'm questioning my child's need for common core....

Common core could possibly drive me to drink.....I loathe it with a passion!!!:arghh:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in IMC, school nursing.
Common core could possibly drive me to drink.....I loathe it with a passion!!!:arghh:

Our school does a variant of common core for math, and I have to say, the side effect is logic. I love it, it shows there are many paths to the same answer, therefore playing to each child's strength. The common core our friend's children have seems rigid.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Our school does a variant of common core for math, and I have to say, the side effect is logic. I love it, it shows there are many paths to the same answer, therefore playing to each child's strength. The common core our friend's children have seems rigid.

The common core variant your school does sounds much more glorious than the version my son is being taught. :yes:

My son's district had decided that teaching him 7th grade concepts, even though he is in 3rd grade, is the best way because SOME of the kids can handle it. WHAAAAA???? :eek::cautious: and don't worry about the majority doing poorly on the tests. We're just going to curve the grade instead of giving them age appropriate tests. :bored:

I really feel a benefit of common core IS the fact that there are multiple ways to work a problem. Therefore multiple ways should be taught. The problem with my son's district is they don't capitalize on that fact. They still only choose one method (which usually has multiple, ridiculous steps to work a simple problem), and most kids aren't getting it...

Even his teachers have told me more than once "their math tests and concepts are RIDICULOUSLY hard. Like. RIDICULOUSLY. HARD.". Each time I hear it, I lose more faith in common core....

OP, sorry for hijacking your thread!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment