Does anyone else ever just want to say "to heck with it" and just send home every kid that you are certain is faking or at least well enough to remain in class, but the teachers keep sending them down? I have a kid who has come in twice already this morning saying he threw up in the bathroom, despite my well-known rule that "I have to see it or it does not count". I just gave up and called home. The teachers are just going to keep sending the kid to me, so let the parents deal with it.
This comes on the heels of having three different teachers last week who took it upon themselves to call the parents for kids that I had cleared to go back to class (one with a sore neck, one with an eye that was sore after some dust got in it, but the eye was clear, not even red, and I think the third had a headache without fever or other signs of illness). I made all the parents do a regular dismissal through the office, which is unexcused unless they bring a doctor's note. I am not going to write an (excused) medical dismissal for a kid that I sent back to class! I asked the principal if I could send an email out asking teachers not to do this and letting them know that it results in an unexcused absence, which I do not think all of them know. This is really unfair to the parents who are usually working and leave to come get a kid who could have stayed in class, and then they have to contend with an unexcused absence on top of that. My principal said that HE would send the email, he did not want me to do it. Unless he did not copy me on that email, it has not gone out. :angryfire
I am to the point of sending every kid home that is sent to my office more than once, despite what the physical exam reveals. I am just tired of fighting these teachers on this issue! If they think they can substitute their medical judgment for mine, why am I even here????
