This has happened before, but never with a student quite as insistent as the one I had this morning...
Girl comes in 8 minutes after the day has started and goes on and on about how she feels sick. No fever, no vomiting. She asks to call home. I tell her she can call and let mom/dad know how she is feeling but that she CANNOT ask to be picked up and that once mom/dad make a decision- the decision is final.
She calls and proceeds to argue with her dad on the phone for 12 minutes when he says she needs to get back to class. She is crying in my office and refusing to go to class. I was stern with her and told her she had to return. Took a while, but she left. she asked if she could use the bathroom and I told her that if she puked, I needed to see it and she decided not to. She never went to her class, but went to the bathroom instead. Came back to my office, begged to call dad again, I gave her a 3 minute limit. She continued to argue with dad. I was thinking I was going to need an administrator to intervene.
I LOVE that my new school takes attendance so seriously. If a student calls home and a parent chooses to pick up, it is coded differently than if I send them home for illness/injury and if a pattern emerges they are warned and monitored for truancy.
At my old school, any pick up was excused and parents were VERY catered to. It was frustrating to say the least.
I think the last nurse was more lenient than I am. The two secretaries that are right outside my office commented that they like that I don't let the students linger in my office so I think the old nurse probably did.
I regularly hear stories about how the nurse last year let students just stay in her office for hours at a time. They would come and eat with her (just because, no medical reason). She would send them home just for asking.
I most definitely am not loved. I wear that as a badge of honor. (And the teachers appreciate it too!)
I was a bit aghast the first time I allowed a student to use my phone and she proceeded to argue with her parent about going home, was apparently losing the argument and resorted to using the phrase "well you're stupid" to the mom/dad, i don't remember now. she was immediately relieved of the phone, requested to sit while I spoke to the parent. Her face twisted like she was going to argue with me too, but she seemed to remember that it was still my office. I advised the parent that there were no s/s of illness but that she was insistent she couldn't finish out the day - i figured if the parent is dumb enough to give in to her after her verbal abuse and my assessment that she is healthy enough for school, then it is on them. If there are other factors at work here - peer issues, issues at home affecting work, etc then that may be another story - but i have also dealt with a lot of little princesses and princes over the years that will be in for a rude awakening when reality comes crashing in on them once they hit that certain age - either that or they'll live in their parent's basement until they're 45 decorating the furniture.
Farawyn
12,646 Posts
Yes. This is me.