Luckily I don't have a child.

But these people opposing diastat are idiots.

Homeschool.

This is the result of living in such a lawsuit happy society. I think this ties in with all the posts like the one a while back about men on airplanes not being allowed to sit next to kids. The workers are terrified that they will get accused of pedophilia. Even if they don't get accused of it, if something goes wrong or if the medication doesn't work they will be held liable.

The problem is, in our culture we have heard too many stories about perfectly nice people altrustically wanting to help someone getting accused of ulterior motives.

I mean, can't you just see it? Some male teacher misreads the signs of a seizure, lowers the girls' pants down... where? In front of other students? In the bathroom? If it is that time-sensitive, maybe in front of the students. His hand accidently brushes against her vagina. It turns out the medicine wasn't even needed. What do YOU think would happen to that teacher?

No, we have to get over our fear of men and of pedophiles in every bush. In the meantime, people aren't willing to be altruistic. Not with so much at stake.

Two things I've shared countless times in the comments section: my middle daughter has epilepsy, and my kids attend private school. This is so close to home it's intolerable.

We have a prescription for Diastat. Bullshit point #1- they might overdose the child? the injectors are a set dose for that particular child, so there is no risk of overdose. BS point #2- you need a trained medical professional? Nope. I'm only recently "trained" (nursing school) but I've been responsible for my daughter's meds for almost ten years. By the nurse's logic, parents would need to go through nursing school or medical school to be allowed to even keep their children at home. Rebuttal #2 to BS point #3. See how private schools handle this. Three of the last five of my daughter's teachers have volunteered to handle the administration of Diastat while 911 is called. The nurses have agreed to provide backup. And guess what? That decision has been made precisely where it belongs- between my husband and I, and the teacher.

I hope they get their asses sued (the teachers' and nurses unions, I mean) but unfortunately, that means a child will have come to harm because of this blatant self-serving idiocy.

So I was interested in getting one of those cool carrying cases that the dad showed (we don't have one) and found that Diastat will send you (for free) instructional videos on how to administer, limit 25 videos. Not a typo, twenty-five videos. Why would anyone need that many? A private individual would not, but a school district probably would.

Also, the union "nurse" in the video repeated an anecdote about a student who received three doses of Diastat. I call that another BS point. These things cost $300 for two doses. It's a stretch, but we have two at school, one for each building. I find it remarkable that someone could afford to leave three at a school.

Sorry guys, I've got a head full of steam on this one. This is about as stupid as telling an asthmatic child that they can't carry their own rescue inhaler or Epi-pen.

Some male teacher misreads the signs of a seizure, lowers the girls' pants down...

I don't think it's all that possible people will "misread the signs of a seizure." If you're writhing on the ground or unconscious, is it likely you're just doing your math homework in a new way?

My response would have been "My daughter dies, you die. The inhaler stays."

NicoleK, our society is far more terrified of drugs than it is of pedophilia (and given the level of hysteria around pedophilia, that's an accomplishment). We don't consider ADULTS qualified to select and use their own medicines; of course children should be subject to the whims of idiot administrators!

It has nothing to do with unions. It has everything to do with "zero tolerance" with drugs in the school. Once upon a time, when I had a step daughter, she was not allowed to keep her own Advil with her to get her over her menstrual pain. I don't know how anyone manages to abuse ibuprofen, or what kind of pleasure that abuse would bring. I've certainly never received any sort of high from it.

She was also not allowed to have a cough drop, and aren't they just candy anyway?

Zero tolerance is code for, "We don't want to have to make reasonable decisions, or figure what the right thing is on a case by case basis, so we're going to have this 100% draconian decision which we will apply in all situations." It's to protect administrators who will not, or can not, think.

And they are legion.

Steve - it has to do with the fact that the bulk of those in the public education cartel are of subnormal intellect. And, being good liberals (who assume they are smarter than everyone else) they conclude that the obvious nincompoops in their care are incapable of handling anything more complex than "don't eat that rock."

Brian has a point. People who go into education tend to be dim and simple minded. This was confirmed by a study performed by the AFT several years ago which revealed that the majority of teachers graduate in the lower 30% of their college class - these are people taking ed degrees! It's why universities develop parallel teachers courses for difficult subjects - e.g. physics for teachers, math for teachers etc.. These don't teach how to teach math or physics, they're just dumbed down versions of the standard course.

The funny thing is that I bet that you'd get better teachers if you waived the degree requirement entirely and went back to the old 'normal school' system - i.e. as professional training rather than an academic discipline.

I've been doing computer tech support for public education for ten years. They are playing school.

You see new teachers come into the system, all full of enthusiasm, and then in the space of about three to five years you see it get stomped out of them. Your average school administrator has as much spine as some squishy invertebrate, and most of them are looking out for #1.

Ours accepted a 10% pay raise while they were laying off staff. They have health classes on the dangers of soda and junk, and then sell soda and junk in the cafeteria. They'll dump a science curriculum for being too expensive, while buying new uniforms for the football team, and I promise you, the uniforms cost more.

They are more concerned with feeling good than being good, they promote on the basis of personality rather than competence, and basically engage in a big daisy chain of ass kissing to make their way in the world.

I so need a new gig.

"Even if they don't get accused of it, if something goes wrong or if the medication doesn't work they will be held liable."

NicholeK brings up a good point. Our frivolous lawsuits have helped chip away at the English Common law principle of the Good Samaritan.

Typically, when someone is in imminent peril unless the rescuer does something like a tracheotomy (outside the scope of their experience or training) then The Good Samaritan law will usually fall in line to protect the rescuer from suits. Of Course, that doesn't prohibit the expensive lawsuit - but it usually means they will be found not liable. I also can see that it may not matter when you've spent thousands on defense.

Here in the US its application varies by state, thanks to all our ambulance chasing attornies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Samaritan_law

I would really like to see tort reform come about, but we can also thank the lawyers lobbies along with the unions for this.

P.S. Regarding the weird text here, a monkey got into my control panel. Gregg is chasing him with a banana and a net. Should be corrected soon.

I've had a lot of hard things to say about my parents---and I stand by what I said---but, by the gods, they had their good points, and one of those good points was that they did NOT take any crap from the school system or its administrators. Mom had been a teacher for years before I came along, and Dad was a lawyer, so if I was in the right about something, I could count on serious backup.

And on something like this, my folks would have been at that school in about two minutes flat, and those union drones would have soon wished they'd done something smart, like challenging a bar full of Green Berets to a fight. What they'd have said about the current "zero-tolerance, no purses for girls, no aspirin allowed for anybody outside the nurse's office" regime would have scorched the hide off the lead mule of a 40-mule team.

My eyes will be 54 this coming December. I *love* the weird text, Thank You Very Much.

Some dumbass school official tries to keep my little girl's health at risk because he wants to boost his ego, first he's going to have to repeat that after picking up his teeth from the floor, second I'd be yanking my daughter out of that school.

Of course, I already home school my child. After I'm rich, first thing I'm doing is enabling large scale withdrawals from the public school system by frustrated parents.

I'm really really tired of governmental incompetence.

As a long-time, diehard liberal, it pains me no end to say there are more than a few union officials (and members!) whom I would like to introduce to a Ducking Stool.

P.S. Regarding the weird text here, a monkey got into my control panel. Gregg is chasing him with a banana and a net. Should be corrected soon.

Your monkey is obviously a seasoned citizen who can only read large type. Good luck!

I am constantly amazed by the stupidity of the people who are supposedly supposed to be educating "the future".

Good Lord. The kid needs meds, LET HIM HAVE THEM. It's not like Junior is going to be peddling his inhaler on the street corner. *eyeroll*

The truth of the matter, when you look at many of the incidents that make the news concerning outrageous 'zero tolerance' policies, is that the actual policy usually isn't nearly as strict or severe as the response from whomever is responsible. There's still room for discretion. So it's really someone in authority being heavy handed, and then claiming that their hands were tied.

Some people just shouldn't have authority over others and they're often hard to spot until they've obtained that authority.

Brain and Lola need to be careful in delivering blanket statements about the intelligence level and educational requirements of teachers. Every state and every school district within a state have different rules, requirements, and educational standards both for teachers and students. Some states are in the basement. Some hold their employees to high professional standards. Plus, we live in such a highly litigious society that teachers, males especially, have to be verrrrrrry careful in any interactions with female students. Some are not even comfortable enforcing school dress code rules, let alone administering a medication somewhere near the private parts of a student, for fear of being disciplined for sexual harassment.

If litigation is such an overwhelming fear, then we need to tighten up our rules regarding under what circumstances a lawsuit may be filed.

For one, punative damages should not be awarded unless it can be proven that significant numbers are put at risk by a particular kind of behavior. Chemical company dumps waste into the local water supply, huge damages. One man burns self with cup of coffee while millions daily go uninjured, no punative damages.

Second, we need to eliminate payment for pyschological harm. If you feel bad, its your problem, nobody elses, and feelings have no monetary value. Woman hears dirty joke and gets offended, no payout.

Third, physical harm or actual destruction of property must be proven as a result of a course of action. Woman lies about rape, man's home is burned down and he is physically assaulted, lawsuit worthy. Surfer has his wave taken by another surfer, no damages.

Fourth, the actual cost of restoring the damage, either in medical bills or property reconstruction or physical relocation, + a fee provided to the legal representative, which does not come from the cost of restitution to the victim, should be the upper limit in almost every circumstance.

Fifth, tax dollars should not be passed to individual citizens as a result of lawsuits. The incentive to pursue deep pockets at taxpayer expense is to great, as is the cost to innocent parties (the taxpayers) with inadequate evidence that it deters any adverse behavior by government authorities, who have an endless supply of money (or so they think) from more taxpayer dollars.

Sixth, end the silence of settlements, if harm was sufficient to involve the public system, then it is in the public's best interest to be aware of the circumstances and conditions of the settlement. The right to privacy does not come at the expense of the public.

Undertaking these steps would, I believe, go a long way towards eliminating frivolity in the tort system.

Sure, Robert. But it hasn't happened yet.

Please do not blanket all teachers as "stupid" and "incompetant". My husband is a teacher. He has a masters degree, working on is second and is one of the most well read, intelligent, and compassionate people I have ever met. He could be doing so much more for much more money but he chooses to teach because it's what he loves to do. The people running the school are the ones causing the problems. That and all the fucking rules and policies made by the fucktards with pensions sitting in a nice airconditioned office in downtown who have no classroom experiance whatsoever. And of course, the dumbass principles on power trips. THEY are the problem, NOT the teachers. My husband won't even try to enforce dress code on his female students lest he be accused of "looking inappropriately" at them. He always gets a female teacher to do it.

Now, the NO tolerance policy states that anyone committing acts of violence is to be expelled. My husband was punched by a male student twice his size and was almost fired because refused to allow the student to leave the class so the cops could get there. My husband was never touched the kid, but did physically block his exit. He was reprimanded for holding a kid against his will. The student's punishement for assaulting my husband? Three days in ISS (In school suspension). Why did he punch him you ask? Because he just felt like fighting someone and my husband was the first teacher he had that day. Yet they expelled a young girl for fighting in the halls when she was being jumped by another group of girls. They claimed that "no tolerance" means NO TOLERANCE. As in, if you are being jumped, you should lay there and allow yourself to be beat to a pulp. Don't try to defend yourself. But of course, it's okay to hit teachers in the face for no reason.

To add insult to injury, with budget cuts being what they are, (and pay raises all around in the downtown office!) my husband buys supplies for his class out of pocket. These kids rarely have a pencil of thier own. And, three months out of the 9 they are in school, they dont have working air conditioner. This is South Florida. It's hot 11 out of 12 months. But they cut the air to cut costs therefore forcing teachers to buy fans just to keep some airflow in the sweltering classrooms. I dont know how that's even legal but they do it.

None of this is the teachers fault. They are suffering just as much as the students, moreso when you consider that the TEACHERS are the ones blamed if the schools fail. Blame the administration running our school systems and the fucktards in office.

Sabrina -

Then what your husband and all other good teachers should do is QUIT. Administrators are meaningless with nobody to administer. And the only way to get the public to pay attention to what these administrators (dictators, really) are doing is for there to suddenly be no teachers to teach their children.

And I know a few teachers who are quite intelligent too, with masters degrees. I also know several who are blithering idiots who would suffocate if breathing were not an unconscious process.

No doubt that there are idiot teachers. But they aren't as common as being claimed.
I don't agree they should quit though. What good will that do? They will just hire more of the idiot teachers who don't make the fuss the good ones do. And how is that beneficial to the kids? The kids shouldn't suffer because the administration can't get it together. And the kids would suffer without a doubt if all the good ones did quit out of protest. Also, he would be unemployed. And my husband refuses to be unemployed if he can help it. He has too much pride to not work. And he thinks living on tax payer dime is even worse because if he quits, he wouldn't be able to get unemployment. However, if a better job that could utilize his skillset came along, he might consider it seriously. But he does love teaching despite all the shit.

This will end when the first child dies and the teacher and principal responsible go to prison for manslaughter. Until then, carry on.

"Zero tolerance is code for, "We don't want to have to make reasonable decisions, or figure what the right thing is on a case by case basis, so we're going to have this 100% draconian decision which we will apply in all situations." It's to protect administrators who will not, or can not, think." - Steve Daniels

It's not just the administrators. The schools of education have dumbed down the cirriculum to the point that the average SOE graduate has no more actual thinking capacity than a sack of doorknobs. And the unions have made hiring anyone but an SOE graduate nearly impossible. Which means the school systems are forced to hire teachers that cannot think. So, they dare not let them(especially since the whole system will get sued if the teacher makes the wrong choice).

In a survey of university students cited a few years ago by Thomas Sowell, school of education students (future teachers and administrators) were the least likely to answer in the affirmative that they read books for pleasure or that they read books that were not on the assigned class reading list.

"the majority of teachers graduate in the lower 30% of their college class"

are you serious?

In Canada getting into teachers college is as difficult as getting into any other post graduate program (for those who don't know how hard it is, you must have a high grade point average). Mind you, once they are in the teacher's union they can fry their brain to their heart's content because there is no getting them out.

One of my neighbors growing up was a 6th grade teacher and she insisted that the US consisted of 50 states plus Alaska and Hawaii -- even when shown in books that the 50 included them.

As ungraduate I had work-study in watching and helping people in a computer lab. The building also housed the education program. Just from over hearing the classes and helping people with their home work (it often times involved using the computers) I think I could have passed the final program exam.

I also had Physics teacher in HS who had his Masters in Physics from MIT and a Doctorate from some place else. He said he just didn't like the college atmosphere and the publish or die mentality. Great teacher who actually knew his topic and how to teach it. My college prof. didn't like him though....I knew the material better than he for what was covered (not in the prof's specialty) and embarrassed him a number of times by asking questions.

My 11th grade biology teacher was a 300lb physical education major. Her lectures consisted of reading directly from the textbook.

My history teacher that year was a woman who put up 20-year-old overhead slides and expected the class the copy them word-for-word and regurgitate them on the exams. This is while she read Vogue and Cosmo. When I pointed out an error on the slide (one of several), I was told to copy it as written and keep quiet in class.

They both had tenure.

I don't like my post about the qualifications of Canadian teachers (above), it sounds a bit obnoxious as if I was saying that Canada is so great compared to the States. That was not my intent, nor is it my belief.
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The problem with living in a litigious society is that we end up with tons of rules limiting our behaviour because someone might get sued. Students suffer the consequences both in unreasonable limits placed on their behaviour and because the union protects really bad teachers.