Advertisements
I am a Pre-K teacher, as well as a parent. A few weeks ago DD was sick with strep over a 3 day weekend and it extended 2 days into our shorter work week. The diretor of our daycare actually expected me to come in while she was still running fever and contagious with strep. Our child care licensing handbook says that children with strep are only allowed to return to school 24hrs after antibiotics have begun. They wanted me to come into work as soon as we got from the doctor. Her prescription hadn't been filled, yet. I told my boss that she wasn't on antibiotics, she still had a fever and I would be in after she was fever free without medication and after her antibiotics had been in her system for 24 hrs, just like we require of the children in our care. ------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- Last week, a student of mine, who has a history of asthma, had been out a couple of days with asthma. When he returned to school, his parent asked me to call them if he had any trouble breathing, so she could get him stronger medicine. After giving the child his nebulizer and his steroid, his breathing was calm for about 20 minutes. He then started gasping for air. I called his mom ASAP. When mom showed up, the assistant director was in her face trying to find out why she was there, who called her and told me she's sure it wasn't as bad as I was making it sound.:grr: Mom ended up having to rush him to the hospital. The AD called our director, who still had not arrived at work at 230 and told her I called the child's mom. The dirctor then said she was writing me up because I didn't call her before calling the mom! She then ranted and raved about there not being a need for us to call the mom because we have his meds at school. I told her that I had given him his meds, they were not working, mom had told me to call her if his symptoms got worse and I did as the parent wished. I did not back down. I don't know about you, but I would be PISSED if I found out my child had a severe asthma attack and the teacher took time to call the director before calling me! She then decided against the write up. ------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------- Fast forward to today: It was the end of the day and DD's eyes were glossy. I thought she might have been sleepy. She was sitting by her teacher. I picked her up and her hands were warm and her heart was racing. I took her temp right away and it was 101.7. As I was taking her temp, the assistant director, who by the way is assistant director in name alone according to the director and the owner, walked up to me and said "She's fine and you better be here tomorrow or you are getting written up because the director is out of the country and all staff needs to be here. I told her " Just like we sent xxxx home yesterday because he had a fever and had to be 24hrs fever free, I will be keepig her home tomorrow. I am not bringing her to school with fever and feeling miserable when we have 4 floaters that can fill in." She has NO children, bribes the children with Honey Buns, Tootsie Rolls and Chips to get them to behave and is constantly telling people how to raise their kids! I will be talking to the owner tomorrow morning. I'm just.....just.....ahhhhhhhhh:mad:
Like
Share
Advertisements
Oh, it gets better! I took dd to the doc 1st thing this morning. This is the 3rd time she has had the same illness in 2 months. I put one of those little masks on her so she wouldn't get anyone else sick because I had to take her doctors note, sanitize my classroom because dd spends time in my class sometimes and tell my co-teachers that all the toys and mats needed to be sanitized. Noteח We have 5 kids that have been sick for the past 2 days. The other teacher complained about not having time to sanitize their toys, my dd always seems to get sick and her illness isn't all that contagious.....HUH?????? I explained to them that she has had it 3 times since May/June, the last time she had it her classroom was not sanitized AT ALL and neither were the mats. I also called the owner to let him know everything that was going on and he said fine. An older teacher, who had been there 12 years, got mad because I typed up strep notices to place on each classroom door, to forewarn parents, which is what preschools are supposed to do with strep, chicken pox, etc. She said in all her years working there they had never put signs up. I received a scholarship and under conditions of that scholarshi, I have to remain at my current childcare center until I finish my teaching certification in November/December. I can't afford to up and leave before my certification is complete because my scholarship and any SUBSTANTIAL bonuses given by my university will be forfeited.
I am so sorry! The place you work sounds incredibly unproffessional. If I were another parent there I would be LIVID if I knew this was happening and my kids was getting exposed to illnesses in such a senseless way. The mats should be sanitized EVERY day anyway, as well as having sheets for each child specifically (that's what happens at my daycare). I have to take vacation whenever my child is sick, I would be pissed to find out that the caregivers' children are coming to daycare and infecting my kid. And the notices on the door, are you kidding, that's Health Department! It's hard enough to figure out how serious an illness is with little kids, and to intentionally withold valuable info from the families? That's awful. And...I have a kid with breathing problems. The scenario you had about calling the mom...if you hadn't called me when I specifically asked you to do it I would have pulled my kids out of there immediately! My daycare has to call me whenever the nebulizer is used, and I will go over there myself to check his breathing when he is having trouble. It is MY decision not theirs on how to treat it. Yikes! I'm so sorry you're stuck!
Could they be angry with you b/c you are taking sick days that are for your child and not for yourself? I'm not sure how it works at your school but I am a teacher in an elementary school and we are not allowed to take sick days for our kids. In fact, if we get caught taking them for our children we could be written up or have our pay docked. I think it's CRAZY of course. Here we are a school, who expects parents to keep their kids home when they are sick but they don't allow us (parents) to be home with our own kids when they are sick! It's something I hate but I had to end up getting my Grandma to watch my kids when they are sick or just pretend that I'm sick so no one would find out I was staying home with my child. I know it sucks but maybe you can find someone to watch your DD when she is sick or just pretend it's you who is ill?
Advertisements
Sick days? What's that, lol. (Joking) They don't offer it. The only thing we get is a week of vacation after we have bee there a year. I haven't been there a year, yet. I don't get any pay at all if I miss work. It gets better. After being locked into the center for another few months because of the contract I signed with my university, I was told by the director that the owner said he would NOT be giving me the raise after becoming certified, although he had signed the contract saying he would. He is willing to give me a 1 time 20 dollar cash bonus, though for all of my hard work:eek: However will I spend ALL of that money???? Wow, a whole extra 20 bucks! (Gotta love sacasm) I have taught Pre-K for eleven years. I am the ONLY teacher with a college degree, although it is in the arts, and the only teacher that is willing to continue their education and it's FREE! I am the only teacher that does things by the book. We went 2 months without art supplies although I asked, and asked, and asked because, although I love my students, as a single parent, I could not keep spending my own money on supplies, classroom decorations and things for cooking projects for 18 kids. There's lots of things going on with that center that is SO not by the book, it sickens me. There are some SERIOUS violations of minimum standards. I had a meeting with the head of my teacher certification program about really needing to find something better, not only for myself, but for dd. The only advice she had was to stick in there and she would attempt to talk to the financial backers of the certification program about my options are because am a dedicated teacher and really want to become teacher certified. I should just stop now. This could go on forever.
I forgot to add my nearest relative lives 5 hours away and ALL of my friends work full time teaching or corporate jobs. Having someone else watch her for me isn't an option. There is a company that will pick your child up from school when they are sick and stay with them until you get home. With what they charge per hour, its more cost effective for me to stay with her. I'm also not comfortable with the idea of leaving dd with someone I don't know and having a complete stranger in my home for hours with my toddler, background check or not.
Oh, I know, I'm a single mom too but the whole being absent for your child thing is a big problem when you are a teacher. I too think its wrong, I mean as parents, who else is going to stay with our kids? And I have TWO and major health problems myself so the whole being absent thing was the biggest stressor in my life. Now that I'm really sick, I'm now on disability but it has been rough and stressful up to this point.
I haven't read all the replies, but from the original post I would say that is not a place I would want my child at. I wouldn't even recommend it to other parents. That is just my opinion. It's too bad that some child care facilities don't have the welfare of the children as their first priority.
Advertisements
I quit and I love my new job and dd LOVES her new school. I did some job searching on my 1 week of vacation, found a new place of employment on day 2 of my vacation and decided not to return. The straw that broke the camels back was the director cutting everyone's hours to less than 25 hour a week so she could give her best friend a job @ 40 hrs a week. Here's to new beginnings :happydance: :happydance: :happydance: :happydance: :happydance: