Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Low "interuption" = loss of recess

Tonight Maddison mentioned to me that Ms S had her sit on the wall for half of morning recess. Why? Because Maddison "interrupted" individual reading testing when telling her teacher that she felt low and needed to go to the nurse. Yep. Not surprised. First of all, Maddison has been taught to ALWAYS-NO-MATTER-WHAT get to the nurse if you feel low. If you have to interrupt, ask 5 times, demand or walk out, GET THERE. It's okay to go against what a teacher tells you if your blood sugar is at risk. Period. Sad that we have to teach our kids this, but people just dont understand that a plummeting blood sugar cant wait. Thank goodness Maddison is getting closer to treating herself in the classroom next year! This is the kind of stuff I've been dealing with all year with this teacher.

So, Ms S did let Maddison go to the nurse right away this morning. At 9:20am my cell phone rang at work. We have a substitute nurse this week, and she was instructed to call me with any questions. The nurse asked me if I wanted Maddison to have her snack early, her BS was 98 with .6 active. I asked her to give Maddison 2 glucose tabs and let her go to recess. Of course, Ms S had Maddison sit out half of that recess, I assume, as Maddison says. Maddison came back after recess (15min later) and her BS was 136. Nice job catching the low Maddison!

So, I guess I will have to speak with Maddison's teacher tomorrow morning before we head off to her Endo appointment down town. FUN! Why am I always dealing with crazy things this teacher does? I'm so glad this year is nearly at an end. 20 days of school left!

3 comments:

Jill said...

Grrrrrr! It's things like this that REALLY tick me off. We have similar instances with Kacey's teacher except it's just the opposite.

Kacey will run high in the morning while they are doing work. She doesn't get the work done so after lunch when the kids go to recess, Kacey has to sit and do her work that she didn't finish. Sad thing is, this doesn't help the highs! She NEEDS recess to control those highs and help bring her down. When I went to the training to be a sub in the school. They didn't know I had a child with diabetes in the school. When we got to the part about recess. The instructor said to us....NEVER do we take away recess because we have several diabetic children in all of our schools along with other children that should be getting exercise and if they don't get this playtime then we could have some issues with these children. I raised my hand and told him I was one of those parents with a diabetic child and he reassured me her recess would never be taken away....ummmm coughbullshitcough! At least 3 days a week she loses recess time!! Her teacher said she only loses half of recess but Kacey tells me that when she walks out to the playground after finishing her work, they are lining up to come in. I'm going to start documenting it and see what happens ;)

Poor Maddison! I feel for her :( We teach them to be independent for themselves and then it backfires. Sad thing is...it only causes more probs for Maddison! When teachers act like that then the kids start to be scared to "interupt" and then what happens if shes really low and passes out? That teacher will be VERY sorry she didn't let her interupt then! Give her hugs from us! Hugs to you too girlie! I know what you're feeling :(

Scott K. Johnson said...

How did Maddison react? I mean, was she pissed at the teacher, or sad that she couldn't go play, or...?

Anonymous said...

Two weeks left in the year? And teacher STILL doesn't "get it"? Do you have a 504 Plan in place? If not, I would get one; if so, I would reconvene the 504 Team and add in that Madison is not to be penalized for treating a low. Madison did not "interrupt." Madison had a medical emergency. Will Madison now jeopardize her health because she is afraid to interrupt the teacher? Or, being a child, will she take the chance, risk the low so she does not lose recess with her friends? I would not just speak to the teacher, I would pull that teacher into the principal's office and educate both of them. I would bring in a Glucagon shot, for good measure, and demonstrate in front of them what they will need to do if Madison has an untreated low in the classroom. Tell the teacher you are leaving a kit with Glucagon by her desk, and please learn how to use it, because her policies might necessitate her having to use it. If said teacher persisted in discriminating against your daughter, I would complain at a higher level, in writing. However, be prepared for teacher's denials. They are very good at covering up. Had a problem with a teacher ripping into E about leaving her class five minutes early every day to go to the Nurse for lunch (otherwise, there would be a problem finding a seat in the lunchroom and there would not be enough time for her to finish eating). Now this was in the 504 and that teacher was present at the meeting. Still she called E out into the hallway, insisted E was using her diabetes as an "excuse" and went into quite the nasty 10 minute long tirade. I sent a note telling her and her superiors: (a) She is aware of our 504. Unfortunate that her class is the last class before lunch but she is to follow the 504; (b) she is NOT to pull E out and lecture her about taking advantage of her diabetes. If she has any questions, the appropriate thing would have been to ask the nurse or parent and why would she have yelled at the child? This was minimized and denied and E "misunderstood" but she got the message. HANDS OFF! These kids have enough to deal with, without adults punishing them for having diabetes. I would like them to walk a mile in someone else's shoes for just one day. Just one day...........