I know I haven't posted in awhile...

So, let me summarize the past month for everyone. Where to start? Okay, I guess I'll start with being verbally attacked by one of my students' mothers because another school employee (mom's friend) had hit her child and left a mark during school hours while she was on the clock. Natural, you might think, for a mother to be upset that a school employee had assaulted her child. Well, she was not mad about the fact that her friend hit her child, but rather that the school took issue with it. She brought the New York State penal code with her to the school after the principal called her and proceeded yell at us about how you indeed can slap your child with an open hand. Long story short, it was a truly irrational conversation that ended with her asking what the school was going to do to make sure her friend was not in the presence of her daughter because her friend would do it again, it was her "instinct." This, of course, to save her friend from being fired, not to protect her daughter.

What else? Well, the big swine flu cover-up was a big item of gossip among teachers. You see, other schools are actually concerned about swine flu. I know that other teachers have posted about their union reps and APs calling sick children to see what their symptoms are, etc. Well, at my school, no one has been calling or even cares. Teachers have been worried for some time because we have many students sick with "the flu." I know I have sent home a few with fevers and have heard of siblings who are sick, and then there was the rumor that one of our children had a confirmed case of H1N1. NO ACTION WAS TAKEN, and no one was informed, so I figured it was just a rumor, the kid probably had something else. Now it comes out that it was true. We had a confirmed case of H1N1 at our school two weeks ago and no one was informed. As for the other sick kids, a parent of a child with the flu told me that at the hospital, they weren't testing them anymore, just assuming that any child with the flu did have H1N1 and prescribing Tamilflu. At our staff meeting, teachers were up in arms about this. The principal told us "you GUYS need to calm down....etc." talking to us like we were overreacting. It makes me sick! I'm not so worried for myself personally because I am young, healthy, and do not have other medical conditions, but what about the pregnant teachers and the ones who DO have underlying medical conditions. What about our children with severe asthma and other serious medical conditions? Don't their parents have a right to know that this was going around? Everyone should have at least known that H1N1 was running rampant in our school so we could all make an INFORMED decision about whether or not to come to school.

You might think that this is enough for a 3 week update, but there is more. Two of my students' moms got into a physical fight this week as well and the police were summoned to the school. Luckily it happened in the PA room and I didn't witness it, but I am really disgusted by how and why it happened. Apparently one of my students' moms, a Mexican woman from a small town in rural Mexico insulted one of my indigenous Mexican moms from an even more remote area of Mexico calling her a "pig." The indigenous mom, who has always been so involved and helpful at school apparently pushed the other mom, etc. etc. How do we expect our children to get along with each other if this is how their parents behave?

15 days left. I'm emotionally drained and ready for the year to end.