A little annoyed....

JKF

Well-Known Member
I have to admit - I'm a little annoyed with easy child/difficult child's teachers. He fractured his thumb AT SCHOOL yesterday during recess. They told him he was fine and that he'd KNOW if he had a broken bone. When he eventually decided to show me his thumb it was so black and blue and swollen that I took him directly to the ER (after we'd already been to the hospital for an EKG 30 minutes before!) He had x-rays and a splint was put on it. diagnosis = bone chip fracture of the thumb.

He's not in a huge amount of pain so the hospital said it was ok to send him to school today, just no PE or recess. They said to give him a couple of Motrin in the morning before he left. So I did and off he went. I just got a call from his in class support teacher. She's like "he's distracted by his thumb today". Ummm duuuh! Of course he is! It's broken and in a splint. She's like "he has to come in at recess bc he didn't do well on a Math assignment this morning". Ok - usually I'd have no problem with that but cut the kid a little slack today! I'm not usually "soft" but even 'I' know he's going to need a few days to adjust to this.

I told her that he can come home today if he needs to but he's going to have this thing on (if not a cast - we'll find out tomorrow) for at least 4 weeks so HE and SHE (along with all of his other teachers) will need to adjust to this situation the best they can. My God!
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
Right.
And I'd be doubly annoyed because it happened at school - this wasn't some extra out-of-school activity, even.

Teachers do not understand how much damage they do to difficult child kids - by NOT "getting the picture".
 

JKF

Well-Known Member
Right.
And I'd be doubly annoyed because it happened at school - this wasn't some extra out-of-school activity, even.

Teachers do not understand how much damage they do to difficult child kids - by NOT "getting the picture".


Exactly! When I picked him up at school for his EKG appointment yesterday he was covered in mud. I asked him (in front of the ICS teacher) what happened and he said he fell at recess but that they told him he was fine. I figured - ok he's fine then. When I finally saw the thumb I was shocked because it was definitely NOT "fine".

I get that accidents happen. I do. I'm not mad at anyone because it happened. I'm upset because they are treating the results of this accident like it's a behavior problem. "He's distracted by his broken thumb" and "didn't do well on an assignment because of it". This lady has worked as his ICS teacher for 2 YEARS now! I would think she'd "get it" just a little!
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Someone would've had a piece of my mind, and I'm not so sure I could've pulled it off tactfully. That is a total DUH situation.

When Travis broke his arm at school in the first grade the nurse didn't think he was hurt very badly. In fact, she thought he was being a "cry baby" and ONLY called me because he would not stop crying. A crying Travis was a rare thing, but LOUD. I could hear him in the background........I told her it was obvious by the sound of his sobs that he was in pain. I went to the school, looked over his arm. Swollen but not yet to the black/blue point......but it was crooked. Granted, not much, one had to know what to look for.....but it should have been obvious to her. I took him to the ER at children's. Broke both bones in 2 places each. Oh, yeah......the kid was just fine. omg She and the principal got a colorful piece of my mind. I was less harsh on the Principal, wasn't his fault.....but he should've hired a more competent nurse. (there were many other incidences later that I also went to him about, as did other parents)

His teachers, since the kid had a cast to his shoulder, had other children volunteer to do his writing for him until the swelling was down and he was comfortable doing it himself which only took a day or two.

Usually teachers are more understanding. sheesh Although they seem to be less so unless they see an actual cast. Dunno why. But in jr high I had a green stick fracture of my right arm (bent not a break break) it was braced and bandaged. I discovered that I'm ambidextrous due to it as I was still required to do all my own work. Not a so good way to find out you can write nearly as well with your left hand as your right. The muscles weren't used to it and cramped horribly although the writing itself was fine. ugh
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
I'm upset because they are treating the results of this accident like it's a behavior problem
Exactly.
And difficult child knows that it's wrong... that he in fact does have reasons in this case. HE knows the difference... and this just helps him hate teachers and school even more.
 

donna723

Well-Known Member
OMG! I would be furious! We don't even have school nurses here, we just have coaches and teachers "diagnosing" injuries and deciding what's serious and what's not. It's happened to us too. My daughter once came home limping and in pain from an ankle injury she got playing basketball. The coach had looked at it, decided it was nothing, and told her to "walk it off". We took her to the ER where it was diagnosed as a very bad sprain. Wish I had seen that coaches face the next day when she came hobbling in wearing the giant boot the ER doctor put her in! "Walk it off"! Yeah, right! My younger brother once got hurt during PE class and was ridiculed by the coach who accused him of being a whiner and just trying to get out of participating in class. After a long, bumpy ride home in the school bus, we took him to the ER where xrays showed that his collar bone was broken. But I guess he could have "walked that off" too if he really tried!
 

JKF

Well-Known Member
To be fair to the nurse, she was at lunch when it happened. The principal gave him an ice pack and said he was fine. Then the science teacher looked at it and told him he was fine and that he'd KNOW if he had a broken bone because he'd be in excruciating pain. The actual nurse is usually pretty good but I'm not at all happy with how this was/is being handled.

I'm going to call his ICS teacher when I get home later and speak to her about this. I'm annoyed and think they need to deal with it a little better. Yes he can be annoying at times and doesn't always do what he's supposed to do but he's HURT and has a splint for the first time ever on his first time ever broken thumb! It's going to take some time for him to get used to it. I'm also annoyed because she commented that "he could have stayed home today". Really?! Well the hospital said he was fine to go back today, he wasn't in a lot of pain this morning, he's already behind on his work even though he's there everyday, and he WANTED to go! What does she want me to do? Keep him home for 4 weeks until he's healed.
 

JKF

Well-Known Member
So I basically just told off the ICS teacher in a nice way. She text me 3 TIMES in the last 10 min. First text she said, "just so you know difficult child is getting his progress report tomorrow and is getting a D in writing". Next text she says "he didn't do well on the essay portion of his reading test today". THEN in the last text she said "he now has a science test but I don't think he'll do well on that either since he's not done well on anything else today".

So I replied - "Thank you for all of the bad news today. It is what it is. Right now I have to deal with one thing at a time. The most important thing to me at this time is difficult child's injury. He has a broken thumb, will be in a splint or cast for the next month, and may even need surgery. I'm sorry if he's "distracted" but this is new to him. Please try to be at least a little understanding. We will work on the writing grade and I hope he does well in science but if not I will let it slide today due to the circumstances".

What is with this lady today! I think she took an extra does of b**ch pill this morning. She's usually never like this and I thought she'd be a little understanding about the situation but I was waaaaaaay off on that one!
 

Star*

call 911........call 911
I think the first thing I would want to see is the REPORT from the nurse. WHEN did he go to the office........WHEN did they make a report. WHY didn't you get a call. WHY wasn't 911 called for a possible broken bone? WHY weren't you informed, and WHO there decides (without medical training) that a child does or doesn't have anything broken? This is going to be a new policy for them at the least. WHAT if a child had fallen and hit their head.....and had a concussion but came around? WOW.

Policy needs to be amended here.
 

JKF

Well-Known Member
I agree Star! It's funny too because the nurse called me at work today and was like "OMG what happened to difficult child yesterday"? She was at lunch when he got hurt and had no idea he was injured until he went to her office today to get the tape on his splint fixed. I explained to her that he fell at recess and she was at lunch but that everyone told him he was fine. She was very apologetic said the school will pay for any medical services that our insurance won't cover. So that proves to me that the school knows they messed up big time. I will be asking to see the official report IF there even is one! Not a happy camper about this!
 

flutterby

Fly away!
When I was in the first grade, I broke my foot at morning recess. The school nurse and teachers didn't think anything was wrong and told me that I *needed* to walk on it to make it feel better because it was just a sprain. I didn't go to the ER until my mom got home after 6pm that night. I remember when I got home, I sat on the rug in front of the kitchen sink and just cried until my mom got home. My dad was home, but he was too busy accommodating his friends - another story. I didn't move at all because I was in so much pain - I didn't even get up to pee. My mom raised some kind of hell, I guess, because I got star treatment the entire time I was on crutches. I had an escort everywhere I went in case I needed help, and I couldn't do the stairs with the crutches so the principal himself would come to carry me up and down the stairs (no elevator). (That was a very big deal to have the *principal* carry you.)

When difficult child was in the third grade, she collided hard with another kid then hit the gym floor at a before school extracurricular gym class. She told her teachers she was seeing two of everything on her papers and that her ears were hurting. They sent her to the office and they refused to do anything because she wasn't running a fever. Finally, after she had been to the office multiple times, the school called me highly annoyed because difficult child kept coming to them but didn't have a fever. This was in the after 1pm. I told them that she usually didn't run fevers with ear infections (I didn't know about the collision with another student or that she was seeing double because they didn't tell me about either). When I picked up difficult child she told me what happened and doctor said she had a mild concussion. I went right back to the school and raised hell. Gym teacher called me that night in tears because she felt so bad. It wasn't her fault. difficult child told her she was ok. But everyone after...
 

susiestar

Roll With It
I am sorry he is hurt. I would insist on at least ultram for the pain. The hands have a LOT of nerve endings and any injury there is going to be mroe painful. I would NOT buy that a broken bone that might need surgery can be treated with a couple of advil/motrin or even aleve. This is wrong.

I would first demand to see the report, then chew them a few new holes and take a strip off them up one side and down the other. They IGNORED a broken bone that could need a cast or SURGERY??? That happened DURING SCHOOL??? They have insurance and they had best start cya'ing because you need to sue them. The school may tell you that you can't, and their insurance may tell you they won't pay, but an attorney? One for YOU AND SON? Should know better. Until/unless you do this, they will NEVER handle him better.
 

susiestar

Roll With It
I was in sixth grade when a classmate, one that many of us didn't lke a lot because she was a tattletale, fell over one of the kneelers while helping tidy the church. She was told to go to class because it 'wasn't really hurt'. We could see that it was at an odd angle in the middle of her arm. We had a bake sale that morning, so most of us were out of money, but five of us pooled what we had and got enough to use the pay phone to call her mom at work. I made the call because the teacher let me go 'use the bathroom' because I almost never asked. Her mom ended up suing the school because there were loose bone chips and by the time they got to the ER her arm had broken through the skin (cut the skin from the inside out) and they had bone chips migrating and internal bleeding. We later learned that if we hadn't called, she could have had damage from either the internal bleeding or from the bone chips if they ended up in her heart or if they cut a blood vessel from the inside. Bone chips are often sharp, and there is a danger if they end up in a blood vessel as this girl's did.

If you choose not to get an atty, at least file formal complaints against the principal and nurse and teacher for their lack of action. This should have at least been a call to you. So often they don't bother iwth reports and just tell the kids they are being whiners or crybabies. No one EVER told me that twice about one of my kids. None of mine cry for effect, esp not Wiz. He had to be in very severe pain before anyone who didn't know him well could see it. So telling me he was a crybaby? Didn't fly. Jess broke off her front tooth hitting a concrete poll (that was 20 inches in the middle of a doorway and wasn't padded) and her teacher didn't want to elt her leave class to go call me or to see the secretary (we don't have nurses at most of the buildings but this secretary has some medication training and she raised 2 boys and a grandkid) but J just ran out of class. the secretary saw her after she threw up blood (cause it went down her throat) and called me. They were VERY angry with the teacher, as I was, because the bleeding alone should have been enough to have her leave class. This teacher truly disliked J simply because she is female and isn't creative in the way this teacher was, so ALL of J's work in this extended studies class was "wrong" even when it fit all of the requirements of the assignment. the teacher backed off a LOT after she realized that every kid in the class was willing to tell me ALL of the other nasty things she had done to Jess that year. I was shocked by it because this woman adored wiz. Turns out he is smart the way her sons were, and that is the ONLY smart she recognizes as 'real'. She wouldn't even take thank you into her class because he was my kid. She was reassigned because I found out and got 3 of his teachers from the past years to give me letters saying they recommended him and didn't know why he wasn't in the class. I went to the superintendent's secretary (the real power behind the school in many cases) and her grandson was in scout's with thank you and she was shocked that he wasn't in extended studies. So that complaint became a priority and this teacher with over 20 yrs seniority almost got fired. She now is at the alternative school where the kids run her ragged and make her miserable. cannot say I am sorry.
 
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