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Your chapstick is illegal now.
For those of you who don't know, I teach middle school and high school in a public megadistrict in the southern United States. Today I had to sit through my annual med training, which is required of all teachers every summer, in the event that we would ever want to be authorized to give a student any medical assistance whatsoever, ranging from a life-saving EpiPen injection to, you know, giving them a cough drop if they're coughing a lot.
I'm not kidding about that last one.
So the official rule in my district is that all over-the-counter medications, including cough drops (no really), are banned on school property. The only way that a student would be allowed to either a) carry or b) receive over-the-counter medications from a school nurse is if the student files a Special Permission Form with the district office that must be signed by their parent/guardian, their physician, and a licensed notary. Still not kidding about any of this. So yes, that's right: The school nurses in my district aren't allowed to give you Tylenol, a cough drop, or anything unless you go to all the trouble of getting your physician AND a licensed notary to sign this super-special form for you. And you have to get that done every summer, too, since the form is only valid for the duration of one school year. If you don't have that form on file, too bad, the best that we can give you is animal crackers and a call home.
Also I, as a teacher, am perfectly allowed to keep cough drops in my room, but I'm not allowed to ever give one to a student unless a) the student has their permission form on file and b) I have my certificate stating that I've completed the district medical training on hand. Also I'm supposed to both document with Official Paperwork AND call home to notify the parent/guardian any time that I give a student medication at school, which includes cough drops.
Oh, and guess what's new this year?! The definition of "over-the-counter medication" has expanded to include ALL forms of chapstick and lotion.
That's right.
You're not allowed to bring Lip Smackers to school anymore. Not unless you have documentation signed by your physician and a licensed notary which states that you have permission to do so. To say nothing of hand lotion.
Likelihood that this rule is ever going to be enforced: zero. But it's on the books nevertheless.
Oh, and my medical training? After having sat through one hour of lecture and completed a short written exam, I am now licensed to administer medication to my students orally, in their eyes and ears, through a stomach tube, or rectally. However, a state law prevents teachers from ever being authorized to touch either a throat apparatus or a catheter. So yes, that's right: I am now "trained" and capable of either injecting medicine directly into a hole in your stomach or shoving a syringe up your rectum, should the need ever arise, yet will never be allowed to touch your catheter or any tubes in your throat. Just so that's clear.
God I love bureaucracy.
I'm not kidding about that last one.
So the official rule in my district is that all over-the-counter medications, including cough drops (no really), are banned on school property. The only way that a student would be allowed to either a) carry or b) receive over-the-counter medications from a school nurse is if the student files a Special Permission Form with the district office that must be signed by their parent/guardian, their physician, and a licensed notary. Still not kidding about any of this. So yes, that's right: The school nurses in my district aren't allowed to give you Tylenol, a cough drop, or anything unless you go to all the trouble of getting your physician AND a licensed notary to sign this super-special form for you. And you have to get that done every summer, too, since the form is only valid for the duration of one school year. If you don't have that form on file, too bad, the best that we can give you is animal crackers and a call home.
Also I, as a teacher, am perfectly allowed to keep cough drops in my room, but I'm not allowed to ever give one to a student unless a) the student has their permission form on file and b) I have my certificate stating that I've completed the district medical training on hand. Also I'm supposed to both document with Official Paperwork AND call home to notify the parent/guardian any time that I give a student medication at school, which includes cough drops.
Oh, and guess what's new this year?! The definition of "over-the-counter medication" has expanded to include ALL forms of chapstick and lotion.
That's right.
You're not allowed to bring Lip Smackers to school anymore. Not unless you have documentation signed by your physician and a licensed notary which states that you have permission to do so. To say nothing of hand lotion.
Likelihood that this rule is ever going to be enforced: zero. But it's on the books nevertheless.
Oh, and my medical training? After having sat through one hour of lecture and completed a short written exam, I am now licensed to administer medication to my students orally, in their eyes and ears, through a stomach tube, or rectally. However, a state law prevents teachers from ever being authorized to touch either a throat apparatus or a catheter. So yes, that's right: I am now "trained" and capable of either injecting medicine directly into a hole in your stomach or shoving a syringe up your rectum, should the need ever arise, yet will never be allowed to touch your catheter or any tubes in your throat. Just so that's clear.
God I love bureaucracy.
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Hopefully the rule isn't enforced. I dont know what I would've done if I was never allowed to bring chapstick to school x_x
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Because of my OCD and frequent handwashing I've already permanently damaged the skin on my hands and arms, and it would be a thousand times worse now if I hadn't started carrying around and frequently applying lotion back in middle school.
But teenage!me would have been mortified at the prospect of having to get a doctor's note to justify having lotion for that reason, let alone having to explain all of that to my parents or having that shit put in front of a public notary.
With any sort of hygiene product I never grill my students about it because I know perfectly well that a couple of them have their own anxiety issues and compulsive rituals that involve soap, hand sanitizers, lotions, etc. And I have many more kids who just plain have dry skin, or are actually taking medication that makes their mouth and skin dry out.
That plus an environment filled with dry air, chalk dust, and allergens = NOT the place where you want to further punish kids by making things like chapstick and lotion controlled substances.
As for the cough drop thing, whatever. One of the district RNs suggested that we should keep a bag of Lifesavers with menthol in our desks to share with students instead. Apparently these exist, and recipe-wise are nearly identical to certain brands of cough drops (since menthol is the most common active ingredient in cough drops), but since they're packaged and sold as "candy" they don't officially count as cough drops. ;)
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I'm not sure if it's comforting to be reminded that I'm not the only one with that issue or dismayed that I'm not the only one. Through immense effort I've managed to force myself to reduce the handwashings so I sort of manage with putting lotion on my hands before bed, but my hands are still drier than a normal person's.
God, I hated those rules. Why is it that not even the school NURSE is allowed to give you things?
And so now they're not even allowed to use chapstick... If I'd had to explain my weird compulsion to wear chapstick which makes me go a little bit nuts if I don't wear it, I don't know what I'd do...
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TBF I highly doubt that this rule is going to be enforced. Like, ever. Not just because it's cruel to the kids, but - and this is coming from a purely selfish standpoint, but whatever - that rule is a complete classroom management nightmare for teachers.
I know that if I ever did try to enforce that rule in my classroom, it would be the same as me basically asking the kids to eat me alive. There's no way that I could enforce that rule without being the "bad guy," there's no way that I can justify the rule to the kids, and it would basically be me depriving them of something that they need for basic comfort for no good reason - thus giving them a fairly legitimate reason to resent me as an authority figure. Yeah, that'll go over real well. I also can't imagine that forcing kids to have chapped lips and dry skin will help with maintaining their focus and motivation in class. That, and of all the bajillion things that I actually NEED to be making sure that my kids don't get up to doing in class, WHY would I waste my time and energy going after them for using chapstick?! Not to mention wasting my time and energy on the huge and pointless confrontation that would inevitably result the first time that I tried to take chapstick away from a kid, a confrontation that there's literally no way I could win?!
I'm sure that every teacher feels the same way. So yeah, this rule is basically never going to be enforced. By anyone. Ever.
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(And the teachers union would probably come after the school board with pitchforks and torches.)
No but seriously snacks+candy are a pretty essential part of a functional school day, especially in the elementary schools and when it comes to after-school activities in any grade.
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Yeah that's all I have to say.
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Seriously, these rules are a bigger waste of time and money than should even be bothered with. It's not going to stop kids from carrying meds and stuff with them (wth possessed them to ban chapstick of all things? {Okay yes I know stupid children write on mirrors with the stuff})
If all the school i work at had to worry about were over-the-counter and prescription drugs, it would be fantastic. We have somewhere around half a dozen arrests a year for kids carrying pot and crack( I kinda hope I'm exaggerating, because I know were had a few) These kids are 11-13yrs old. I wish I was kidding.
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Yes, if it's necessary to save someone's life? But no, because of course I would never want to be in a situation where a student's life was in danger in the first place.
(Diastat, for example, is a rectal injection that can potentially save the life of a student having a grand mal seizure. Which is why a teacher should probably be qualified to give rectal injections, especially if she has students with epilepsy. But of course we all hope that no student of ours ever actually has to suffer a seizure so severe as to be life-threatening!)
(wth possessed them to ban chapstick of all things?
The explanation that I heard today was that as long as certain chapsticks are medicated, the school district has to be consistent across the board, so if cough drops are out then chapstick has to go, too. Also there is a risk of another student having an allergic reaction to a chemical in somebody's chapstick.
While the allergy thing is certainly a very real concern, I can't help but notice that the school district has yet to completely ban perfume, which is much more dangerous in terms of triggering allergic reactions. Plus it's just plain discourteous to be wearing a cloud of perfume when you're crowded in a room with thirty other students. At least chapstick serves a medicinal purpose; perfume is often purely cosmetic. I wish that the district had banned perfume instead of chapstick.
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Urgh, this is why I'm not going anywhere near teaching or medical careers. I respect those who do it very much, but it this kind of stuff that I'll leave to others. I'm glad my job at the school I work at is away from the students (that's technically changing. My current job title was getting cut, so I'm being switched to a different title that would usually put me in a classroom, but I'll still be doing what I've been doing. I'm basically getting demoted with a big pay cut, and to top it all off, I have to take a test to get through processing. Thanks LAUSD)
I definitely have to agree with you on the perfume/cologne. I can't tell you how many times I've walked by teachers and can't breath until i'm several yards away because how much they're wearing. It makes me extra happy that I don't work in classrooms because I get migraines, and you become ultra sensitive to everything with those things.
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I had to go home a couple times in middle school due to asthma attacks due to perfumed things (as opposed to the usual cause of physical activity). And, actually, now I kind of thought of something about the lotion ban you mentioned: A couple of those attacks were from very strongly-perfumed lotions the girls used in the locker rooms. Several would be used at once, and I'd get set off. So now I'm like :\a about the mentioned lotion ban. They should have said perfumed lotions.
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But seriously. CHAPSTICK AND LOTION. OF ALL F*CKING THINGS.
Next thing you'll know they'll be banning tampons and pads that you can't use without a perscription (OK, maybe not really, but still).
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We have to get a permission slip signed to take aspirin, and in some cases anti-itch cream for whatever reason. (I'm allergic to mosquitoes, and my school says otherwise, for example.) But seriously, chap stick? Um, that's going a bit overboard. What about the people who have really chapped lips in the wintertime?
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(*eyeroll*)
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I do know that any commissioned officer in some states are authorized to act as notaries.
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Also, it's my understanding that the entire point of getting a notary's signature on something is to have that something verified by a neutral third party. So I think that even if a teacher did have a notary license, they wouldn't be able to notarize the form that gives them permission to dispense medication. Because that's the function of the form that the school district wants to have notarized. I don't think you can notarize a form that gives yourself some kind of official power/permission, right?
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(Anonymous) 2011-07-09 06:29 am (UTC)(link)no subject
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I don't think that the school board actually cares whether teachers enforce the rules or not, it's just that if something ever were to happen, they would be able to blame an individual teacher for not following the "rules" instead of taking the blame as an entire school district.
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Whether this rule is ever enforced or not is an entirely different matter.
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(Anonymous) 2011-07-10 06:21 am (UTC)(link)Like, did you get a CPR-Heimlich certification?
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(Anonymous) 2011-07-11 10:47 pm (UTC)(link)1) You cannot wear anything with a hood on it because you WILL hide a gun in that hood and you WILL shoot somebody!
2) You cannot interact with anyone that is a grade lower than you because you WILL beat them up/rape them/sell drugs to them
3) You cannot under any circumstances EVER wear fingerless gloves! EVER!! Because!............I said so
They've never gone so far as banning chapstick though. Though they did technically ban handsanitizer... not that that's actually enforced.
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The hoodie thing is definitely a safety issue, but it's got nothing to do with guns. The issue is that teachers need to be able to see your face at all times. This is both for mundane reasons (so that I can make sure that you're not asleep in class) and for safety reasons (so that I can make sure that you aren't passed out or unconscious at your desk). When a kid is sitting with his head slightly lowered - like, when he's looking down at his desk - and he's wearing a hoodie, then I can't see his face anymore. Which is a problem. Yes, there have been actual incidents of students passing out at their desks without their teacher noticing because they managed to slump against the back of their seat with their heads slightly lowered, and because they were wearing hoodies the teacher couldn't see that their eyes were closed. I also need to be able to see my student's faces in case one of them is starting to blink rapidly or looks even close to passing out and/or falling asleep. Because that's when I need to intervene right away. If they're just sleepy, I will actually let them stand up and get a drink of water, if that will help them wake up. If they're not just sleepy - if they're sick, dizzy, hypoglycemic, OD'ing on meds, or whatever - then I'm immediately responsible for taking the appropriate action right away. Which I can't do if they can hide their faces from me with a hoodie.
2) You cannot interact with anyone that is a grade lower than you because you WILL beat them up/rape them/sell drugs to them
3) You cannot under any circumstances EVER wear fingerless gloves! EVER!! Because!............I said so
I'm assuming that these rules exist because there have been actual incidents in the past where, say, fingerless gloves actually caused a problem. Yes I know this looks "stupid" on the surface but there's often a reason for "stupid" rules being enacted.
Let me give you another example. Silly bands. Silly bands were banned at the middle school where I teach (in the morning) from the start of the school year. I thought that this was a stupid rule, but the other teachers warned me that the kids would actually disrupt classes by fighting over the stupid silly bands, so they had to go.
Then the students in my high school classes (which I teach in the afternoon) actually starting disrupting classes by fighting over silly bands. It was the dumbest effing thing ever. But yeah, within a week silly bands were banned at the high school too. You think that rule is stupid? Blame the kids who were doing the INCREDIBLY STUPID behavior that led to the rule having to exist in the first place.
...Or so I say, but yeah, there's still not a good reason (outside of the liability issue) for my school district to have banned chapstick. Especially since it's something that a lot of students need for basic comfort, as opposed to something that they could definitely survive without (as is the case with silly bands, fingerless gloves, and hoodies). And either way it doesn't matter because I doubt this rule will be enforced.
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(Anonymous) 2011-07-16 03:58 am (UTC)(link)no subject
(Anonymous) 2011-07-16 04:44 am (UTC)(link)Though I will say, the hood thing in this case isn't because of not being able to see your face. We're not aloud to have hoods up and hats or anything of the nature of course for that reason. That is an entirely different situation. I understand that. Its simply that you cannot have a hood, even if it's a fitted shirt that happens to have a hood on it. They would make you take it off/change your shirt. Their excuse that they gave us specifically was because they thought someone would try to hide a gun or knife in their hood. I don't know why, either, being that that's not something that ever happened anywhere near here.
I've been yelled at for literally doing nothing because of these rules. Like, that I didn't IMMEDIATELY take my coat off when I got in the door in the winter, or when I got lost and accidentally went near (not into, just near) the eighth grade wing in the seventh grade or when a friend of mine got sent to the office for having gloves on in class without the teacher even asking her to take them off first. It also became a problem, mostly the issue with the age thing, due to some issues with classes we had because of construction. Gym and Art were at the middle school this year because of said construction. Art was on one end of the middle school and gym on the other. If you had art and gym in succession, then in between classes you would have to walk around the school and into a different door in order to get to the second class and would still be expected to be on time. You weren't aloud to use the hallways in the Middle School if you were a High School Student, even if you had classes there.
The rules are enforced rather eccentrically is all. I should've been clearer. I'm sorry. I realize there are reasons for these rules, and I realize they aren't the same as the chapstick issue. That's just ridiculous beyond all reason. They just peeve me a bit.
Oh and don't worry, I know about the silly-bands thing. My friend and I taught an art class for a day at an elementary school as volunteer work, and they were practically using them as currency. We watched them on the playground and there was a girl that had a massive plastic bag of them. It was ridiculous. All I could think of was "Those are colored rubber-bands! WHY!?" They're banned at all the schools now. It's also, I think, that kids in elementary school are at and age where they feel the need to collect things and are therefore more likely to get distracted by something like silly bands. When Highschoolers do it, they're just being dumb.
Im sorry my post sounded immature. Honestly, though. I'm not trying to be sarcastic or anything. That's going to bother the hell out of me for days...
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I'm sure that you probably have been yelled at for stupid reasons before - heck, even good teachers have bad moments, and it sucks to be caught on the end of a bad teacher's bad moment.
But whoever told you that you couldn't wear a hood because you might be hiding a gun or knife in it is... Well, that person was just plain wrong. Or maybe they were misinformed. Either way that's not the real reason that most schools ban hoodies.
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And at the end, they all tackle the kid and the one especially douchy policeman holds the chapstick in his fingers and says, "Heh, no one can escape the hand of justice." *Takes cap off, sniffs* "Hmph, lavender. What a little scoundrel….."
…..It was funnier in my head, I swear.
"While the allergy thing is certainly a very real concern, I can't help but notice that the school district has yet to completely ban perfume, which is much more dangerous in terms of triggering allergic reactions. Plus it's just plain discourteous to be wearing a cloud of perfume when you're crowded in a room with thirty other students."
O M F G, THANK YOU!!!!!! AND people spraying perfume and cologne in the school hallways e.v.e.r.y. day. That is an absolute MAJOR piss-off. Especially considering that you have to actually walk through the perfume-d/ cologne-d areas to get to class, resulting in me smelling like it. And I'd rather not smell like 'Sparkling Blueberry Adventure' or 'Cherry Blossom Groove', or a guy, thanks very much.
…………Well, maybe 'Sparkling Blueberry Adventure', but NOT THE OTHER ONES >:O
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And I went through a stick of Banana Boat aloe vera chapstick every month back in school (rubbing my lips together is a nervous tic of mine), so... HAHAHAHAHAHA. Sure. My doc made a bemused enough face when we asked him for the Benadryl prescription. "Can you prescribe chapstick?" would have been hilarious. In a vaguely depressing way.
Hand lotion... what about sanitary hand wash?