Student Refused Inhaler Because She Forgot Part Of Her School Uniform

[KamaAina]

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/health/teacher-confiscates-students-inhaler-return-missing-piece-school-uniform

A U.K. girl was told by her teacher that she couldn’t have her asthma inhaler because she lost the tie that was part of the school’s uniform, and now, her father is demanding answers.

Reports say that the student lost her tie, and as “security” for being given a replacement, the teacher kept the girl’s inhaler. Garry Gould, the student’s father, says he found out about it days later when his daughter came home from school out of breath. Upon finding out about the confiscation, Gould was forced to call the family doctor to get his 16-year-old daughter Sian another inhaler.

“I couldn’t believe what I was hearing,” Gould said. “The fact that an adult, even worse a teacher, thought it was acceptable to take away a child’s medication is unreal. When I found out I went mad. Sian hadn’t had her inhaler for a few days because she still couldn’t find her own tie. She didn’t want to worry us. To think she was without medication that could potentially save her life is so scary.

“We contacted the school and the teacher wasn’t in to return it,” Gould continued. “We rang the doctors for a replacement and they couldn’t believe the reason behind why she needed one. I actually googled whether or not a teacher had the power to take away medication and the first story that came up was a child that had died in the playground after something similar happened.”

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. I guess stupid school officials are not an exclusively American phenomenon.

[NYC_SKP]

2. Right? I was thinking this had to be the great state of (fill in blank), puts conformity above all.

I guess that would be every state, not exclusive to great states.

sheesh.

[whathehell]

23. Nah..Once you leave American shores, you realize that

"stupid" and "bigoted" are as widespread in Europe and other countries as they are here.

[Pacifist Patriot]

30. I assumed I was clicking on a story from Florida.

[iandhr]

9. The are few forces in the world that are 100% free from all discrimination.

Stupidity is one of them.

[tblue37]

36. This is why asthmatic kids should always carry their inhalers:

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/health/ryan-gibbons-12-died-because-school-took-his-asthma-inhaler-now-mom-wants-law-changed-stop
Ryan Gibbons was only 12 years old when he died from a severe asthma attack during recess at school. He would have simply reached for the prescription inhaler that he always carried with him, but his school took it away and locked it in the principal’s office.

As Ryan gasped for air, his friends picked him up and carried him to the office where his inhaler was held. But they couldn’t get there in time. Ryan passed out before they reached his potentially life-saving medicine. He never recovered. The date was Oct. 9, 2012.

The tragedy took place at Elgin County School in Straffordville, Ontario, Canada. Now Ryan’s grieving mom, Sarah Gibbons, is leading a campaign to get schools to change their senseless policy of keeping essential inhalers away from asthmatic children — by law.

The bill that she wants lawmakers to pass is dubbed “Ryan’s Law,” in honor of her son’s memory. The proposed law would force schools to let kids who have a doctor’s okay carry inhalers in school, in a pocket or backpack.

This case happened in Canada--so it isn't just in the US that schools screw up over life-savign medication for kids.

[tblue37]

37. Apparently, although the US has laws saying kids can carry their inhalers, some schools still

take them away. From the same article:

Indeed, it is difficult to understand why. What possible reason could a school have for this bizarre anti-inhaler policy? In the United States, all 50 states have already passed laws permitting children to carry their inhalers in school — but even some American schools still don’t allow it.

[gordianot]

3. No schools cannot deny medication.

Most States have provision for "in loco parentis". That teacher, school nurse, Principal should be looking for a job. If that does not happen the Superintendent should be fired, or if the School Board does not act they should have a law suit.

I would hope the UK it still works the same as I remember it "in loco parentis" derived from Common Law.

[OregonBlue]

4. So England has it's share of Tealiban too I see.

[Glassunion]

5. The one thing I hated when in school was having to go to the principal or nurse to use my inhaler.

Every morning, I had to go to the principal's office and hand over my inhaler.
Like clockwork, during recess or gym, I would exert myself and have an attack.
Now, that I suddenly can't breathe, have to find a teacher, wheeze my situation, get a pass, wheeze my ass across the quad, wheeze down the stairs and into building A, find the principal or the nurse, wait for them to unlock their office and get my inhaler. Then have them stare at me as I took two puffs off of it like my wheezy ass had no clue how to use it.

[Ilsa]

13. From the work I've done at schools

as a nurse, most allow older kids (not Kinder) to carry, all day, an inhaler or epi-pen for their asthma and severe allergies. The consequences of denying it are too dire, and the potential for abuse is low.

[rogerashton]

6. I am always a bit panicky if I do not have my inhaler.

Oh, good, it is in my pocket. I don't really use it much any more. But even so -- that teacher is a damn cruel bastard.

[FourScore]

14. Me too. It's so scary to have an attack and not have an inhaler on hand. n/t

[Shrike47]

7. This will probably, and should, result in the teacher being disciplined.

Medication is not a reward for doing the right thing. jeeze.

[Jefferson23]

8. You have to wonder what the teachers other great ideas are when a student misplaces

an important item, like a tie...( sarcasm on the tie )

[LeftishBrit]

10. Disgusting

I note the school has had poor ratings from OFSTED. While in general, I don't trust OFSTED ratings, they could be right this time!

[forest444]

11. Over a necktie!? I hereby suggest that next time David Cameron loses his kids in a bar,

Last edited Mon Feb 9, 2015, 06:42 PM - Edit history (1)

the juicy News Corp. bribes he's almost certainly been collecting in exchange for access to Scotland Yard wiretaps, be retained. That'll make him sweat.

[rhett o rick]

12. This sounds like a criminal action. nm

[Warpy]

15. Good grief, talk about assault

Didn't that fuckwit teacher realize that medications aren't trinkets?

There would be a huge lawsuit here.

[imthevicar]

16. Thank Goodness it Wasn't My Child,

I hate to be in Jail for assault and Battery.

[weissmam]

17. the teacher and I use the term loosly needs to watch

themselves for the next ten years or so

(only saying if that was my daughter)

[Hekate]

18. Holy crap, am I ever lucky it was only my glasses my PE teacher confiscated

She thought they were a liability and might break if hit by a ball. The fact that my vision at the time was in the range of 600/20 seemed to never penetrate her skull.

But at least, thank God, I could breathe. If someone took my kid's inhaler away I would go ballistic.

Some people have no business having authority over children.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

32. I understand.

Some people do not understand that we who are very nearsighted CANNOT FUNCTION without our glasses. I don't know what I am in 20s, but I am a "high minus".

A diopter is a meter. If you're a minus, it's a reciprocal. So my GOOD eye is about a minus 6, so that is 39.37 inches divided by six. My good eye focuses at around 5 inches and my bad eye at about 4 inches.

Some people do not understand that. I hated PE and sat down on the softball field in 98 degree heat, and then got thrown out of the game and said, "Good!!". But I never got my glasses taken away and I'm sorry the gym teacher did that to you. The rampant obsession with sports and jocks and being macho (even among girls) to me is a great sickness in our society.

Contacts are great for seeing well if your prescription is suitable for them. It knocks off about 2 to 3 diopters to have the lens sitting on your eyeball. Now that I'm over forty and in bifocals, I have one eye focused for far and one for near, and my brain merges them, according to my eye doctor. It's called "monovision".

My parents had perfect vision and only wore reading glasses. My mom wondered why I had my nose stuck in a book when I was little, and then in the second grade she took me to the eye doctor and found out I couldn't see. She said she felt stupid. I needed them before then. I remember the stupid school nurse with her light box telling me to point at which direction the "E" pointed. I sat there and quietly said over and over again, "I can't see that" and she never heard me from ten feet away or whatever it was.

Now we have state-mandated vision, hearing and speech screening at an early age.

[deafskeptic]

33. Like you, I hated sports.

That was because it caused terrible pain in my lungs and made it hard for me to breathe. I refused to run around a football football field for that reason. Once a teacher forced me to run around the football field and i ended up with such a severe coughing fit that everyone wondered if I was ok. I have no idea why.

[TxDemChem]

19. That goes so far beyond stupid

I hope that teacher learned one hell of a lesson

[sulphurdunn]

20. Headline!

Today and every day, hundreds of thousands of teachers jumped through hoops, without hope of reward in this life, to see that their students were safe, fed, clothed and educated to the full extent of their power to affect such things. What the hell, I guess that's too long for a headline.

[Nye Bevan]

21. Because severe respiratory distress is a perfectly appropriate consequence

for losing a uniform tie.

[tblue37]

35. Or death! If my son had been without his inhaler, he would have died. nt

[FiveGoodMen]

22. First of all...

School uniforms. Something a Nazi would love.

Second: Refusing an inhaler -- bordering on attempted negligent homicide. TeachER should be behind bars.

FUCK ALL ATHORITARIAN PIECES OF THE DEVIL'S SHIT.

[DFW]

24. Sounds like the teacher is indeed guilty of attempted homicide

And if he/she pleads ignorance at not knowing the consequences of taking away an asthma victim's inhaler, said teacher needs to be barred for life from ever again dealing with children or schools except as an after-hours janitor.

[smirkymonkey]

25. This is an outrage. It's not like an inhaler is a goddamn iPhone.

FFS, what the hell could that teacher have been thinking? What a sadistic pig! My 10 year old niece has asthma and if a teacher every did that to her I would have a hard time not walking into that school and kicking the living shit out of her/him.

[knitter4democracy]

26. And this is why I never take collateral.

I have colleagues who take collateral for pencils, pens, whatever, and for some, it's a shoe, others it's something important like a wallet or keys. It has to be something that the student will miss. I always think, though, of situations in which it could be a problem--I have the kid's shoe by my desk when the fire alarm goes off, or I have a wallet and the kid can't get home without a bus pass, etc.

Nope. Too big a liability.

I will say this, though: the student had to have offered her inhaler. I doubt the teacher has a "I'll only take your important medication as collateral" policy. It's probably more like "I'll take whatever you consider important as collateral," and the student stupidly offered her inhaler. She shouldn't have offered, and the teacher shouldn't have taken it, let alone refused to swap it out for something less critical for life.

[Pacifist Patriot]

31. You make some very good points.

[WillowTree]

27. Weapons grade stupidity. Geez.......

[niyad]

28. In the wake of the incident and a poor school inspection, headteacher Trevor Langston resigned.

[valerief]

34. Not a good link. Doesn't even mention school name.

However, this link has the info.
http://www.crewechronicle.co.uk/news/crewe-south-cheshire-news/kings-grove-school-teacher-confiscated-8577833

[LittleGirl]

38. WTF? it's not a phone it's a heath care emergency that you

need to carry those things. My gawd, what has happened to common sense? Shesus.