THIS IS NOT ON TEACHERS.

[kpete]

I didn’t want to do this but some of y’all need to hear it.

Stop invalidating teachers feelings about their safety. Stop using child abuse, food insecurity, and mental health to do it. That is some serious misdirection.

I work for the largest district in Iowa. A majority-minority district. I have a degree in social work, a Masters in counseling, and work in an elementary school. Let me tell you about what I do when I’m at work:

I sit and listen to kids tell me about this abuse you’re talking about. Physical abuse. Sexual abuse. Mental abuse. I have heard it all, and way more times than you want to know. Some kids are telling me for the first time. The first time they’ve told anyone. Other times are “Mrs. Hogan it’s happening again.” I make multiple mandatory reports a month to a DHS that is underfunded and whose social workers have overwhelming caseloads. Before we left in March I was doing suicide assessments nearly weekly. I have taken food and clothes from my house to bring it to students. I have to be the one that calls a Mom to tell her that her child has slits all over her wrists.

And I still won’t let you use this as a reason to force teachers and students back when it’s unsafe. THIS IS NOT ON TEACHERS.

The same politicians (hey, Reynolds) that want to hurriedly reopen schools under dangerous conditions are the same ones who always want to cut down and mismanage social services, mental health services, and their funding. They’re the same politicians who have FAILED the kids in my office. Do you want us to be a community school? Cause we are already trying and it sure would be a lot easier if we had the funding to do it.

Where’s all this talk when it’s not a pandemic? You guys know what often happens to these kids and families then? I sit with a mom after school and call every single homeless shelter in the area to find something for her and there is nothing. I listen to a mom cry after the mental health unit tells her there’s no bed for her child in crisis. And when she asks them and me what to do now, there’s no answer for her. Iowa is one of the worst states for mental health services in the country.

Do not come at teachers and schools. Their job is to educate. Mine is to help these kids and families and I’ll do home visits if I can, I will do my best to connect them with the resources they need and I know my colleagues will too.

The real problem is there are not adequate resources, even if we are in school. Not even close. COME AT YOUR GOVERNMENT FOR THAT. And do it when the pandemic is over too.

From: Barbara Hogan
ttps://www.facebook.com/barbara.baudino/posts/10221732561921368