School officials in Florida’s Volusia County School are insisting that a school nurse was perfectly correct in refusing to give a boy his inhaler during an asthma attack because a medical release form was not signed by a parent. By the time the mother arrived at the school, her son was passed out on the floor. She says that the nurse watched as her son, Michael Rudi, 17, collapsed.
The school dean found the inhaler in its original packaging with the student’s name and directions for its use. He seized the inhaler because of the absence of a form. When the boy began to have trouble breathing the mother was called to come into school. It is not clear why, if they could reach the mother, they could not get telephonic approval. More importantly, with the boy having breathing problems, the school insisted that it was still more important to get a form signed than help the child. Rudi is quoted as saying “[a]s soon as we opened up the door, we saw my son collapsing against the wall on the floor of the nurse’s office while she was standing in the window of the locked door looking down at my son, who was in full-blown asthma attack.”
Faced with this horrific situation, the Director of Student Health Services, Cheryl Selesky, still insists it was the parents’ fault for not being sure a new signed form was on file this year. There may have been a failure in supplying such a form, but that pales in comparison to the callous and irresponsible attitude to this teenager who was in obvious medical need. The school was previously made aware of the boy’s medical condition and yet stood there with an inhaler and an unsigned form in hand . . . but concluded the form was the more pressing matter.
It is also not clear why 911 was not called. The parents have filed child endangerment charges against the nurse. They also may want to consider a civil lawsuit against the school. Since the school appears primarily motivated by legal rather than medical considerations, a torts action may serve to concentrate the mind of officials.
Source: Orlando
One more thing. What ever happend to “Do the right thing, and make the paperwork look good afterward.”
Here are a few thoughts for your appetites.
How about the parents and the child file a Section 1983 action (Deprivation of Civil Rights under Color of Law) against the School District. I would go so far as to have the district criminally charged under Title 18, USC ss 242
I think the precident is good in Federal Court for this one. Around 20 years ago, for example, in Spokane a woman was being robbed and an armored car driver took chase of the suspect and rescued her from the attack. The armored car company fired him for violating company rules in doing this. He then filed a civil suit against the company for unlawful termination. Eventually the courts held that the company could not enforce the “company rules” against him when he was aiding a person from harm.
Again, the rules professed as absolute by the school district, are arbitrary and of completely no relevance when it comes to saving the life of another person. Anybody can make up arbitrary rules. They are not a shield. Plus, since the school district is a government agency and they made it clear the nurse and the principal were bound to stand by it and allow the child to nearly die, it makes the case more and more evident the boy’s rights were deprived under color of law.
d
shano, I love Dr. Weil, His first book was like a bible for me for awhile.
bettykath, my theory is it is the HFCS and GMOs. Dr. Weil has opened a new chain of restaurants called True Food Kitchen to cater to people who refuse to eat poisons.
I am eating there every night of the convention I am attending because all the other restaurants are full of GMOs, HFCS, preservatives, food color flavor enhancers et al.
Our brains all need good high quality fats to function properly. Lots of Omega 3s. The typical American diet is void of this particular brain food.
(Just my example of school nurse incompetance, not to indict all school nurses though, in HS we had a wonderful one)
Went to get our eye tests, in elementary school. I read with my right eye, 20/20. Then with left and vcould only read big E. She yelled at me to stop fooling around and come back when I was ready to take the test right. I did not. Turned out I had a lazy eye. By the time it was found by eye doc I was past age to get a good return of use by using a patch.
I understand fear of liability but, like others say why the heck didnt she call 911 then? and the inhaler had kids name on it, it is ot as tough the student pulled some med out of his pocket and said “Give me this, Nurse”.
Litigation happens often as a means to force behavior change. This idiocy may well cost the taxpayers and therefore the entire student pop money for art programs, teachers, music, etc.
Tomfoolery on every level.
Here is another excerpt: The Director of Student Health Services, Cheryl Selesky, said that parents must sign the medical release form each year, which allows students to carry their prescribed drugs with them in school.
This year, the district had no record of his Rudi’s signature, said Selesky.
bettykath & Blouise,
“Why did the nurse accept a medication without having a permission slip on file?”
I wondered the same thing. Then I read the entire article that Jonathan used as his source. The nurse didn’t accept the medication. It was found in the boy’s locker.
*****
Excerpt from the article:
“He [the student] said the school dean found his inhaler during a search of his locker last Friday. The inhaler was still in its original packaging — complete with his name and directions for its use; however, the school took it away because his mother hadn’t signed the proper form for him to have it.”
Has our dna been scrambled such that the common sense gene is no longer functioning?
“However, the failure to call 911 immediately upon realizing she had no legal authority to administer the medication is solely the fault of the nurse.”
Absolutely.
bettykath
Why did the nurse accept a medication without having a permission slip on file?
——————————————————————————-
Now that seems like a common sense solution. No medicine will be accepted without an accompanying permission slip and instructions for use.
Once that medication was in the possession of a school employee without the parental signed permission, the school was stuck between a legal rock and an illegal hard place. The parents were wrong for not turning in the proper forms and the school was wrong for taking possession of the medication without the proper forms.
However, the failure to call 911 immediately upon realizing she had no legal authority to administer the medication is solely the fault of the nurse. First 911 … then the parents. (If I were the parents, I’d look into who pays for paramedics coming to the school on a 911 call … there might be a filthy lucre motivation behind the failure to place that call.)
Was her name Nurse Ratchet?
This nurse is a sadist, no doubt in my mind.
For the record, the 17-year-old is a product of our school system that seeks to make submissive citizens… I would’ve grabbed the thing from the nurse, punched her if I had to, and used it. Better than possibly dying.
Classic stuff! In high school, the nurse took my inhaler from me and wouldn’t give it back because I didn’t have a note. I ended up having an asthma attack and having to disrupt class to go to the nurse’s office to use it… Sure, she let me use it, but she wouldn’t let me have it. Once I got a note from the doctor saying I should have it, her and the principal both tried to say I couldn’t actually carry it on my own and could only have it in the nurse’s office. My mother called BS on it and they gave in, realizing that I’d basically be disrupting classes every time I needed it, and they could be liable if something worse happened.
rafflaw,
I agree that there is no excuse for the child not having been given any medical attention.
From the florida statute 827.03 (3)(A)
“Neglect of a child” means:
1. A caregiver’s failure or omission to provide a child with the care, supervision, and services necessary to maintain the child’s physical and mental health, including, but not limited to, food, nutrition, clothing, shelter, supervision, medicine, and medical services that a prudent person would consider essential for the well-being of the child; or
2. A caregiver’s failure to make a reasonable effort to protect a child from abuse, neglect, or exploitation by another person.
School policy won’t protect her, although one could argue it could help argue she wasn’t ‘Willful’ Which will help prevent it from being aggravated. I just can’t figure the reasoning of the LOCKED door though, what the heck!
Great clip Woosty!
Elaine,
I missed it originally. Sorry. I don’t think anyone disagrees that the paperwork is needed and should have been completed, but when you have a stricken child, the school personnel have no excuse to not aid that child, IMO..
Swarthmore mom,
I have known parents who chose to ignore the school rules about medication. There was one situation where I found out that the parents of one of my students–a second grader–packed medication for him in his lunchbox. I spoke to the school nurse about it and she contacted the parents and resolved the issue.
Inhalers aren’t necessarily benign either, fee. Inhalant abuse, especially among middle schools, is quite prevalent.
Rafflaw, I would have given the kid the inhaler, but a parent can’t and should not count on that. They need to get the paperwork in. The student is seventeen and could have assumed some responsibility in getting the paperwork in.