I thought about putting this in the Rant Room, but it's not really a rant, so here goes.
Our Asst. Principal, who is really a great guy btw, has a 5 year-old son who became ill last Wed. His symptoms were diarrhea and a head ache. Bill's wife stayed home with him Wed. The symptoms continued Thurs., so Bill took the day off to stay with his son. Things worsened, and Thurs late afternoon they took him to Rainbow Babies & Childrens Hosp. This is one of the premier childrens hosp in the U.S.
The found that he had fluid on his brain, so they did emergency surgery. Friday at 10:00 AM, he was pronounced brain dead. Throughout the afternoon & evening, they ran additional tests & strategies, but to no avail. He died. The cause of death was staphlacocous pnuemonia, (probably spelled incorrectly), a blood infection. The family gave permission to have his organs harvested for donation.
I went to the funeral home after work today. I think it was the saddest thing I ever attended. The line to the casket began about 50 ft out the door. It was about an hour in line to reach the family. There were photos of Cameron, with his family, playing, his dog, sleeping, swimming, driving his little motorized Jeep, etc. As the line snaked into the main parlor, there were flowers from literally hundreds of people. They had little baseballs, airplanes, and other little boy things in the arrangements.
The white casket looket very small. Cam was lying in it wearing a red baseball cap. On his belly, there was his favorite Thomas The Train set. There were other toys in the casket as well. Bill, his father, was just sobbing the whole time. He'd greet a couple of people with hugs, then stop and go to the casket, lean on it & just look at Cam for a long time. It was just heartbreaking. I started crying 15 min. before I got to him. I gave him a long hug & we both cried. I told him we all loved him, that I was so sorry for his loss. I didn't have any other words for him. What else is there to say? I stopped at the casket and said some prayers, then left. When I got to the car, I had to wait awhile before I could drive, because I just couldn't see.
Many...no...all faculty members wanted to attend the funeral service, which will be held tomorrow AM at 10:00. We asked that the school be closed for 1 day to facilitate this. We got a letter from the administration informing us that the funeral service would be attended only by administration. Furthermore, if anyone called in sick and showed up at the funeral, that we would face certain discliplinary action, possible including terminating our employment.
Nice, huh?
____________________ If you can't read this, you're illiterate.
Only by administration?! I'd fiercely fight that one...hell, I'd contact the local newspaper and let them know that a beautiful bright light had been taken so young and the teachers who knew him and saw him everyday wanted to pay their respects.
Y'know - This fuckin' country works the shit out of people and you wonder why we die of heart attacks, have to take anti-depressants and then some!
I'm so sorry to hear of this poor little boy's death. If it is any consolation he didn't suffer as much as he could have by having his life prolonged in the hospitals all the time. This is horrible.
Staff is real and it is everywhere. cut your finger, turn a doorknob - BANG! you can get it.
I lost my kidneys to Strep when I was 12 years old. Never mess with a fever...always get seen!
Mr. V - I'd go anyway if it were up to me and it meant that much to me and then let the damned administration deal with the parents of the students and the media. HA! jerk bureaucrats!
____________________ Get in, Sit down, Shut up and HANG ON!
Comes down to this. If you think that Bill will feel better having you there then go. If he's going to feel bad because you are there despite the admin note then go to work. If he's going to be concerned about you being there then you are not helping.
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A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams...John Barrymore
Wow that's pretty heartless of the admins. I mean I'm sure Bill knows you guys want to be there and support him and that's great, but to ban you from being able to physically show up as his friends and colleagues seems pretty harsh.
Besides that, I'm so sorry to hear about his little boy. Losing a child is so wrong, no matter what, and with it being so sudden it must be awful on the family. Streptococcus pneumoniae, we actually study that in my Microbiology class, it still takes a remarkable number of casualties even here in the invicible 1st World- USA... it's so tragic to hear what your friend and everyone that knew the little guy must be going through.
I'm sorry, and especialy that the administration isn't willing to call a day in honor of Cameron and his surviving family and friends. You'll all be in my thoughts tonight.
fuck them. Id call in and attend the funeral just on principal. the audacity of them. there are plenty of subs on call, they can make do if they have to.
Like you said...words can't express what he's going through...it's tough losing a son only to lose yet another family member. Sorry to hear...I would have gone if I felt I need to be there....
I know it's a moot point now that the funeral has passed and I usually wouldn't do this but the administration...
____________________ 02 SVT Focus, CD Silver, No. 2032.
streak wrote: wow thats pretty strange of the admins to issue an order like that.
do you have a union you could talk to about something like that?
Yes. We went through the union. There's no clause in our contract that covers situations like this. Anything that's not covered by the contract comes at the pleasure of the administration. Our particular school system is what I call, "a pound of flesh" system. You work here. We pay you. Get ready to do the max, because we're not about to give you shit. They routinely violate the contract. Naturally, we file grievances. They fight them. It goes to arbitration. We almost always win, but it takes months. An example is every teacher is to have 40 min of planing time, (1 period), to prepare lessons, materials, etc. Our day has 10 periods. Last year a teacher didn't receive any scheduled prep time. The admin said "tough." The union greived it, admin fought it. It went to arbitration and was settled in late May. Next year, the prep period was scheduled as it should have been. Unfortunately, the teacher went the entire school year with out a prep.
In this case, we asked that the school be closed for 1 day, so we could attend the funeral. There are 54 teachers, plus various aides, cafeteria workers, custodians. You'd never find subs for that number of people. In fact, subs are pretty hard to find sometimes. There's a real shortage of them. IMO it's not that terrible of a job, but subs get paid by the day. There are no benefits.
____________________ If you can't read this, you're illiterate.
Mr. Versatile wrote: streak wrote: wow thats pretty strange of the admins to issue an order like that.
do you have a union you could talk to about something like that?
Yes. We went through the union. There's no clause in our contract that covers situations like this. Anything that's not covered by the contract comes at the pleasure of the administration. Our particular school system is what I call, "a pound of flesh" system. You work here. We pay you. Get ready to do the max, because we're not about to give you shit. They routinely violate the contract. Naturally, we file grievances. They fight them. It goes to arbitration. We almost always win, but it takes months. An example is every teacher is to have 40 min of planing time, (1 period), to prepare lessons, materials, etc. Our day has 10 periods. Last year a teacher didn't receive any scheduled prep time. The admin said "tough." The union greived it, admin fought it. It went to arbitration and was settled in late May. Next year, the prep period was scheduled as it should have been. Unfortunately, the teacher went the entire school year with out a prep.
In this case, we asked that the school be closed for 1 day, so we could attend the funeral. There are 54 teachers, plus various aides, cafeteria workers, custodians. You'd never find subs for that number of people. In fact, subs are pretty hard to find sometimes. There's a real shortage of them. IMO it's not that terrible of a job, but subs get paid by the day. There are no benefits.
wow, welcome to middle america the place that voted repub on "morals" WTF.
im so sorry man.
____________________ Bombing for peace is like raping for love.
Jesus was a liberal a socialist and a hippie
the administration...
