Game On!

Hurray! School is on today with a 1 hour delayed start (it is also an early release day though).

On last night's Boston Legal, there was a story about a teacher being sued because a child in her class died from a peanut anaphylaxis. The teacher was on the telephone when it happened so there was a delay before she administered the epi pen. The parents were suing her to make sure that she and others would "take care". Ok, so since the teacher was a client of Crane Poole & Schmidt, I knew that she would prevail (why do they never lose a case on that show?!).

Anyway, in the end, they blamed the parents for not hiring a "shadow nurse" to follow the boy around school. Or for not sending him to a private school where the student/teacher ratio is lower. I was so pissed off at that because what about the parents who could not afford to do that? While the teacher was not completely to blame (a child sneaked in a candy bar with peanuts), turning around and blaming the parents is ridiculous. Now, I know that it was just a fictional show, but many people will take away from it that the parents were to be blamed. It is just a sad situation and I can see why in their grief they would want someone held responsible.

It reminded me of one person on a forum I used to frequent who would always tell me that if her child had a peanut allergy, she would *never* send them to school but would homeschool them. Well good for her but that is not a practical situation for everyone. Not everyone has the resources or ability to homeschool. And really, my child is required to go to school so the schools should be required to ensure he is safe while in their care. And sadly, it sometimes does take lawsuits or threats of losing federal funds for the schools to be responsive and responsible. Why not just do the right thing in the first place?