We have threat assessments at our elementary school but we go through MANY channels before police are involved. Like, is the threat credible? Is anyone fearful? Does the child have the means? Is there motive? Someone making a comment that says “because they’ll blow up” would be a freaking conversation about school appropriate language not arrest and suspensions, for ANYBODY but especially kids with documented disabilities.

Our division does DARE with 4th graders still. Officers come in and spew that shit for a few weeks and kids get a bunch of swag and cupcakes for signing a pledge. I’m not a fan of any of it, but it’s above my pay grade.

From the article: “Anyone who lived within 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) of the derailment can get up to $70,000 per household for property damage plus up to $25,000 per person for health problems. The payments drop off the farther people lived from the derailment down to as little as a few hundred dollars at the outer edges.”

My parents and my brother live in the 2-4 mile range and when they got their paperwork it was up to $45,000 per household.

So the money isn’t divided equally between the 55,000 claims.

When my parents and my brother received their paperwork it was a different amount depending on how close you are to the wreckage site. 2-4 miles away was initially listed as $45,000.

I like these badges, and want them for my school. First, we absolutely need better gun laws and need to change the gun culture in the United States. But even the school shooter stuff aside, we have 700 elementary kids at my school. Several are prone to seizures. Several are diabetic. MANY have life threatening allergies. Several have disabilities (or poor parenting/lack of resources at home) that leave them prone to outbursts that at a minimum disrupt the classroom and at most endanger the safety of the other students. We do not have enough walkies to give one to every teacher who has a severe need in their classroom. That leaves the option of calling the front office or going to the wall and pushing the call button for the office to respond. Badges like this can help so many stressful situations, and eliminate the excessive amount of chatter on a walkie.

Our local school district provides swim lessons as part of a PE unit to all second graders by busing them to a local indoor facility. They even have free swimwear available for students who don’t have it. A previous school district I was in had a PE program where 3-5th graders got to learn to ride bikes, they brought in a huge trailer of different sized bikes. There’s a lot of physical activity that some people take for granted without realizing that not everybody has the same opportunities. Programs like this are so important.

The one near us has a self serve dog wash. I can take my dogs and use their water, their shampoo, their towels, their dryers, and not have my bathroom covered in dog hair for $10.

I my experience with teaching in the U.S. sick days do get paid out at retirement. Teachers typically get 10 sick days a year and 3 personal days. The sick days stack but personal days turn to sick days after you have 5 banked.

Teachers don’t have vacation days. They get 10 sick days per year. They get 3 personal days. It’s very possible the only leave she had were sick days.

Most places I’ve taught in the US don’t have vacation days. You have sick days (10 a year, they stack), and personal days (3 a year, max of 5 before they turn into sick days).

Fuck Trumpkin.

I agree that nurses are invaluable and irreplaceable and that no AI is going to be able to replicate what a human’s judgement can do. But honestly it’ll be the same as what our hospital’s “nursing line” offers us right now. You call and they ask scripted questions and give you scripted responses which usually ends up with them recommending that you go in. I get that it’s for liability but after 2 calls for our newborn we stopped calling and just started making our own judgement. But for actual inpatient settings? Absolutely no way. There’s no replacement for actual healthcare providers.

I looked this up a little while ago because a student had a note in their file that they are to avoid red 40 due to behavioral changes. I think what I gathered is that there is maybe some evidence but nothing has been researched thoroughly to make any real determination. Here’s the conclusion of a study: “ Conclusions: A restriction diet benefits some children with ADHD. Effects of food colors were notable were but susceptible to publication bias or were derived from small, nongeneralizable samples. Renewed investigation of diet and ADHD is warranted.” https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22176942/

Do EZ-Pass next. I’m tired of getting charged $35 every time my account dips below the $5 threshold or whatever it is.