Am I Being Too Sensitive? Is That Even Legal?

You have only received one side of the story. Please, don't jump to conclusions based on that. Talk with the secretary in question. Maybe the provider wasn't actually clear about what she said. Maybe the secretary misunderstood what she was saying. There are so many ways that a misunderstanding could have happened. Unfortunately, this is one of the prices that working mothers have to pay sometimes. I'm so sorry about that!

If I were you I would keep an "emergency only" cell phone in your pocket to be used ONLY by the daycare in and emergency.

Give the daycare your cell phone number.

Whether or not they have another contact number is of no consequence. Your secretary did not know if you were the first person they called or if they had already attempted your husband...nor do they need to know. Since you work in a school district, they should understand that when children have fevers they have to be sent home (not just for their own good but also to protect the health of everyone else as well). I would talk to the secretaries and tell them that you dc does not call during the work day unless it is urgent that they get ahold of you. You need to take their call when it comes and if you can make other arrangements rather than leave yourself then you will but that is not their call to make. As for your principal, the other girl not being on task the day before is of no consequence to this situation.

cAN YOU KEEP A CELL phone on vibrate at your desk for an emergency like that? You should also apply for FMLA. If you qualify, your employer would have to give you time off to take care of a sick child and not have it go against you.

Rather than file a complaint right off the bat, you might see what happens in sitting down with the secretary and maybe the principal and talk about it to gain a little more info about their point of view and what the principal sees as appropriate. It might be something that is easily handled without having to file a formal complaint which sounds like it could exacerbate the situation. Once you have more info, then you and hubby could decide what to do. Further steps may not be necessary. It might be an issue the principal will handle. Good luck. Do what you feel you need to do.

Hi C.S.

No, you are not being too sensative. However because you do not want to "rock the boat" at work, I would simply go into the office and speak directly with the secretary who answered the phone. Her story may be a little different from the story your care giver provided. By this I mean the actual "words" that were spoken. If the secretary actually said, "She can't be bothered", like your husband, I would also be livid and would be tempted to speak with her direct supervisor (waves or not).

If you can get your point accross by taking the high road, staying calm and making sure who ever receives a call from your day care provider, puts the call through immediately, that may be all that is needed.

Keep us posted.... Blessings...

Something tells me the secretary who answered the phone did not know how serious this is. I would make sure that if the dc calls are put through. You aslo can take steps to make sure this does not happen again. I would have a separate cell phone for just the dc. I don't know what having the highest TAKS scores have anything to do with anything here.

I would make sure that your daycare did in fact indicate who they were and why they were calling.. could be the person who called simply asked for you by name and that was it.. BEFORE you do anything, be sure that you definitely have all the facts lined up.. this might mean asking the person who answered the call from your school to indicate what exactly was said......
sometimes things appear one way but are in fact another.. could the daycare was the one who messed up and didn't realize it until they couldnt get you on the phone and then knew they had to explain to the person who picked up exactly what was going on.........
why do I say all this... I have worked on hotlines via my previous job and I can't tell you how often a client would call in and insist that they said this or not.. and then once we pulled the tape, guess what.. the story was so completely different..... again, get ALL the facts and then go from there..
best of luck and I hope your child is doing much better.

First off, the secretaries should know better. If the daycare is calling you at work, then it's something serious and shouldn't be ignored. That being said, I would just talk to them about it. Tell them why it is so serious for you, that your children have seizures, etc, and ask that they ALWAYS put those calls through to you. If you talk to them like the (probably) compassionate adults that they are, they'll probably work with you. Good luck!

Find out exactly who it was that answered the 1st phone call and go and talk with that person and give them the go-ahead on putting any and all calls from the DC thru to you. Explain the febrile seizures situation and convey the seriousness to them...my guess is that if the person who answered the phone is a mommy they will never do that to you again.

I would be livid as well.

Sounds like a good opportunity to educate your co-workers and the child care center about how to communicate the seriousness of this issue. The person answering the phone could have simply thought your child was not very ill and the child care center could have insisted on speaking to you directly.

But! You should always have other people listed on your pick up card at the child care center so that when something is going on and you and your husband cannot be reached where someone else has the authority to pick up your children and take them to the doc.

You can sign a paper at the docs office giving permission to treat and a list of names or a paper for each individual. You can also contact your local hospital and go in and sign an affidavit or other notarized document stating that "so and so" has legal permission to bring your children in for emergency treatment.

This way if you are on a field trip and your husband has something happen where he can't get to the school soon enough, maybe he goes out to the car and has a flat, or has an accident on the way to the school, or vice versa, etc... that the children can still get the medical treatment they need.

And in my opinion:

If the child care center knew this was a serious issue they should have insisted on talking to someone else that had the authority to allow the phone call to be put through or to relieve you from your class duties. A secretary really has the job of fielding phone calls. It is their job to take messages for how ever many teachers there are. It is not the secretaries business to know your child has any specific illness issues. Privacy is important to you too.

If the child care center had said it was an emergency in the first place then the secretary would have informed the Principle there was an emergency phone call from your child care center and the proper procedure would have occurred.

Child care centers call for parents to come pick up children all the time and sometimes it seems a very unimportant thing. If a parent can't come pick up a child right away we just separate the sick child and keep them comfortable until someone on the pick up list can be reached and come get them.

Just seems like an opportunity to clear the air with everyone.

I would definitely file a complaint with the administration. The secretary overstepped their bounds by not putting the first call from your daycare through to you. If your complaint makes things more difficult for you at work, I would then contact your union representative concerning a lawyer.

My mother says your either "part of the problem or part of the solution". By doing nothing you become part of the problem.

Hi CS --

I don't know what TAKS is but congratulations.
I do think it would be better to talk to the secretary
before filing a formal complaint.
She was probably doing what she thought was correct.
After you tell her how important calls from your dc are,
she'll be more aware of this in the future.
So . . . how's the kid? Better?
And . . . as a white-haired grandma, I have to smile
at the thought of phones in the classroom.
When I was in school, we had carefully selected kids
who would run to/from the office to bring notes to teachers.

S.

I worked with a jerk who refused to put calls through to me if it regarded my son. He didn't feel like it was appropriate to be "hassled" with such things.
So...I told them to say they were a client and at least he would take a message then.
Just last week, I needed someone to verify employment for me because I'm moving and someone that answered the phone said they never heard of me. I work in a hospital so it's possible someone at a nursing station answered the phone.
I don't even know.
However, I get calls for nurses all the time and they can't take calls when they are on their rounds for med dispensing, wound drainage, changing a catheter or inserting an I.V. . They have kids and they have a "code" so at least they can call back. Or, they have backup. Did the daycare call your husband?
You need to let the secretaries know that if there is an emergency or someone says your safety "code" then you need to be contacted right away. You may not be able to pick up your purse and dash out on a class full of kids, but you can at least assess the situation and have a back up plan.
It's my guess the secretary who said you can't be bothered wasn't really thinking at the time.
Just let them know that in the future, if you get an emergency call it's not because your kid won't eat what they're having for lunch. It's serious.

I wish you the best.

I totally get this. My son had seizures too. But if dc calls I don't care if your child has a hang nail........they should have put that call through!

I would go to the principal and confront. I assume he/she wants all his/her parents to make their children their first priority, and his/her staff should be entitled to the same philosophy. Then if you don't get what you need I would go to the administration.

REPORT IT!!! My kids go to school and if they have a fever the school calls right away for you to come and pick up your kid. I know it has to be hard to find someone at the last minute to teach your class, but they need to have a back up for these situations. REPORT IT!

I would go to your Principal asap and let him/her know what happened and of experess your concern of how you feel someone in the office mis-handling this call. I would go on to ask that he/she should convey to all of the office staff that when call comes into the office from a daycare provider or preschool or any other school about a sick teacher's child it needs to be transferred or a phone msg delivered immediately to the teachers classroom asap. Taking this step should ensure this doesnt happen again. Hope this helps Mom

Oh man, don't make a mountain out of a molehill. The new secretary was just doing what she thought she was supposed to do.

Just talk to the new secretary, and tell her nicely that in the future would she please interrupt you if your daycare calls. I'm sure she will be happy to comply.

I love how everyone wants to jump to conclusions and freak out. Confront! CONFRONT!!!!!!

It is very difficult to be a working mother sometimes - but that's often because they are always the ones who have to deal with emergency situations. Why not have the daycare contact your husband. It sounds like he would have more success.

Do you belong to a teacher's union? I'd bring the issue up with them. The TEA is a strong union and should be able to step in on behalf of all the teachers in your school. That is ridiculous that you can't be informed that your child is ill. It is absolutely unacceptable.

I haven't read the other responses but I'd tell them to call your cell first and always have it on your with the vibrate button on. Tell them to only call your cell in an emergency (or have them text you).

I would find out if this was a secretary following a policy or if she was just a loose cannon.

If this is an administrative policy, I think I would be looking for a different school, maybe even in the same district, where the principal has more consideration for the staff and family emergencies than this. It cannot get much better from there. If you are a member of a teachers union, I would consult them about the legalities here, especially under your contract, but you would have to decide if this is worth a dust up. On the bright side, if they are dumb enough to write a policy like this down, they problably will not last too long after they create some kind of liablity and the school district has to pay to settle a case they create (I love that kind of adminstrator as a witness in due process!)

M.

I work in a school and this happened to one of our teachers last year, her HS aged daughter had Broken her foot and the secretary backed up by the administration refused to put the call through or deliver a message, luckily this teacher had a cell phone and her husband was able to text her. Sooooo stupid, for a school to treat their staff taht way.