Discrimination or overly sensitive Mom?

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Permalink Reply by Sarah M2 on February 18, 2009 at 10:16am

It is important to make sure the school is clear. If your son had listened to the coaches instead of using his own good sense he could have had a medical emergency. You could prevent a problem for another child in the future. I hope your son receives some acknowledgement that the coaches were wrong and that he returns to track or at the very least does not allow this to keep him on the side lines in any way! He is doing everything right!

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Permalink Reply by JDavid on March 6, 2009 at 12:47pm

I would ask his DOCTOR if he, she or some medical PROfesional could come come with you to meet with school officials. They are MORE likely to listen to them,, instead of you, or any parent.

Dumb stupid and ARROGANT as well as IGNORANT!

(*&*(

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Permalink Reply by Lee Ann on February 18, 2009 at 10:50am

Wow, I got mad just reading your account of what happened. I can only imagine how infuriated you've been over this! Definitely write some letters, maybe offer to provide some education or link them with some educational resources. Maybe request a meeting. Ask them to explain their actions and responses, and then point by point, respectfully correct them. It's a wonderful lesson for your son because he'll encounter that level of ignorance throughout his life, and it won't always be in a situation where he can flip out and/or storm away. I totally understand his anger and why he responded, but now is the time to take control of the situation, allow your son to feel empowered, and use the opportunity to educate them since they clearly haven't got a clue about T1.

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Permalink Reply by MaryBeth on February 18, 2009 at 12:01pm

Thank you all so much for your input - I knew I could count on you. I am so happy I posted here first before going off and writing the letter. I will take some time and compose a letter worthy of all your suggestions. And yes I agree it was more ignorance and lack of education vs discrimination...I just couldn't think of any other word this morning due to my anger :). Thank you all again! I will keep you posted.

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Permalink Reply by Rebecca on February 18, 2009 at 12:24pm

I had a similiar situation in my second year of highschool as well. I was sitting in class eating a bag of chips ( I know its far from the best thing but the only thing available in the vending machine at the time) my teacher was writting on the board and made a remark somthing like this, "do you really need to be eating that in class", I was slightly surprised because he had already been informed of my situation, and knew I had to eat if I was low. I told him that If I did not eat them I would pass out. He then replied that I didn't need to be eating them anyways because there is no sugar in chips. needless to say he was a complete moron, not to mention MY SCIENCE TEACHER. I then continued to explain to him that carbs are in chips and that was what I needed to bring my blood sugar up, not pure processes sugar. He then got all flustered and looked embarassed, I do not in any way feel bad for making him look stupid in front of the other students either because it is part of his job to understand the medical conditions of his students.

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Permalink Reply by Christina Luis on February 18, 2009 at 3:45pm

I find it so amazing how many people do not understand. especially teachers But we have to give them this, they are not trained, most of the time they have no clue. :) I work for a school district (no not a teacher) and my husband is type 2 (not sure about all of that stuff, whole other story). and did not understand Type 1. So sometimes we have to give them that training and help them to understand. I am kinda shocked that a science teacher didn't know.

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Permalink Reply by Tonyia Crebbin on February 18, 2009 at 6:39pm

I am not really amazed at what people don't understand regarding diabetes. I really didn't 'get it' before my son was diagnosed and I HAVE a sister-in-law with T1. That is why I really try to educate, educate and then educate some more. Educating, I hope, will go a lot further in helping people understand diabetes and what a person with T1 has to live with every single hour of their life.

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Permalink Reply by Julie on February 18, 2009 at 4:14pm

I wouldn't be writing a letter I would be marching down to the field and calling an emergency meeting to educate, educate and educate, and I would follow that up with letters confirming what are meeting was about and the outcome. I would also see about bringing a diabetes educator with me, and i would follow all of this up with a meeting of the principal and staff, to again educate. I would also put a 504 in place that dealt with the situation.

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Permalink Reply by Greg on February 18, 2009 at 4:24pm

Lots of good advice here. Yes, write letters to educate while pointing out that you know your rights. But don't make life a living hell for your kid by making it a personal attack against the coach, especially if your son does plan to run track. And Scott is right, the school district has a lot of liability here based on the description of what happened, and the AD or school superintendent will realize that.

By the way, I think that if your son's bg was dropping he did a very good job controlling himself and not throwing a punch. I can't say that I have always done as well at controlling my anger when I am low.

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Permalink Reply by Nic on February 18, 2009 at 5:02pm

Hi Marybeth - seriously this is so out of order, you should definitely write a letter! I am not a mother, let alone one of a child with diabetes, and as such can assure you that you are not overreacting at all - these people need to learn. Perhaps the coach was thinking of type 2?

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Permalink Reply by Peyton Love on February 18, 2009 at 6:19pm

Wow, I would definitely write that letter! The school needs to be aware of what a liability they have on their hands by having two such ignorant people in their employment. I mean obviously not everyone is educated in the correct management of diabetes and that's fine, but unless you are educated in it, it's a horrible thing to pretend like you know better than some one who has to deal with it every day of their life. I recently had a professor try to send me out of his classroom for texting.... I was doing a correction bolus on my pump. He was aware of my situation as I'm registered with the Office of Students with Disabilities, so I explained what I was doing and he tried to say I was lying and what I was doing wasn't needful. I listened to his little speech then promptly went back to exactly what I had been doing with my pump before and ignored him. He went back to writing on the board but was obviously pissed.... I could care less.

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Permalink Reply by Tonyia Crebbin on February 18, 2009 at 6:31pm

I had a similar situation with my son during basketball try-outs. One of the coaches told him he needed to 'take his medicine before practice so that he didn't interrupt tryouts". Personally, I would not write a letter. I would have a sit down meeting with everyone involved: coaches, athletic director, principal and nurse. This does sound more like a case of ignorance than discrimination and educating them can go a long way; especially since your son has several more years of high school. If you don't already have one, I would also start the process of a 504 plan as well.

When we had our incident with the coaching staff, I thought my head was going to explode, but I spoke with the head coach and told him he needed to set his staff straight or there were going to be serious repercussions. When the coaching staff had their glucagon training I was also there. I wanted them to know that even though I could have chewed them up and spit them out several times over, ultimately we are on the same team...we what healthy kids, not someone who is going to pass out on the field, court or track. Our kids need to take care of their diabetes at anytime, any place. It is our job as parents to educate the uneducated in diabetes.

I wrote the following 'guidelines' for the coaches. I took some information from the National Athletic Trainers Association regarding their stance on T1 and athletes. If this can be of any help please feel free to use it. Of course, the numbers are guidelines for my son only and should be adjusted for your needs.

~Tonyia

Attachments:

• For Coaches athletes with type 1 diabetes.doc, 36 KB

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