How dumb do you think I am?

(Random thoughts ahead.)

I had a kid waiting to go home for suspension walk into my office and ask if he could give me a dollar to buy him a soda from the faculty lounge. Absolutely not! Luckily, that's the only vending machine in the school.

If a student has not met the immunization requirements, or as is increasingly the case, had a waiver signed exempting the child from said requirements, we are mandated to exclude them from school. I HATE doing this. I cannot stand sending kids home from school. I had one girl who I'd called in the office to warn her there would be a letter giving a beginning exclusion date in 2.5 weeks (10 days is all that is required). I sent the letter home, and the following week had a Spanish speaker make the call for me in order to ensure no language difficulties. I was annoyed to find on her day of exclusion no updated immunization record, so I called her into my office to discuss it with her,  planning on giving her another week. But when she came to my office she claimed she never got the letter and her parents didn't know, and more than I hate sending kids home, I hate being lied to. I told her that wasn't the case, I had someone speak with her dad last week to confirm the letter, and that she needed to go home.

It reminded me a little bit of when a girl came in who had been caught with OTC eye drops. Her eyes were "dry" and she just needed something to "clear them up" a bit. I assured her she could have the eye drops, but I would need a doctor's note accompanying them. She decided to leave them with me, and the rest of the office staff laughed with me knowing I wasn't about to have one pulled on me by a 7th grader. Lay off the weed, girl.

Today I found out our third week of winter break is because so many kids go home to Mexico for the holidays, and parents don't bring them back. Rather than lose the ADA money for all those absences, they'd rather just extend the year a week and let the kids stay on break since they'll be gone regardless. Same goes for having the whole week of Thanksgiving off: parents take their kids out anyway, and the school loses money every time. At first I thought it was a tragedy to have so much time off, concerned for fitting my contract days in... But now that they're approaching, I have no problem at all with them. Happy four day weekend to begin the holiday season!