Alright, so some of you may already know this story, but I definitely think this bears repeating.
Let's go back to approximately the middle of April 2010.
This would be around the time I approached our local elementary school with regards to a 504 for Liv. If you don't know what a 504 is you can check it out here. This initial meeting went much better than I had anticipated. The school's assistant principal was right on board with all the specifications needed to keep Liv safe. Wow, this is going to be a great experience is what I thought. Well, I've mentioned before, it's not often things go exactly as planned for me. This situation would prove to be no different.
Let's move forward to 04/28/2010. I go to this elementary school for a casual parent meeting. You see Tai, my son, already attends this school and I volunteer there. Back to my point, we were having a meeting with the principal over some parent concerns regarding the cafeteria and lack of recess time for our kids. This doesn't seem to have anything to do with Liv, does it? I wouldn't think so either, except this is where the principal of the school brought it upon himself to bring Liv and her 504 up. Yes, in this very public setting in front of other parents! I tried to let it slide and side-step him at every bait. He proved my side-stepping skills to be well, less than what I was hoping for. There was a point in this meeting that he mentioned another family that WAS going to do a 504 for their child (who has a peanut allergy), but chose not to because their child would be so segregated. He also took it upon himself to give this family my information to contact me and be a "support" to me. This went back and forth for some time, even going as far as making other parents uncomfortable. In the end, he was totally frustrated with me and told me that I was looking at this 504 situation with negativity. I offered him the same bit of advice right back and made my exit. I. Was. Not. Happy. In fact, I was the furthest from happy I'd been in a LONG time. There are many things wrong with how the principal presented himself in this situation. First off, you never without the permission of parent/guardian, bring up a private medical matter publicly. Secondly, he assumed I didn't already have a support system in place and freely gave our info to another family. Now, I might sound snobby, but I have a wonderful support system in place as I strive to be as active in the "food allergy" community as possible and quite honestly, to compare one child's allergic life to another in such an uneducated manner is just absurd. Third thing he did wrong here, a public school is required by law to follow the guidelines in place for implementing a 504. After all, this is a section of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 we're talking here.
I leave this meeting feeling somewhat defeated and quite frankly, ANGRY. Angry that I let myself get trapped into this good for nothing argument and then let the principal get the best of me. I would be back, and I would be back with support, education on this issue and so much more.
Later in the week I spoke with the assistant principal, she was still more than on board with everything and started putting things in place. She had me sign a release for the district's area nurse. The area nurse was to call Olivia's allergist and confirm the severity of her allergies. Well, this call took place...sort of. The nurse called and spoke with Liv's allergist's nurse, only to confirm there was in fact such thing as a "contact" allergy. She then argued with the allergist's nurse about this being true. UGH, here we go again with this negativity.
I'm beyond frustrated now and schedule a meeting with the principal. I have many issues that need to be addressed, in person. Initially, I was prepared to go into this meeting angry and letting him know I was angry. Good thing I was talked out of this course of action. I went into the meeting with a three ring binder that holds about half of Liv's emergency room records and my notes from her Dr visits. I had all her meds and I even took Liv with me. I quietly sat down and laid everything out on his table. I got a bit of the reaction I was going for...he looked perplexed, but also a bit shocked by all of this.
This shock was short lived, it didn't take him long to find his stride again. I did point out that he violated my daughter's civil rights by speaking publicly about her 504 and diagnosis. He apologized and we're making progress! Nope, that was where it all ended and he again, went on to tell me that I was asking too much and he didn't see how it could work. He pointed out that there is always human error, and went on to push the epi pen issue. What is his stance on the Epi Pen? Lock it in the office, at all times. Um, I will NOT agree to this. Liv's Epi Pen WILL in fact be wherever she is at any and all times. I promised him that this would be put into the 504 and enforced. I wish I could say this meeting ended on a good note, but it ended right there. He was over it and so was I.
**In an effort to keep this from dragging, I will continue this in a separate posting**
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