Month: July 2016

All’s well that ends well.  Linda returned to her post today, having had a marvelous time at Disney World.

“What are all those trash bags doing in the janitor’s closet?” she asked me.

“You didn’t open them, did you?”

“No.”

“Thank goodness!  Did you see the labels on them?”

“Well, I saw something written there, but I didn’t take the time to look at them closely.  What are they?”

“All of the soft surfaces and plushies that I could remove from Mrs. Saber’s room.”

“Whyyyy?” she asked cautiously, beginning to sense where this was going.

“Because one of her students had lice last week.”

“WHAAAT?!!!!  In all the years I’ve been doing this job we have NEVER had lice before.  Who was it?”

I told her.  I also told her no other cases had been reported and how I had handled it and that I wasn’t going to return those items to Mrs. Saber’s classroom for at least a couple of weeks, just to make sure they were clean and safe from spreading further lice.

“It sounds like you did everything you were supposed to.”

Good job, Annie!  (I added that last part in my head.  Otherwise, it won’t be said at all.  Now maybe my head will stop itching.  No, I don’t have lice.  I had my husband check.  God bless him!  For better or worse, right?  I’ll bet he never thought when we got married that “worse” would include checking my head for lice.)

This job gives me the “creepy-crawlies”—literally.  Linda has decided to take the week off and head to Disney World with her family, so I am in charge.  Of course, this week would be when even stranger things than usual happen.  I don’t have much time to write, but here’s an example.  I got a message from a parent in Mrs. Saber’s part-day 3s classroom saying that her child had been identified with lice by their pediatrician on Monday afternoon.  That meant, unfortunately, that her child had them while the child was here for school Monday morning and that a whole other set of children used that room on Tuesday before that mom decided to let us know!

I instructed Mrs. Saber to be on the lookout for anyone else who appeared suspicious in her room, and she volunteered to do a discreet head check with the help of her assistant teacher.  I immediately grabbed several plastic trash bags and headed for Mrs. Saber’s room to bag up all of the stuffed animals, cushions, and dress-up clothes, any soft surface that the little buggers would like that could be contained in a plastic bag.  I couldn’t do anything about the carpet except vacuum it (which had already been done), but I sealed the bags tightly, labeled them, stored them in the janitor’s closet, and hoped for the best.  My big quandary was what to tell the parents.  This could be a real nightmare for me if I didn’t handle it right.  If I made too much of a fuss, I’d have Beverly and her minions down on me.  If I didn’t make enough of a fuss, I could be in hot water with the state regulators and the parents (and then still have Beverly and her minions down on me).

Fortunately, I remembered seeing a set of binders in one of the hutches in the office my first day on the job when I was bored out of my mind and told to make myself at home.  The binders looked like a collection of daycare guidelines and regulations from the state.  I went to the hutch, found the binder that looked the most promising, and voilá!  There was exactly what I needed: procedures for handling lice infestations.  According to this, if only one child has lice, I don’t have to send out a notification.  I simply have to clean up the room, as I already did, and watch for any further evidence that the infestation has spread.  Whew!  I am so relieved.  Let’s just hope that nobody else turns up with lice.

Unfortunately, I can’t stop scratching my head!

My children have a half day off from school for a teacher workday.  I do not.  I have to trust that they both make it home safely and that they don’t do anything stupid or dangerous until my husband or I get home.  They don’t have a history of doing stupid and dangerous things, and they’ve never given me any reason not to trust them.  But they’re children.  Stuff happens.  I’ll give them a call once they’ve had a chance to get home and let themselves in.  I hate not being able to be home.

Ugh!  It feels like I just left this place.  Oh yeah, I did.  It was a late night last night, because we had a Pemberton Staff Meeting.  At least it was held in my building, so I didn’t have to go anywhere.  Still, it’s hard being at school all day and then having to stay for a nerve-wracking meeting at 6:00.  By the time I got home, I had missed dinner and spending some time with my children.  It was just time for them to go to bed.  At least I got to tuck them in and read with them a little bit.  Afterward, I was so tired I just wanted to crawl into bed.  Before I knew it, it was morning and time to head back to school.  As I said before, “Ugh!”

Despite the trepidation I had at spending any time in Beverly’s company, the evening was not without its entertainment, though.  Crystal made a BIG announcement: she and her husband are expecting a baby next spring.  It’s the first and only time I’ve seen Crystal happy, genuinely happy.  She was beaming.  I’m happy for her.