So I have been sitting on the one for a while, hoping my negative feelings would subside, but that just hasn’t happened.

Teachers are not only charged with educating their students, but frequently we we offer comfort, nourishment, advice, and maybe most importantly, we are offer life saving first aid. The latter is what this blog post is about.

I have a student with a seizure disorder. Not terribly uncommon. I need to be trained annually on how to administer seizure medication in the event of a seizure. It is not easy or pleasant, and I will spare the details.

One morning during recess, I was playing with my students when I noticed the early onset signs that my student was having a seizure and implemented his seizure action plan, scooped him up and took him in my classroom for privacy. Since the seizure did not stop on its own, I administered his medication (rectally) and called 911. The rest of the details are unimportant to my story.

This was on a Friday. That afternoon we debriefed with staff and admin; what went well and what we could be done differently next time. Admin was full of praise and kudos. I left feeling pretty good about myself and my team as well as very shaken up by the experience. I am a teacher, not a first responder, paramedic, or doctor; and, if I never have to see another one of my students terrified like that while having a seizure, it will be too soon. Don’t get me wrong, I will do whatever is necessary again without hesitation, I just don’t want to need to.

Then comes MONDAY morning and after admin has had the weekend to process the events. I am called into a meeting in the principals office (your never too old to be scared of this) followed by another full staff meeting to review what I, and my team, did wrong (they came prepared with a long list!). AND we’re talking about nit-picky stuff!!! Sure, maybe we could have alerted admin to the medical emergency sooner, but what would that have changed? Sure, we could have tried to get the other students off the playground before we called 911, so no one was left at recess when the paramedics arrived. But why? They were hurried inside when the fire truck arrived all safe and sound.

I could go on and on, and clearly I have been festering about this, but the bottom line is I would not have done anything different. My student got the medical attention he needed when he needed it, and his family is still grateful for how my team and I handled his crisis. Maybe that’s all I should focus on. But what I wish is that admin would have just left it as it was on Friday, when they expressed their appreciation, because now I am just full of negative feelings towards them, and I have definitely lost a little more respect.

Maybe instead of criticizing me Monday morning, they could have just brought us all bottles of wine!!