Can I send my middle schooler with Advil/Tylenol?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There shouldn’t be a problem with your child having Advil/Tylenol. My daughter has a little “kit” with pads, Tylenol, one use heating pad, cough drops, etc that she keeps in her locker or used to put in her Chromebook case.

Are you naive or just don't care about rules?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are at an mcps middle school. I have an extra spacer, inhaler, Claritin and Advil stored with the nurse, all self-administered PRN. They call me to get permission. She carries the inhaler with her (got permission to self carry). It's a bit of work, but we did it in 6th grade.

You’re not worried it's going to get swapped out for a fentanyl inhaler?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The teacher here is absolutely a troll because no teacher cares if they find 2 Advil in a kids lunch box and every teacher knows they aren't going to lose their job if they ignore it.

Nope. I’m not a troll.

Tell me: what other county policies should I stop enforcing? There are parents who call their children’s cell phones during the school day. Clearly they don’t like our “phones away” policy. Should I stop enforcing it? I’ve also had parents tell me they don’t like tardy policies because kids need more time to relax. Should I stop marking attendance? Which policies are the important ones, and which should I ignore? How should I communicate this to the students? “Well, some policies are dumb. I don’t expect you to follow them.” Do we see how that becomes “some laws are dumb and I shouldn’t have to follow them”?

There are logical reasons the school doesn’t want kids popping pills from their backpacks. One would think the recent fentanyl crisis would have illustrated that.

If you are telling your children it’s okay to break rules, then don’t ever comment on the lack of discipline within the school building. Chaos happens when people choose which rules to follow and which to enforce.

I have a firm hold of my classroom and my students ACHIEVE. Part of that comes from the clear expectations set in my room. I follow rules, and I expect my students to do the same. If a rule isn’t fair or if it’s unreasonable, then you work to change the rule. This one is fair and reasonable. If you have a problem with it, it’s simply laziness on your part. Laziness isn’t a valid excuse.

+1 You are correct.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There shouldn’t be a problem with your child having Advil/Tylenol. My daughter has a little “kit” with pads, Tylenol, one use heating pad, cough drops, etc that she keeps in her locker or used to put in her Chromebook case.

Are you naive or just don't care about rules?

Naive about what? What do you think she’s going to do with Advil?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child needed Lactaid with dairy. We had to fill out the form and DD had to go to the nurse’s office every day before lunch and any time there was an ice cream party (although knowing her she might have skipped the ice cream rather than bother).

I’m the teacher who posted above. My child also needs a particular medication. The nurse has it and she goes regularly to get it. It’s a mild nuisance, but it hardly impacts her day.

Calling Lactaid a medication is a stretch. As a teacher, do school lunches seem leisurely to you? Hypothetically, if it takes 5 minutes a day to detour to the nurse, that’s 25 minutes a week. If there are 36 weeks in a school year, that’s 15 hours/year that she spent not eating, not learning, not taking a break and interacting socially with her peers, but jumping through bureaucratic hoops. If the school system asked you to give up 5 minutes of your lunch every day for a new regulation, would you shrug it off it as a mild nuisance, or resent it as something that needlessly impacted your day? It was doable, and she did it, but it was ridiculous.

The point is it’s a RULE. Students have died because of pills being passed around the schools. Have we all forgotten so soon?

I care about my students. I want them to be safe, and that’s getting a lot harder to do. You see this as an inconvenience. I see this as a slippery slope.

But ultimately, this argument is pointless. The policy exists. If you allow your child to carry medication, then accept the consequences if they are caught.

I understand it’s a RULE. Since you seem to have ignored part of my post, we followed the RULE. My child did not carry the “medication”.

I also want children to be safe. I think some policies (including this one) become less about the child’s welfare than making bureaucrats happy when they become overly rigid. I understand the slippery slope, but it seems like there are fairly substantive differences between fentanyl, tylenol/ibuprofen, and lactaid.

By the way, you never answered my question. Would you be fine giving up 5 minutes of your lunch every day to satisfy a new regulation?

I rarely get an uninterrupted lunch, so your question doesn’t really land the way you want it to. I do what I have to do.

If you want children safe, don’t pick and choose rules. While you’re choosing not to follow this policy, others are choosing not to follow others. It’s hard to enforce rules when we make exceptions for everything.

This isn’t about making bureaucrats happy. (How would it even??) It’s about safe schools. Sure, your kid is popping a Tylenol. The kid next to your kid has Oxy. See the problem? Who is policing this if we say some pills are safe to have and others aren’t? Who is watching what is swapped? I’m a little busy teaching your kids, so I have to hope that people are following policy and being good community members.

The policy is on my side. Don’t like it? Then change it. Loosening rules doesn’t seem to work well in the long run, but give it a try if it’s important to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child needed Lactaid with dairy. We had to fill out the form and DD had to go to the nurse’s office every day before lunch and any time there was an ice cream party (although knowing her she might have skipped the ice cream rather than bother).

I’m the teacher who posted above. My child also needs a particular medication. The nurse has it and she goes regularly to get it. It’s a mild nuisance, but it hardly impacts her day.

Calling Lactaid a medication is a stretch. As a teacher, do school lunches seem leisurely to you? Hypothetically, if it takes 5 minutes a day to detour to the nurse, that’s 25 minutes a week. If there are 36 weeks in a school year, that’s 15 hours/year that she spent not eating, not learning, not taking a break and interacting socially with her peers, but jumping through bureaucratic hoops. If the school system asked you to give up 5 minutes of your lunch every day for a new regulation, would you shrug it off it as a mild nuisance, or resent it as something that needlessly impacted your day? It was doable, and she did it, but it was ridiculous.

The point is it’s a RULE. Students have died because of pills being passed around the schools. Have we all forgotten so soon?

I care about my students. I want them to be safe, and that’s getting a lot harder to do. You see this as an inconvenience. I see this as a slippery slope.

But ultimately, this argument is pointless. The policy exists. If you allow your child to carry medication, then accept the consequences if they are caught.

I understand it’s a RULE. Since you seem to have ignored part of my post, we followed the RULE. My child did not carry the “medication”.

I also want children to be safe. I think some policies (including this one) become less about the child’s welfare than making bureaucrats happy when they become overly rigid. I understand the slippery slope, but it seems like there are fairly substantive differences between fentanyl, tylenol/ibuprofen, and lactaid.

By the way, you never answered my question. Would you be fine giving up 5 minutes of your lunch every day to satisfy a new regulation?

I rarely get an uninterrupted lunch, so your question doesn’t really land the way you want it to. I do what I have to do.

If you want children safe, don’t pick and choose rules. While you’re choosing not to follow this policy, others are choosing not to follow others. It’s hard to enforce rules when we make exceptions for everything.

This isn’t about making bureaucrats happy. (How would it even??) It’s about safe schools. Sure, your kid is popping a Tylenol. The kid next to your kid has Oxy. See the problem? Who is policing this if we say some pills are safe to have and others aren’t? Who is watching what is swapped? I’m a little busy teaching your kids, so I have to hope that people are following policy and being good community members.

The policy is on my side. Don’t like it? Then change it. Loosening rules doesn’t seem to work well in the long run, but give it a try if it’s important to you.

And when everyone simply goes to the bathroom to take pills— particularly the nefarious ones-- what are you going to do about that?

Nothing, because you can't. Don't like it? Clutch your pearls a little harder.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I rarely get an uninterrupted lunch, so your question doesn’t really land the way you want it to. I do what I have to do.

If you want children safe, don’t pick and choose rules. While you’re choosing not to follow this policy, others are choosing not to follow others. It’s hard to enforce rules when we make exceptions for everything.

This isn’t about making bureaucrats happy. (How would it even??) It’s about safe schools. Sure, your kid is popping a Tylenol. The kid next to your kid has Oxy. See the problem? Who is policing this if we say some pills are safe to have and others aren’t? Who is watching what is swapped? I’m a little busy teaching your kids, so I have to hope that people are following policy and being good community members.

The policy is on my side. Don’t like it? Then change it. Loosening rules doesn’t seem to work well in the long run, but give it a try if it’s important to you.

It's not. I bet 90% of high school girls have unauthorized Advil with them at school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I rarely get an uninterrupted lunch, so your question doesn’t really land the way you want it to. I do what I have to do.

If you want children safe, don’t pick and choose rules. While you’re choosing not to follow this policy, others are choosing not to follow others. It’s hard to enforce rules when we make exceptions for everything.

This isn’t about making bureaucrats happy. (How would it even??) It’s about safe schools. Sure, your kid is popping a Tylenol. The kid next to your kid has Oxy. See the problem? Who is policing this if we say some pills are safe to have and others aren’t? Who is watching what is swapped? I’m a little busy teaching your kids, so I have to hope that people are following policy and being good community members.

The policy is on my side. Don’t like it? Then change it. Loosening rules doesn’t seem to work well in the long run, but give it a try if it’s important to you.

It's not. I bet 90% of high school girls have unauthorized Advil with them at school.

Heavens no! How much of that is laced with fentanyl?!? Advil is today’s gateway drug.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There shouldn’t be a problem with your child having Advil/Tylenol. My daughter has a little “kit” with pads, Tylenol, one use heating pad, cough drops, etc that she keeps in her locker or used to put in her Chromebook case.

Are you naive or just don't care about rules?

DP. I don't give a F about ridiculous rules. My kids all carried advil. They've graduated and it was NEVER a problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child needed Lactaid with dairy. We had to fill out the form and DD had to go to the nurse’s office every day before lunch and any time there was an ice cream party (although knowing her she might have skipped the ice cream rather than bother).

I’m the teacher who posted above. My child also needs a particular medication. The nurse has it and she goes regularly to get it. It’s a mild nuisance, but it hardly impacts her day.

Calling Lactaid a medication is a stretch. As a teacher, do school lunches seem leisurely to you? Hypothetically, if it takes 5 minutes a day to detour to the nurse, that’s 25 minutes a week. If there are 36 weeks in a school year, that’s 15 hours/year that she spent not eating, not learning, not taking a break and interacting socially with her peers, but jumping through bureaucratic hoops. If the school system asked you to give up 5 minutes of your lunch every day for a new regulation, would you shrug it off it as a mild nuisance, or resent it as something that needlessly impacted your day? It was doable, and she did it, but it was ridiculous.

The point is it’s a RULE. Students have died because of pills being passed around the schools. Have we all forgotten so soon?

I care about my students. I want them to be safe, and that’s getting a lot harder to do. You see this as an inconvenience. I see this as a slippery slope.

But ultimately, this argument is pointless. The policy exists. If you allow your child to carry medication, then accept the consequences if they are caught.

I understand it’s a RULE. Since you seem to have ignored part of my post, we followed the RULE. My child did not carry the “medication”.

I also want children to be safe. I think some policies (including this one) become less about the child’s welfare than making bureaucrats happy when they become overly rigid. I understand the slippery slope, but it seems like there are fairly substantive differences between fentanyl, tylenol/ibuprofen, and lactaid.

By the way, you never answered my question. Would you be fine giving up 5 minutes of your lunch every day to satisfy a new regulation?

I rarely get an uninterrupted lunch, so your question doesn’t really land the way you want it to. I do what I have to do.

If you want children safe, don’t pick and choose rules. While you’re choosing not to follow this policy, others are choosing not to follow others. It’s hard to enforce rules when we make exceptions for everything.

This isn’t about making bureaucrats happy. (How would it even??) It’s about safe schools. Sure, your kid is popping a Tylenol. The kid next to your kid has Oxy. See the problem? Who is policing this if we say some pills are safe to have and others aren’t? Who is watching what is swapped? I’m a little busy teaching your kids, so I have to hope that people are following policy and being good community members.

The policy is on my side. Don’t like it? Then change it. Loosening rules doesn’t seem to work well in the long run, but give it a try if it’s important to you.

Nope. Not wasting my time on this. My kids will continue to carry Advil and Tylenol. IDGAF if you like it or not. That's what happening. And you will have no clue when they take it because they know to do it when no one is watching.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child needed Lactaid with dairy. We had to fill out the form and DD had to go to the nurse’s office every day before lunch and any time there was an ice cream party (although knowing her she might have skipped the ice cream rather than bother).

I’m the teacher who posted above. My child also needs a particular medication. The nurse has it and she goes regularly to get it. It’s a mild nuisance, but it hardly impacts her day.

Calling Lactaid a medication is a stretch. As a teacher, do school lunches seem leisurely to you? Hypothetically, if it takes 5 minutes a day to detour to the nurse, that’s 25 minutes a week. If there are 36 weeks in a school year, that’s 15 hours/year that she spent not eating, not learning, not taking a break and interacting socially with her peers, but jumping through bureaucratic hoops. If the school system asked you to give up 5 minutes of your lunch every day for a new regulation, would you shrug it off it as a mild nuisance, or resent it as something that needlessly impacted your day? It was doable, and she did it, but it was ridiculous.

The point is it’s a RULE. Students have died because of pills being passed around the schools. Have we all forgotten so soon?

I care about my students. I want them to be safe, and that’s getting a lot harder to do. You see this as an inconvenience. I see this as a slippery slope.

But ultimately, this argument is pointless. The policy exists. If you allow your child to carry medication, then accept the consequences if they are caught.

I understand it’s a RULE. Since you seem to have ignored part of my post, we followed the RULE. My child did not carry the “medication”.

I also want children to be safe. I think some policies (including this one) become less about the child’s welfare than making bureaucrats happy when they become overly rigid. I understand the slippery slope, but it seems like there are fairly substantive differences between fentanyl, tylenol/ibuprofen, and lactaid.

By the way, you never answered my question. Would you be fine giving up 5 minutes of your lunch every day to satisfy a new regulation?

I rarely get an uninterrupted lunch, so your question doesn’t really land the way you want it to. I do what I have to do.

If you want children safe, don’t pick and choose rules. While you’re choosing not to follow this policy, others are choosing not to follow others. It’s hard to enforce rules when we make exceptions for everything.

This isn’t about making bureaucrats happy. (How would it even??) It’s about safe schools. Sure, your kid is popping a Tylenol. The kid next to your kid has Oxy. See the problem? Who is policing this if we say some pills are safe to have and others aren’t? Who is watching what is swapped? I’m a little busy teaching your kids, so I have to hope that people are following policy and being good community members.

The policy is on my side. Don’t like it? Then change it. Loosening rules doesn’t seem to work well in the long run, but give it a try if it’s important to you.

Nope. Not wasting my time on this. My kids will continue to carry Advil and Tylenol. IDGAF if you like it or not. That's what happening. And you will have no clue when they take it because they know to do it when no one is watching.

You do you. Teach your children they are above rules. Teach your children to be deceitful and disrespectful to the environments they are in. That’s the message, I’m afraid.

It’s also why schools are in disarray, because people can’t respect the policies in place to keep the whole population safe. But hey… your kids aren’t being inconvenienced by having to walk 3 minutes out of their way. That would be the real injustice in life.

And when your children get caught doing something far worse because mom taught them rules don’t apply? Remember how it started and don’t argue with the people enforcing the laws.

I wish this were hyperbole, but I’ve seen where this entitled behavior takes people after 20+ years in the classroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I rarely get an uninterrupted lunch, so your question doesn’t really land the way you want it to. I do what I have to do.

If you want children safe, don’t pick and choose rules. While you’re choosing not to follow this policy, others are choosing not to follow others. It’s hard to enforce rules when we make exceptions for everything.

This isn’t about making bureaucrats happy. (How would it even??) It’s about safe schools. Sure, your kid is popping a Tylenol. The kid next to your kid has Oxy. See the problem? Who is policing this if we say some pills are safe to have and others aren’t? Who is watching what is swapped? I’m a little busy teaching your kids, so I have to hope that people are following policy and being good community members.

The policy is on my side. Don’t like it? Then change it. Loosening rules doesn’t seem to work well in the long run, but give it a try if it’s important to you.

It's not. I bet 90% of high school girls have unauthorized Advil with them at school.

That’s not how it works. Policy isn’t dictated by high school girls.

As it stands, my own high school child goes to the nurse to get advil. Because it’s policy. Never ONCE has she complained because it’s not a big deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I rarely get an uninterrupted lunch, so your question doesn’t really land the way you want it to. I do what I have to do.

If you want children safe, don’t pick and choose rules. While you’re choosing not to follow this policy, others are choosing not to follow others. It’s hard to enforce rules when we make exceptions for everything.

This isn’t about making bureaucrats happy. (How would it even??) It’s about safe schools. Sure, your kid is popping a Tylenol. The kid next to your kid has Oxy. See the problem? Who is policing this if we say some pills are safe to have and others aren’t? Who is watching what is swapped? I’m a little busy teaching your kids, so I have to hope that people are following policy and being good community members.

The policy is on my side. Don’t like it? Then change it. Loosening rules doesn’t seem to work well in the long run, but give it a try if it’s important to you.

It's not. I bet 90% of high school girls have unauthorized Advil with them at school.

That’s not how it works. Policy isn’t dictated by high school girls.

As it stands, my own high school child goes to the nurse to get advil. Because it’s policy. Never ONCE has she complained because it’s not a big deal.

Reality is dictated by high school girls. Don't like reality? Then talk to your administrator about cracking down on high school girls with Advil in their purses.

How much is a policy worth when everyone ignores it?

[Anonymous]

What am I missing? I schedule my kids annual checkups with their pediatrician in August at the beginning of the visit I give then the forms that need to be signed and leave with the signed forms and the end of the visit. Before school starts I just drop them off at the school office. I've never had a problem with my pediatrician signing the form.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child needed Lactaid with dairy. We had to fill out the form and DD had to go to the nurse’s office every day before lunch and any time there was an ice cream party (although knowing her she might have skipped the ice cream rather than bother).

I’m the teacher who posted above. My child also needs a particular medication. The nurse has it and she goes regularly to get it. It’s a mild nuisance, but it hardly impacts her day.

Calling Lactaid a medication is a stretch. As a teacher, do school lunches seem leisurely to you? Hypothetically, if it takes 5 minutes a day to detour to the nurse, that’s 25 minutes a week. If there are 36 weeks in a school year, that’s 15 hours/year that she spent not eating, not learning, not taking a break and interacting socially with her peers, but jumping through bureaucratic hoops. If the school system asked you to give up 5 minutes of your lunch every day for a new regulation, would you shrug it off it as a mild nuisance, or resent it as something that needlessly impacted your day? It was doable, and she did it, but it was ridiculous.

The point is it’s a RULE. Students have died because of pills being passed around the schools. Have we all forgotten so soon?

I care about my students. I want them to be safe, and that’s getting a lot harder to do. You see this as an inconvenience. I see this as a slippery slope.

But ultimately, this argument is pointless. The policy exists. If you allow your child to carry medication, then accept the consequences if they are caught.

I understand it’s a RULE. Since you seem to have ignored part of my post, we followed the RULE. My child did not carry the “medication”.

I also want children to be safe. I think some policies (including this one) become less about the child’s welfare than making bureaucrats happy when they become overly rigid. I understand the slippery slope, but it seems like there are fairly substantive differences between fentanyl, tylenol/ibuprofen, and lactaid.

By the way, you never answered my question. Would you be fine giving up 5 minutes of your lunch every day to satisfy a new regulation?

I rarely get an uninterrupted lunch, so your question doesn’t really land the way you want it to. I do what I have to do.

If you want children safe, don’t pick and choose rules. While you’re choosing not to follow this policy, others are choosing not to follow others. It’s hard to enforce rules when we make exceptions for everything.

This isn’t about making bureaucrats happy. (How would it even??) It’s about safe schools. Sure, your kid is popping a Tylenol. The kid next to your kid has Oxy. See the problem? Who is policing this if we say some pills are safe to have and others aren’t? Who is watching what is swapped? I’m a little busy teaching your kids, so I have to hope that people are following policy and being good community members.

The policy is on my side. Don’t like it? Then change it. Loosening rules doesn’t seem to work well in the long run, but give it a try if it’s important to you.

Nope. Not wasting my time on this. My kids will continue to carry Advil and Tylenol. IDGAF if you like it or not. That's what happening. And you will have no clue when they take it because they know to do it when no one is watching.

You do you. Teach your children they are above rules. Teach your children to be deceitful and disrespectful to the environments they are in. That’s the message, I’m afraid.

It’s also why schools are in disarray, because people can’t respect the policies in place to keep the whole population safe. But hey… your kids aren’t being inconvenienced by having to walk 3 minutes out of their way. That would be the real injustice in life.

And when your children get caught doing something far worse because mom taught them rules don’t apply? Remember how it started and don’t argue with the people enforcing the laws.

I wish this were hyperbole, but I’ve seen where this entitled behavior takes people after 20+ years in the classroom.

When my grandmother was a young woman, in a different country, she bribed people to obtain false papers. Those false papers saved her life.

Many years later, in the US, she told a college student her story. The college student was horrified. Weren't bribery and false papers against the law?!