Anonymous wrote:It just reinforces the fact that childcare is women's work. And regardless of what an insurance company says, they're opening themselves up for an employment lawsuit, just as if a bank said that black employees can't be trusted to handle deposits into the vault "to protect them from false accusations."

It doesn't mean that childcare is women's work to say that a male teacher, in a preschool or elementary, middle, or high school should be very careful about being alone with a student. It's sensible. I've known several male teachers who have had their careers affected or destroyed by crazy parents or crazy students.

Anonymous wrote:It just reinforces the fact that childcare is women's work. And regardless of what an insurance company says, they're opening themselves up for an employment lawsuit, just as if a bank said that black employees can't be trusted to handle deposits into the vault "to protect them from false accusations."

+1. Male teachers can do everything at our preschool, and I like it that way.

It just reinforces the fact that childcare is women's work. And regardless of what an insurance company says, they're opening themselves up for an employment lawsuit, just as if a bank said that black employees can't be trusted to handle deposits into the vault "to protect them from false accusations."

We encourage/require the males at our school, just like at our church, to never be alone with a student of either sex. It's simply a policy necessary today for their own protection from false accusations.

I ran a large center up until a few years ago and we had this policy too. I hated it but our insurance company insisted on it, and the truth is that it was the best option to protect our male teachers, who, I should note, were consistently my best staff. It's stupid and feeds into all sorts of ugly stereotypes about men who chose to work with young children, but all you need is one irrational parent to destroy someone's career or even life. I had a number of parents who pushed back against it and I was always very honest about why it was in place.

I agree that the school is genuinely trying to protect their male teachers from accusations, but I also agree that that is so, so, so sad.

This is like male doctors needing an nurse present during an ob exam but not female doctors. If I were a male teacher, I would appreciate the policy or always want another adult present. You can't recover easily from an accusation, even if false.

I'd write a letter telling the school that you are perfectly fine with the teacher toileting your child. It won't change things, but perhaps schools need to hear from more parents who don't equate men with pedophiles. I imagine this impacts their job prospects in a big picture sense - who wants to hire a teacher who can't do everything when you can hire one who can?

I'm the director at a large preschool that has some male teachers. Unfortunately we have to have this policy as well. You would be shocked at the horrific things parents have said to us about having male teachers. We've even had parents decide not to enroll their child when they found out the lead teacher was a male.

So the sexist policy is due to the sexist attitudes of parents who automatically equate male early childhood teacher to pedophile. It's nice to hear some positive support from pps above on male teachers.

This was also the policy at our daycare. I agree that it's sexist but I also think that the administration is erring on the side of caution. There was plenty of staff to handle all the toileting.

One day when I picked up my daughter she was in her backup clothes and when I asked the male teacher if she had an accident he said "I think so, but you know I can't take the kids to the bathroom so I'm not exactly sure what happened." Then we had a back-to-school night tonight and the school director brought it up independently and confirmed that this was the school's policy.

You're right to be frustrated. I'd especially be frustrated in a situation like this if I had a boy because it seems totally normal for the male teacher to take main control of taking the boys to the bathroom and the female for the girls.

It's definitely sexist. I'm sure the school feels it's protecting the male teachers and preventing parental complaints or concerns, but it's not right.

My kid is in a preschool class with a male teacher, and I think it's one of the most fabulous aspects of his class. I'm so happy he has the experience of having a male role model in the class, as so many of these experiences involve only females. I honestly don't know and have never asked but assume he takes the kids to the bathroom like any other teacher. How did you find this out?

Yeah that's pretty messed up. I bet the poor male teacher has to deal with funny looks from parents on top of it. This is the world we live in, sad.

I agree it's annoying but it's the way society is. My kid is in the 4's at a daycare/preschool, and only the female teachers help with getting bathing suits in for water play. Male teacher helps with sunscreen on faces and gets towels.

Sorry, OP, you've lost this one. He absolutely does need the protection, and it's good of the school to give it to him.

Yes, there are problems with our society, and it goes from preschool up through all school years and throughout the workplace. But fighting it in this instance would potentially hurt a male teacher for no good reason.

My 3-year-old daughter attends a daycare/preschool in Montgomery County, and it was just confirmed to me that they do not permit male teachers to do ANY diapering or toileting of the children. It just so happens that the lead teacher in my daughter's room is male (and this is a room full of potty-training kids), so one of the three teachers is rendered useless for taking kids to the bathroom (which is especially critical with the potty emergencies that we all know these kids have on a daily, if not hourly, basis). It was also confirmed to me that this is not a state or county rule, but rather an attempt by the school to "protect their male teachers". I assume this means they are wanting to completely eliminate any chance of a "claim" being made against those teachers.

My reaction to this, however, is frustration/irritation at the practical consequences of the policy, and shock/anger at the suggestion that male teachers need this "protection" but female teachers do not. Doesn't this ring of sexism? Maybe it is not even legal?

Am I wrong to be upset? I have no qualms about my daughter's well-vetted wonderful male teacher taking her to the bathroom, and I worry about what kind of message this is sending to the kids and male/female roles in society, etc....