When will our schools prioritize health and safety?

Wake County Public Schools parents, you should be concerned.

And I say that not as an alarmist or as a 'helicopter parent' or as an allergy parent or as a worry-wart. I say that from the unique perspective of being the mom of three boys -- two in WCPSS public schools. One with life-threatening food allergies and both with celiac disease. My youngest is in preschool. I see the vast difference between the emphasis placed on health, safety and support between the preschool environment and that in the public school system.

Are we to assume once our kids turn five that health and safety are no longer a priority? That they should manage on their own and that expectation is okay? That any person in the building can do the job should the unthinkable happen? Because that's the message we are receiving from our schools.

I'm concerned for all of our kids, and admittedly especially for my food-allergic son.

He's seven. He eats snack in his classroom, often while working on an assignment at his table, while someone at the next table eats peanuts. A food that can kill him. An invisible amount of residue from peanuts or tree nuts can kill him. I apparently cannot ask that the other students wash their hands, as informed by WCPSS officials. And I cannot ask that his class space or their supplies be wiped down when the allergen is brought in. Again, told by WCPSS officials and backed by their 'guidelines'. Guidelines which reference the CDC, FARE, the American Nurse's Association and others - all which actually recommend a dramatically different approach to food allergies in the classroom.

So what can I do? Pray, keep fighting, pray some more, speak up and hope for change. For all of our little ones. Because fellow parents, there are other issues here, too.

Top of mind today - We don't have full time nurses in our schools. Our nurse to student ratio is not nearly what's recommended by again, reliable and respected organizations. This means a lot of things. This means if your child experiences a panic attack (as one of mine has), there is no nurse in the building with medical training to handle that situation. If your child experiences an injury or broken bone (as one of mine did), they aren't sent to the nurse. If your child needs monitoring for diabetes or any other number of critical medical needs, again, you may have a nurse there two days a week. A nurse who is busy doing paperwork. Your 'nurses' become the front desk staff and the teachers. Thank God for them, truly, but as a parent, I'm sending my child to be in the care of a school for the majority of their day. Why is there no nurse full time? We are upset if there is no foreign language teacher, but no one is upset about the lack of nurses? Does no one realize the situation? We need to speak up - all of us. Every. Single. One of us. Because if something should happen to your child at school, would you not want the best care for them until you could get to them? Of course you would. And it's totally fair to expect that.

Check out WTVD Channel 11's Troubleshooter report on the situation from today: https://abc11.com/health/medical-needs-handled-by-teachers-not-nurses-in-some-nc-schools/5500301/. Be sure to listen until the end, when the head of the Department of Wake County Health and Human Services (that manages the nurses for WCPSS) says being in schools full time is not the best place for the nurse (I'm paraphrasing, but accurate). I was honestly dumbfounded she said that on camera. Let her hear from us. I'll go ahead and give you her email address: rpetteway@wakegov.com. Teachers and administrators seem to be nervous to speak out. Until they do, let's write, shall we?

And let's move right along to the next issue that affects all students, again. Maybe you don't know this, despite my best efforts to make it widely known, but cafeteria tables in WCPSS are wiped with water only between classes. I found out while working on a health plan for my son. One in which I needed to get an attorney and a 504 Plan under the American's with Disabilities Act to get them to wash his space with soap and water to remove allergen residue. You know, to keep him alive. How is this sanitary? How is this acceptable to any of us? How is this acceptable to the school staff? To the nurses? To the school board? Soap and water. Vinegar and water. Diluted bleach solution (which could technically be consumed and still safe). But water? Has to be a joke, right? It's not. Here's the petition I created two years ago and presented to the WCPSS School Board (to deaf ears): www.cleanourtables.com. Go. Sign. Share. I'm not done with this fight.

There are other issues at hand. Lack of hand-washing procedures and guidelines. Candy and junk in the classroom as prizes or parties. Lack of funding for janitorial services regularly. And, the biggies I mentioned above. And if I sat and thought about it more (without getting myself more worked up) I'm certain there are others.

Our teachers need to be teaching. What they went to school for and are best at - what they chose to do and want to do. Not serving as a nurse or doctor. Our guidelines need to be reasonably protective of all of those with medical needs. And above all, just plain hygienic.

We focus so much on new curriculum and schedules and cramming developmentally inappropriate lessons on our kids. Because that's what our teachers are being forced to do. Where is the focus on health and safety? Where is the needed time for their overloaded, growing minds to just be kids and play safely? Where is the security of feeling safe when they are around something like an allergen that could kill them? Where is the very important life lesson of taking care of our bodies? Where is the lesson of community and protecting others? Where is the trust that if they need someone medically or mentally to help them, that someone qualified and trained is there? How can my child, or yours, be expected to learn anything when they do not feel safe? Or when they are sick constantly as the flu and norovirus rips through the school? It's all maddening to me.

Priorities are so wrong in so many ways in our schools. We can be upset about testing (and don't get me started on that). But we should also be upset that the very basic needs of health and safety and security are not being met. And that, my friends, is how I feel about that.

As we start a new school year, let's all rally together and push for change. Hold those holding the reins accountable. I, for one, am so tired of fighting something that seems so obvious. But I won't stop. Not for my kids and not for yours, either.

Rant over.

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Please join me at one of the following Facebook groups:

Families for Food Change in Wake County
ACE Advocacy