Governor Tom Corbett’s budget cuts may have claimed their first victim.
Daniel Denvir writes:
“Sixth-grader Laporshia Massey died from asthma complications, according to her father, who says he rushed her to the emergency room soon after she got home from school on the afternoon of Sept. 25. He says Laporshia had begun to feel ill earlier that day at Bryant Elementary School, where a nurse is on staff only two days a week. This day was not one of those days.
“Daniel Burch, Laporshia’s father, is angry and wants to know whether Philadelphia’s resource-starved school district failed to save his daughter’s life.”
Every school should have a school nurse on duty every day, but Philadelphia has a $300 million deficit. The district has been under state control for a dozen years. The State Constitution says that maintenance of education is a state responsibility but Corbett does not agree with the state constitution.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
School nurses — that was part of the union negotiation in Chicago and I also know it was part of the Boston union negotiations; the teachers wanted nurses on site.
Philadelphia is not out of money for real just created as they have $15,658/student/year. At LAUSD a friend who represents minority, poverty special education students and parents and LAUSD has spent over $2 million fighting him with police and everything the kitchen sink can create. One of his students had a heart condition which required a heart transplant at birth. The student needed another heart transplant. The district would not do the IEP no matter what and it is fully documented as he does not miss a stroke in detail. LAUSD with no paperwork or IEP send this student who needs a heart replacement to a charter school without a nurse and he dies there. I call this HOMICIDE, what do you call it. I would like to know the specifics of the Philadelphia case for comparison as this is not acceptable at all anywhere.
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/Did-Philly-school-crisis-claim-a-girls-life.html
Schools in high-poverty areas are more likely to have no school nurse or a high ratio of nurses to students than schools in wealthier areas:
Berliner, David. 2009. Poverty and Potential: Out-of-School Factors and School Success. Boulder and Tempe: Education and the Public Interest Center & Education Policy Research Unit. http://epicpolicy.org/publication/poverty-and-potential
Thanks for posting this Diane. Parents are filing innumerable complaints with the state DOE (acting Education Secretary Carolyn Dumaresque, former PSEA executive director!!?), but where are the law suits challenging their breaches of the state constitution? How many more instances like this will it take for Corbett to realize that he was elected to serve all the citizens of Pennsylvania, not just his Fracking buddies.
I knew that this would happen. I taught in Phila for years and am now retired. Poor children seem to have high incidences of chronic ailments. Asthma is one. These children often share their inhalers with the rest of their families as the medications for asthma are quite expensive. Their diseases are not as well managed so they go into crisis more often than children who are able to keep up with the costs of the disease. Make no mistake. People die from asthma. The reason we don’t hear about that happening very often is that for most the medical establishment can manage it quite effectively, but it is expensive.
I have two stories. In one school, the nurse, who is excellent and has vast experience as an er nurse as well, made the call to send for a child’s parent’s due to the severity of that child’s asthma. Someone who was not a nurse decided that child should not go home. Thankfully the nurse knew it was her call and she did not have to listen to anyone else, including a principal to make that kind of decision. What if the nurse wasn’t there. What would have happened to that child.
My second story is this. Phila schools were taken over by the state over a decade ago. We are all aware that among all of the other cuts, there was to be only one nurse for every 1500 kids. That meant that there were schools that did not have any nurses. The pronouncement from on high was that each principal was to appoint a teacher to be the nurse, and that if a teacher did not take that job, they were to be written up as insubordinate. Thankfully there were some principals who had the brains to understand that this was a very dangerous call. I don’t know if that rule still applies, but I know that there are still not enough nurses and am very surprised that many more children have not either died or been hospitalized due to this ignorant and callous policy.
Kids go outside and fall or hit their heads all the time. What layman knows the signs of a
traumatic head injury? How can a teacher tell if a child’s asthma warrants a visit to the emergency room? What if an adult in the school is having a stroke and the nurse is the only one to recognize the signs.(it happened).
Here is more information from 2 other articles:
——
Tom Corbett Pressured by Civil Rights Groups on Philadelphia School Funding:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/11/tom-corbett-philadelphia-schools_n_4080350.html
————
PA Governor Corbett’s School Strategy Leads To Death of 12 year old girl:
http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/billionaires-join-fight-against-philly-teac
Oh MY! What would the RICH and entitled want for their child(ren)? Of course all the support staff, like librarians & libraries, school nurses, school counselors…you know the stuff being TAKEN systematically from our public Schools. Very sad and very BAD for the children whose parents don’t have DEEP POCKETS and are RICH, RICH, RICH. Our schools are more segrated than ever.
Here in Georgia, not every school has a nurse. In fact, most didn’t until the legislature set up special funding a few years ago. Every January, it comes up for debate with the threat of cutting school nurse funding. Even so, we didn’t always have a full-time nurse either; we shared her with a school down the road. My current school has a full time nurse, and she is the third one in six years. She’s wonderful and I do everything I can to help her out. But I worry about our medically fragile students and when the $$ run out.
Here’s the most recent info I could find on school nurse funding from a really quick search:
http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/government/2012-06-16/georgia-looks-increase-school-nurse-numbers
http://georgia.gov/blog/2012-08-09/more-school-nurses-hand-year
And nationally: http://nursing.advanceweb.com/Features/Articles/School-Nurse-Shortage-Update.aspx
In LA, one nurse who is a friend of mine, serves both a middle school of over 700 students, and one high school many miles away that has about 2,000 students. She has to oversee the many helath problems of close to 3,000 children.
For some time, LAUSD and other nearby districts have been using office staff to administer meds and eppies, and other health care services to their students. This is questionalbly legal, and some non-credentialed personnel refuse to jeoparize themselves with law suits.
This is no way to run public schools. Now that there is a windfall of biooins of dollars at LAUSD, they should hire back the nurses, as well as the teachers, and forget the sweethart iPad dealing.
meant…billions of dollars
What an absolutely heartbreaking story.
I can’t help but think about how many hours and even days have been set aside for trainings for common core and the newest state 8 teacher evaluation. These include the after school meetings and the PD days before school starts, as well as, the two full days that every teacher in my district is expected to attend common core trainings with a district provided substitute. Contrast this with how the trainings for allergies, blood-born pathogens, and asthma, which consist of being given a link for online modules and an admonishment to be professional and to get them done. That means getting them done on our own time because no time has been dedicated to ensuring that we all have this vital information. What mixed up priorities.
This is so tragic. My heart breaks for this family. How could this happen in our country?
Do you think this is the situation at Lakeside or Sidwell friends?
We truly have lost our way. I am sickened by this. Please may this be another turning point. God bless this family. Please.
This is the 2nd incident reported this week. Earlier in the week, a 1st grader at another Philly school suffered 2nd degree burns to his face bc his food was too hot. He was not treated at school bc they only have a nurse 1 day a week. His parents have filed a compliant and have a lawyer involved too.
This is the 2nd incident in the Philly media this week. Earlier in the week, it was reported that a 1st grader suffered 2nd degree burns to his face bc his lunch was too hot. He was not treated at school bc the nurse is only there one day a week. Teachers and staff are not trained to recognize or deal with such an injury. A compliant has been filed in that case too.
Tom Corbett Pressured by Civil Rights Groups on Philadelphia School Funding :
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/11/tom-corbett-philadelphia-schools_n_4080350.html
PA Gov. Corbett’s School Strategy Leads To Death of 12 year old Girl:
http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/billionaires-join-fight-against-philly-teac
I hope parents demand change for the sake of the children. That is horrible!
The false economy of eliminating school nurses from so many school districts will never make up for all the law suits pressed by parents of damaged children.
Reblogged this on Transparent Christina.
This is child abuse as the case here is, in fact almost homicide by law. This is planned and they do not care. Sociopaths is what they are. How could a trained nurse not know what is happening unless “They are scared for their jobs as here at LAUSD.” Fear does strange things to people. I do not mind putting fear into the crooks, never to innocent. Fear into the crooks is to help people they are crushing as these two cases.
This is exactly why you see me press so hard to understand your budgets. If I was in Philadelphia it would not have gotten so far. At LAUSD if we had not been on them so hard for so long who knows how bad it would be now. In Philadelphia if you get into the same 2013-14 budget you will see what I explained previously about the $15,685/student/year and where it goes like the lack of Federal Funding at only 1/2 of 1% instead of much higher. You do have special ed and poverty there don’t you? If I can find in one hour what I found what if you really sat down and took it all the way apart into 5th grade math and language and then you can explain it to regular people. I do it all the time. It is how you do it. Do not talk or use math over their head. The fastest learners are the inner city people as they live with scams all day long. The slowest and biggest excuse makers are the PHD academics specifically. Every excuse in the book for criminal action is the normal response.
We will stop this and it takes knowing the money and using it properly without corruption so that as much as possible goes to the proper programs.
If LAUSD bought the $200 device with a 5 year guarantee instead of the, only for the iPad, $1,000 each, no infrastructure that we already paid for, I will save LAUSD $26 million/year on the textbook account only. I can then use that $26 million to reinstate physical education and the arts back into schools within the general fund without bond money and sustain it forever and have another $60-90 million more from the instructional materials and supplies by eliminating a lot of paper, pens and copying to use for something else again. With the iPads LAUSD loses $169 million/year. Which door would you open to win? How about the nurses and librarians now also with the extra $60-90 million for free. Which deal do you like?
Teachers have complained about this for years.
A child says to the teacher..”I am not feeling well”…
Teacher says to the child….”Today is Monday, there is no nurse today..Lay your head on the desk after you complete your test.”
It has upset me so many times when we are told to tell the student to go to the bathroom…get some water, and return to class.
Thank Goodness for Cell Phones because most teachers I know call the parents immediately if there is no nurse available…..the parent then makes the decision…
I have asked another teacher to call the principal simultaneously..
I am talking to the parent..the teacher is talking to the principal’s office…
But Heaven Forbid if it is the End of the Year….
A child is not allowed to leave for any reason until a proctor comes to escort them to the bathroom….
Not even the teacher can go to the bathroom!!!!
I hate to point this out…but when the nurses come to school, they ask to see the pregnant girls….at some schools there are plenty…
This 2 day nurse in our schools will result in many more children dying…
All schools need a nurse at all times…
You do not pick and choose when someone gets sick…
At one school I taught at….there was a coach that would come and address the situation if it was a non-nurse day…..
Thank goodness he was well trained to help the athletes and knew if the ambulance was needed ….. but we had to wait for him to arrive and check out the situation…it always took awhile to get him to the right place..
Money is pittance compared to the precious life of this child. Money will not bring back this child or meet the needs of justice to the family.
Nonetheless, the family should sue for hundreds of millions of dollars not just for compensation for themselves (“compensation” in this context is specious, but will be at least something), but as punitive damages to the state.
We have billionaires in this country and billionaire corporations who pay little to no taxes. How much tax has Apple not paid as a result of offshore tax havens and corporate business? How about the $400 million dollar tax rebate Facebook received? What about Warren Buffet’s self-confessed tax savings compared to that his receoptionist can only dream of?
Certainly the proportion of tax to income in the well heeled vs. the middle and working classes here in the United States shows that there is still plenty of money to be collected and used for the public good.
Not having a nurse in this school is a pure, perfect example of how such money was never collected and put to use.
This child’s death, aside from what it means to her family and friends, is a text book example of class warfare, and the plutocrats – private and bought and paid for in government – have won this battle with a veritable casualty and prisoner of war.
The city, state, and federal governments should be ashamed of themselves. They have failed this family.
Do Mahlia and Sasha have a full time nurse in their school? Do the children of Michelle Rhee and grandchildren of Eli Broad? Bill Gates’ kids?
How sad and enfuriating.
But these reformers know how to pick their victims: the poorest, the sickest, the youngest, and the most vulnerable.
I’m so glad we have literally hundreds of millions of dollars each year to just give to Egypt (although there is a moratorium this year for a few months that is conditioned), but not enough money to supply a simply qualified school nurse in Philadelphia who could have prevented a VERY preventable death.
The city of Brotherly love? Philadelphia?
It’s the city of Plutocratic hate . . . . .
Clarification: “money” was something I meant in terms of a lawsuit, not with reference to the proper funding of a school to have a full time nurse.
There is no amount of money to compensate for the loss of your child.
Agreed!!!!!!!
But the state needs to be punished as harshly as the law will allow for its crime.
Diane, I had a potentially similar experience with my 16 yo son last December. An unknown severe tree nut allergy would have claimed his life if his school nurse was not on staff and able to use an epipen until the ambulance arrived. In his previous school, he would not have had a chance as the nurse worked part time in 3 buildings. I am grateful every single day for the change we made.
The only way to stop this is for all of you to get into your districts budgets and find out what is happening with the money. I gave you the information on Philadelphia and not one peep out of anyone. How do you think you can solve these problems which take money like nurses without knowing where the money is coming in and going out over time for perspective? Impossible, unless you like dreaming. Dreaming will not solve real world problems, only hard work. No one wants to do the tedious work required to fully investigate these issues like finances and iPads. Everyone today has a short attention span purposely developed by the media. With $167 billion in iPads and other electronic devices for schools at up to $2,500 each and they break down within a year and are illegally, in California anyway, purchased with 25-30 year bonds which pay off at 2-3 times the original price how do you think this will work out? Will it help to get nurses to prevent more deaths? If you are dreaming maybe. Will it get you the programs you need if you are in bankruptcy if all the money is blown on iPads?
Why do you think I keep saying this? It is not an accident that Deasy is delaying the iPads. It is because of the work that CORE-CA is doing. By the way, just so you know the truth about us. The King Family of L.A. has a continuous history of civil and human rights for 115 years. As civil rights legislation got passed the corporations and billionaires started donating to urban and civil rights groups and became their source of revenue which means they control them. Celes King III saw this and had the power to legally separate CORE-CA from CORE national because of the corruption and buying and selling everywhere. Today we are the only civil rights organization who is not controlled by them. We are self financed. We work what we decide. No one tells us what to do. Every legislator in California knows this and respects this on both sides of the aisle. How does anyone think this happens, just because we say be nice to us. No. You earn it over a very long period of time and with long time consistency on issues well documented and analyzed. Not one other civil rights group in the U.S. has a UN NGO status. Celes King IV’s mother was the U.S. UN representative for women worldwide for 8 years and his father was an advisor to 3 presidents.
Why isn’t anyone else doing this? This is disturbing. My question is “Do You Really Want To Win?”