Tuberculosis, public schools, and common sense (or lack thereof)
My older son’s 1st grade class was going on a field trip to the local science museum last week and the school was begging for volunteers to chaperon and drive the kids. Whatever happened to those yellow school buses we see on the roads every day? But, never mind. My conscience told me to volunteer. I told my conscience to shut up. My conscience told me it would be fun to spend the day with my son and see him interact with other kids in his class. I told my conscience that the field trip was on a Tuesday and I’d have to take the day off work, and if I was going to take the day off work I’d rather spend it at a spa and not around screaming 1st graders. But then my conscience pulled a trump card. Do I want to let some random person drive my son to a location 20 miles away? What if he gets placed with a bad driver? I would never forgive myself if anything happened. So I decided I would volunteer, and I was actually getting excited about it. This was going to be fun!
So I turned in my chaperon form, and waited for Tuesday to come. On Friday, I got a call from my son’s teacher. I could not go on the field trip because the office did not have a TB test result on file for me. At the beginning of the school year, all parents who wished to volunteer their time in the classroom were asked to take a TB test. I didn’t do this because I was pregnant, big, and very uncomfortable. I did not expect to volunteer this school year. Also, whenever I get TB tested, the skin-prick test always blows up into a big red bump and I have to get chest X-rays which always come out clear. Anyway, that was for volunteering in the classroom. This is a field trip!
My conversation with the teacher was extremely frustrating. She was completely on my side. She wanted me to come. She needed me to drive. I have a minivan. The Holy Grail of student transportation. So I can’t drive other students. I understand (sort of). Can I just drive my son and meet everyone at the museum? No. But aren’t the kids being taken to a public place, where there will be lots of other people, none of them TB tested? Yup. Okie doke, just checking.
What made this even more hypocritical was the fact that this was just one day after the school’s Open House, to which ALL parents (regardless of their TB testing status) were invited. I was there, in the close confines of the 1st grade classroom, mingling among parents and students. But I couldn’t join them in a large museum.
I thought about just showing up at the museum, but I really didn’t want to be a jerk. My son was a little disappointed, but he took it pretty well. He had a great field trip, and that’s what counts.
And I understand the school’s reasoning - they don’t want to be held liable should anything happen. But a little common sense applied here and there would not be a bad thing. Has our fear of lawsuits driven us to stupidity?
