Teacher Banned After Ripping Out Boy's Insulin Pump

[Rink]

Teacher Banned After Ripping Out Boy's Insulin Pump
School Officials: Teacher Thought Pump Was Cell Phone

POSTED: 4:24 pm EDT October 4, 2005
UPDATED: 4:37 pm EDT October 4, 2005

A substitute teacher in Lake County, Fla., was terminated and banned from teaching in the county after he ripped out a student's insulin pump during class apparently thinking it was a ringing cell phone, according to a Local 6 News report.

Officials said a ninth-grade student at East Ridge High School, who is a Type I diabetic, was in class Monday when his insulin pump began to beep, indicating he was low on insulin.

Witnesses said the class teacher, Richard Maline, 51, asked the student what the beeping was.

School officials said Maline then grabbed the device, thinking it was a cell phone beeping and detached the tube that connects the insulin pump to the student's leg.

The student went to the school's clinic and had the tube reinserted.

Lake County school officials then acted quickly and terminated Maline, Local 6 reporter Louis Bolden said.

More on this Story (http://www.local6.com/news/5056865/detail.html)

[Patriot Heart]

What a jackass. I am all for a no cell phone policy, but this is ridiculous.

[PaulRevere]

I'm sure that it was an honest mistake and he felt like a stupid jerk when he realized what he did. I don't know if the punishment was deserved.

[PrezLeefun]

Really! Talk bout over- reacting.

[TechnoPrincess]

I'm sure that it was an honest mistake and he felt like a stupid jerk when he realized what he did. I don't know if the punishment was deserved.

If someone is on an insulin pump, they have a VERY serious medical condition. I have seen what can happen if they run out of insulin and it is NOT pretty. This teacher should NOT be allowed back in the classroom. What if that was your child? Would you feel it was deserved then?

They were lucky, this school apparently had the medical staff on site to be able to fix the problem right away. With the nursing shortage in Illinois right now, if he were at a school here he probably would have had to go by ambulance to the ER.

An insulin pump is nothing to be taken lightly. I don't think there was any criminal intent, but his gross lack of judgement shows that he should not be in the classroom. It says in the article that he asked what the beeping was but either didn't believe the kid or didn't wait for him to answer.

[TechnoPrincess]

Here's the link to another story I found on it...which shows it was more serious than the other article implied:

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/state/content/gen/ap/FL_Insulin_Pump_Pulled.html

[Peachdiane]

Just a little surprised the teach wasn't made aware in the first place.

[Incident_command]

I'm sure that it was an honest mistake and he felt like a stupid jerk when he realized what he did. I don't know if the punishment was deserved.

I agree. As for his blood sugar not returning to normal for a few days, well I question that. I work around insulin pumps all the time and one being disconnected for say even an hour shouldn't throw his blood sugar off that much.
I've run on people with a blood sugar of 600 and in 10 hours I've come back to the ER and their levels are back to normal.

[CzechPrince]

What a bastard, you don't just rip out somthing, even if it was a cell phone. There are better ways to handle it.

[Peachdiane]

That is true. Well, the SPrint™ a powerful digital body worn speech processor that my boys wear looks like a bomb. (According to lots of people and security....)

http://www.cochlear.com/images/Product_sprint.jpg

As you can see, only the wires are visible but it does beep when batteries run low...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v625/dbolles/Brent-04.jpg

So, I made sure to put in their IEPs that all teachers, substitutes, and parapros are to be informed. It is only to be removed with our permission. (swimming, etc)

[Lazarus]

Really! Talk bout over- reacting.No kidding... I think that person would do well to get a job at Walmart and leave the kids to a calmer person...

[jag]

I'm sure that it was an honest mistake and he felt like a stupid jerk when he realized what he did. I don't know if the punishment was deserved.

The first article indicated the teacher asked what it was but doesn't say the boy aswered. If a teacher ripped a phone outta my kids ear I wouldn't think twice about it. Like Peach I wonder why the teacher did't know before hand.

[dPrasse]

oh yes , Peaches "Bionic Boys" ...

[DeclinetoState]

I'm sure this is all Bush's fault--Jeb Bush's, that is, since he's the governor of Florida. Why, he shoud have anticipated something like this happening and put in a policy of informing substitute teachers--or, better yet, reversed the ban on cell phones. Wouldn't that make everybody happy?

(Note to the uninformed: the preceding was dripping with sarcasm.)

[Federal Farmer]

The teacher over-reacted; but now it sounds like the mother is looking for good grounds for a lawsuit to which I say, just say no.

[Longhorn_Platinum]

jag:
If a teacher ripped a phone outta my kids ear I wouldn't think twice about it.

:smirky: Same here. My son would have no business with a cell phone in school, & after thanking the teacher, Xane would be in big trouble at home.

[Teenager]

Gosh, you don't just "rip" something away from a kid. Geez.

[PatrioticAmerican]

The irritating part of the incident's outcome is the mother's hope to file charges against the school. THAT is unwarranted.

[BEST45CAL]

I think a lawsuit is in order here. This doesn't sound the least bit frivilous to me. There is no excuse for this type of ignorance.

I don't know if the teacher intended to cause harm or not. I don't know if the teacher knew it was an insulin pump or not. None of this has been proven, but it still sounds like assault to me.

I'm glad they fired his ass.

:djd:

[Rink]

that substitute teacher SHOULD have been informed of any classmates medical needs in that class, as it seems to be showing that Substitute teacher did not know this kid had a serious medical need.

This would then be the School's fault for not informing that substitute teacher of the medical needs of the students in the class he was working in.

[Riverboat]

Honestly, I'm a little surprised at the reaction of some of the so-called conservatives here. To read the other threads, I assumed they all believed kids have it too easy, they should have their asses whipped for disobedience, etc. So, what gives?

Here is a clear case of an honest mistake. As Peaches pointed out, substitute teachers and school personnel should be aware of the contraption. And Jag and LongPlat had the same reaction I'd have if a teacher ripped my son's cell phone or CD player out of his ear.

I want to add one other thought: It is just possible the teacher or related school employees WANTED to make others aware of the contraption, but were prohibited because someone thought the kid should not be singled out by others for his handicap.

[Rink]

Riverboat I thought it was a priority to make sure that substitute teachers are informed of any school kids medical needs just to be safe and make sure there are no medical emergencies the teacher could have avoided.

I feel the school was negligent in informing that substitute teacher of this kids' possible dangerous medical needs.

[Riverboat]

I agree, Rink. I was just throwing that out as a possibility, remote as it might seem. Sometimes you're damned if you do and damned if you don't.

[Rink]

Well I've had good and bad substitute teachers that I remember when I was in Public schools, the dumb ones were..... dumb and the good ones just didnt last long.

The way the school handled this seems to me they were trying to cover their butts for their mistake of not informing that teacher by canning him so fast.

Now whether or not the sub was right or wrong is hard to argue with,e sp in this day & age with kids runnin around with cellphones disrupting classrooms et al.

Kids dont need cellphones period.

But the article does not answer basic questions here, all they do is provide a few bits and lets the hysterics go from there.

Did the kid answer the teacher's question? or was the kid belligerent? didnt answer? or did he refuse?

IF the kid told the sub what it was that was beeping then YES the sub teach was in the wrong for doing so, If the sub teach didnt wait for an answer but proceeded to grab and rip the insulin pump from the kid without waiting for an answer then again the substitute teach again was in the wrong, but if the teach didnt know the kid had a serious medical need and ASSUMED it was a cellphone and the kid didnt answer him then the SCHOOL was in thew wrong.

Lotsa iffs and missing pieces to this story.

Depends on what the kid and teacher did in the verbal question the teach asked, from then on the action and reaction would be dependent on whether the teacher knew, the kid told him or t he teach ignored the kid .....

You get the idea.

[Red-voting Badger]

As a teacher, there is never an acceptable time to rip something away from a student. There are disciplines to follow and this goes beyond idiotic. Fire the moron on the spot because he CERTAINLY opened the school up to a huge lawsuit. My cousin is a diabetic, it runs in the family and one of my friends/former roommate nearly died in May before the doctors diagnosed him as a diabetic. Not knowing is not an excuse, just like breaking the law.

[Rink]

Not knowing would fall on the part of the school for NOT informing that substitute teacher.

You cant know unless you were informed, and if you were NOT informed how do you know?

[Longhorn_Platinum]

Red-voting Badger:
As a teacher, there is never an acceptable time to rip something away from a student.

:unsmile: I certainly wouldn't do it, because of the trouble I'd get in. But, I wouldn't be angry if another teacher ripped something away from my child that he wasn't supposed to have. If I'm going to put my child in a public school (& I just might not), then I need to empower his teachers to enforce the rules.

[Riverboat]

As a teacher, there is never an acceptable time to rip something away from a student. There are disciplines to follow and this goes beyond idiotic. Fire the moron on the spot because he CERTAINLY opened the school up to a huge lawsuit. How long have you been teaching? I can think of plenty of instances in which it should be perfectly acceptable to rip something away from a student. Opening the school up to a huge lawsuit is a concern only because opportunistic lawyers have made discipline a dirty word.

[Peachdiane]

You know, I crammed 4 years of HS into 3 years. My last 2 classes were AP Calc and Physics. I taped lectures so I could listen later and go over anything I might have missed. Well, the vice came in one day to lecture on equipment disallowed in classrooms. He saw my recorder and confiscated it, telling the entire class it was one of the banned items. Who did I blame? No one but myself. I should have let him know up front why I brought it. Sometimes the onus is on the student (in private if need be) to inform the teachers, regular or substitute.

Yes, if it had been a cell, the teach was right to rip it away. But, again, I say if the teachers are unaware then they're going to presume there's no medical conditions or equipment.

There's already a pending suit in Florida where parents of a diabetic student are suing the school for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act. They say their son was prevented from checking his blood sugar levels in class and prohibited from administering his own medications in the classroom.

AND the suit says the boy was discouraged from using a cell phone at school so that his parents could monitor his condition.

I think they have a valid complaint in THAT Florida suit because personnel was aware of the special needs yet they still prevented it.

[DesertFox]

What PaulRevere and Peachdiane said, though I don't see the need for anybody to self-medicate for a classroom audience.

[TechnoPrincess]

I don't know if anyone else saw it, but I saw an interview last night on ABC with the kid, his parents, some other kids from the school and the principal. The kid tried repeatedly to tell the teacher what it was. Other kids in the class were yelling for the teacher to stop and that it was an insulin pump. This made the teacher madder and he kept ripping harder. He pulled on it three times before it came out of the kid's leg. Looking at the pump you could tell it was not a cell phone. The teacher got pissed off because he THOUGHT he knew what was going on and grabbed the pump while the kid was trying to silence it. I think the kids correcting him pissed him off more and he lost his cool.

The school DID know the kid had the pump and there WAS a note left for the sub, obviously he didn't pay attention to it. The school's clinic even had more insulin and batteries just for this kid, because he often had to go and refill the pump. So it's not like the kid or his family did anyting wrong. The sub deserved to loose his job.

I have to agree with RVB, unless the child poses an immediate threat, there is no acceptable reason for a teacher to rip something away from a child. It opens the school up for lawsuits. The teacher should ask to see what the child has, if it is something unacceptable then the teacher should send the child to the dean/principal to be dealt with. My husband has been a teacher for 9 and is in his first year of principalship. If one of his teachers did this, they would also be fired on the spot. If he had done this while teaching, he would have been fired...even if it HAD been a cell phone. Due to the laws, it is very libelous for a teacher to lay hands on a child in any disciplinary way. And this teacher should have backed off way before he touched this kid.
I have a family member who has a pump, and for diabetics who require a pump, the disruption in their blood sugar can last for days. It's not the same as someone who just has to do injections, it is very serious and life threatening. If my cousin were without insulin for as little as 15 minutes, she would have to be rushed to the ER. We do not know how long it took for the kid to be able to get out of the class, go to the clinic, and then for them to be able to reinsert the catheter into his leg. They are lucky they had such an advanced clinic in the school or he would have had to go to the ER and the results could have been much worse.

[Red-voting Badger]

I have taught in a public high school for 4 years, I am in my sixth year of running my own private studio as a percussion instructor and I had prior experience teaching youth ensembles at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
My students understand my discipline and they don't challenge me one bit. In fact I found it funny that through my little brother who is a student at the HS some of the kids thought I was too strict, only to have their classmates tell them they're just pissed off because unlike their other teachers I actually place demands and expect results.
Next, Riverboat, we teachers also regularly carry cell phones that are indeed turned ON during the school because of the need to be available to colleagues, parents, students and administration as we cannot all sit in an office. I'm not willing to blow smoke about do as I say and not as I do. Kids see right through it and you lose far more respect and ability to implement discipline. Some students have cells just for contacting their friends, the majority however carry them to be accessible to their parents.
In case you're wondering I DO answer my cell-phone during lessons and class when the need arises. The parents and students are made well-aware that I will do so because we do not share the same schedule, so the one time I answer a call from another parent, the reason is because at some point I will be doing it for them individually when they call. Do I answer every call? Absolutely not, nor are my students allowed to take any call not coming from a parent during school hours or outside rehearsals. With two hundred band members, a student phone has rang exactly twice since school started. Cell phones are not nearly the problem those of you who are not in schools think they are.
Quite frankly, cell phones are a 100x bigger problem at the collegiate level during lectures. Thanks to continuing education this semester, I've heard a cell phone go off nearly every other lecture and discussion and many times multiple phones ring.

[dPrasse]

The school DID know the kid had the pump and there WAS a note left for the sub, obviously he didn't pay attention to it. The school's clinic even had more insulin and batteries just for this kid, because he often had to go and refill the pump. So it's not like the kid or his family did anyting wrong. The sub deserved to loose his job.

Agreed ! Loss of job would be fair , but , the law suit is not worthy , since it seems as though the school "system" did everything right ...

[TechnoPrincess]

Agreed ! Loss of job would be fair , but , the law suit is not worthy , since it seems as though the school "system" did everything right ...

Agreed. I think the school took appropriate action and should not be punished for this idiot's behavior.