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Under what circumstances can the teacher leave the kids alone?
Never?
Fires?
Sound of shattering glass?
A scream?
Gunshot?
Never.
Those children are entrusted to the teacher's care with the understanding that they will be constantly supervised. Constantly supervised. Not only do the parents expect their children to have an adult with them the entire time, but the LAW requires that those children have an adult with them constantly. And the owner of the daycare center is responsible for seeing that the LAW is followed, else she loses her license to operate the daycare center, and ALL her employees lose their jobs.
If you take your children to the neighborhood pool, and leave them in the care of the lifeguard, and the lifeguard steps away from the pool for whatever reason, if your child drowns is any reason going to be good enough? If you take your child to the park, and leave them in the care of a park ranger, and the park ranger goes off to do something, and your child runs into the street where he is struck by a car and killed, will you care why the park ranger left your child unattended?
Daycare centers don't just have rules. Daycare centers are governed by strict laws. Laws that tell them how many children they can accept per caretaker. Laws that tell them what they can feed children, and how much they can feed the children, and how often they can feed children. Laws that tell them what sort of activities they can involve the children in. Laws that tell them that they have to do complete background checks on their employees. Laws that tell them how much insurance they must carry. Their facilities are inspected regularly. The kitchen has to meet certain standards. The playground has to meet certain standards. They have to provide storage for the children. They have to provide a system of checking-in and checking-out, so that they always know how many children are there, and where those children are. If children under their care receive medication, they have to have someone qualified to administer that medicine and they have to have procedures for keeping the medicine locked up, and ensuring that no one has access to it, and that only the child authorized for the medication receives it.
Daycare centers are highly regulated. Which is one of the reasons daycare is so expensive.
The owner of this daycare has to think of those things. The owner has to think of the possibility of being sued. The owner has to think of the possibility of the state fining her or revoking her license.
Leaving kids unattended at a daycare center is a major violation. However well-intended the teacher was, she should have made sure the children had an adult supervisor with them, either by calling for help or by taking the children to another classroom. If something had happened to her in a fire, and the other teachers were busy evacuating their kids from the building, would the other staff had known to check on her kids? In the confusion, would her kids have been left behind, or left to figure out on their own that they had to get out of the burning building? What if one of the kids went looking for her? What if one of the kids hid in a closet or somewhere (very common thing for frightened children to do, and deadly in a fire)?
NEVER leave a classroom of pre-schoolers alone without adult supervision. NEVER.
So in other words, while you are running around looking for help, a kid is drowning.
We all react differently. I would jump in the pool and save a child's life. But I'm a very good swimmer.
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Well, good for you! And no, that's not what I said, nor would I risk losing another child while rescuing one.
In your scenario, both you and the kids were trespassing on someone else's property and a kid fell into a pool. Public pools are strongly fenced and guarded, and private pools in people's yards are not out on the sidewalk for a kid to hop into. So your scenario is a farce.
Nevertheless, running to someone's home to knock on the door and ask "Watch these kids while I go and retrieve this other one who's in the pool" is not negligence.
Quote:
Originally Posted by glass_of_merlot
I think you know my point with the post. I wasn't really talking about you personally. It was more of a hypothetical situation. You or somebody else said earlier that you NEVER leave children unattended. I say, it depends on the situation.
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No, it doesn't. You NEVER leave kids young enough to be in a day care and napping, unattended. Get the kids out, then put out the fire or wait for the firefighters. A kid's life is worth so much more than a building.
I would not have fired the employee, but I would have used that situation as a "teachable moment".
What the hell do you mean by "never unattended"? I was left unattended plenty of time before I went to first grade. I had a great time. Yeah, I hurt myself a few times running around in the woods but it was way better than having to spend time with all those other kids and an adult that never stopped watching.
What the hell do you mean by "never unattended"? I was left unattended plenty of time before I went to first grade. I had a great time. Yeah, I hurt myself a few times running around in the woods but it was way better than having to spend time with all those other kids and an adult that never stopped watching.
That was your parents' choice. When you drop your kids off at daycare, your choice is that your child will be constantly supervised. And if they hurt themselves, you want to know how and why. When other family members entrust their children to me, I take the responsibility seriously. I know that their children go into their bedrooms and watch TV alone, I know that they let their children ride their bikes in the driveway alone, I know they don't supervise them 100% of the time. But when they entrust them to ME, I do supervise them 100% of the time. Because if anything happened to them, it would be on my watch. I have to answer to the parents. Parents can make the choice to foster independence in a child. Those they hire to take care of the children don't get to make those choices.
When you're taking care of someone else's children, you don't have that luxury. The parents set the boundaries. And you have to respect those boundaries.
That's true. But like I said earlier. She judged the situation for herself. I don't know what I would have done in a similar situation. It it's easy to be judgemental.
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It's easy to be judgmental, yes. But day care workers have some training just like all the rest of us do in our company's policies for emergencies. I believe they have to conduct periodic fire drills. They know the rules.
Quote:
Originally Posted by glass_of_merlot
I'm sorry you can't think outside the box.
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I'm sorry you have to resort to personal attacks.
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