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Hi Debbie,

This situation seems so unfair to the students as well as yourself. Was
this just dumped on you or do you have any input? there would seem to be
a prblem of illegality involved, with no special education personnel
involved with that number of students for that amount of time. Do all of
the teachers and aides have to go to the planning meetings every day?
Perhaps a rotating plan of having the special education personnel attend
the meetings 4 of the 5 days so that there would be at least 1 there in
the media center with you each day.I would think that the parents of the
children would not want to see them unsupervised by trained personnel for
that length of time.

I hope you can get this resolved. Keep us informed.

Sheila Davis
Plympton School
Waltham, MA




On Sun, 11 Aug 1996, Deborah Marie Collier wrote:

> Folks: I have just had a MAJOR (to me!) problem come up & need fellow
> librarians' sympathy, suggestions, etc.
>
> My aide & I will be responsible for babysitting (officially: "storytime")
> combined classes of Early Childhood/Pre-K, or Early Childhood/Kinder kids
> for 40 min. every day during lunch while their teachers & aides have
> lunch & planning periods. There will be 2 groups coming from 11:15-12:30,
> during which time the LMC will HAVE to be completely closed to everyone
> else. The EC kids include 2 units of Autistic children, one 5-yr-old
> functioning at an 8 month level, Down's Syndrome, various seizures, a
> parapelegiac on breathing apparatus, "crack" toddlers, & assorted other
> disabilities (screamers, head-bangers, biters & hitters, kids that run
> away at any time, etc.).
>
> I have absolutely NO TRAINING in these types of behaviors. The head of
> Special Ed. demonstated the "basket-hold" type of restraint to us to use
> when EC kids "lost it". Some of these classes have THREE AIDES during the
> day, while my aide & I are expected to handle these kids by ourselves.
> How am I supposed to do a storytime with 22-25 Pre-K's or Kinders PLUS
> 5-10 EC kids at one time? Videos are not allowed as they are not "book
> experiences". Most of these kids can NOT sit still for 15 min., let alone
> 40.
>
> In previous years I have done storytimes with these kids, but aides have
> ALWAYS been present to handle problems, so I could just tell the story.
> Sometimes teachers have stayed too, when some kid was having a bad day.
> And storytimes were limited to 15 min., with book checkout another 15. I
> could handle that pretty well, although I did think my time was somewhat
> wasted when kids were rolling around on the floor, wandering the LMC with
> an aide behind, or being restrained & forced to listen.
>
> What do I do?? I am also worried about the legality of it all & my lack
> of training. Frankly, I am scared to death. Plus I am not able to service
> the rest of the school during their lunch--which in previous years is
> when most kids come to the LMC for computer time or exchanging books, &
> teachers come to check out stuff they've suddenly found out they need. In
> my opinion, this is going against everything I have been trained to do as
> a librarian (i.e. service the school population).
>
> I guess I just needed to vent, or see if some of the wiser, more
> experienced librarians out there could offer me help, suggestions or
> whatever.
>
> TIA
>
> ******************************************************
> *   Debbie Collier          Orange Grove Elementary  *
> *   Librarian &             Houston, Texas           *
> *   "Resourceress"          COLLIE@TENET.EDU         *
> -******************************************************
>


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