Force Teachers to Inject Students or Hire More Nurses?
The following is an expanded version of the letter I sent to the San Francisco Chronicle on Monday:
The San Francisco Chronicle published an article today by Bob Egelko, “Obama Administration steps into insulin shot fight,” about whether California can force teachers to inject the state’s 14,000 diabetic students. Egelko got the got the basics right: teachers are unqualified to provide injections, while nurses, who are qualified, have been so significantly downsized that half of California’s school districts no longer have them. However, the Justice Department’s assertion that non-nurses should be allowed to give shots is absurd and shows great disregard for the safety of students.
Furthermore, Egelko’s claim that educators support non-nurses giving injections is simply not true. As a teacher and a union organizer I know my colleagues are opposed. Teachers lack the