My experience is lawyers don’t get paid unless the patient gets paid so they encourage the patient to sue the employer. The employer is not at fault in this instance, they didn’t create an unsafe workplace. If the employer is playing fair I don’t see the need for an attorney.
Because in some states, once you invoke worker’s compensation, all future rights are lost, and in the early days one might not yet know the full scope of injury. It’s not about “lawyering up” for a future lawsuit, but to know what the employment laws are in your state in case what a situation appears to be today might not be the full picture. It’s simply a matter of not signing away rights that you may not even know you are signing away. Legal counsel is not always about litigation, it’s often just that - counsel for the purpose of education and information. Lawyers can and do get paid by the hour or by the consultation. Contingency is a whole other issue and this isn’t there yet. It’s still in the realm of employment, rather than personal injury law.
Another issue is that some physicians do not like to become involved in worker’s compensation cases.
I don’t see any reason to get a lawyer in this case. The injury isn’t major and it was certainly discovered immediately. It clearly happened at work. What rights are in jeopardy? It pretty much is what it is.
I don’t see all that much need to punish the student more. It was a stupid thing to do, but will additional days of suspension accomplish anything?
never mind, already posted Va website.
Zoey, crunchy sounds could be a collapsed lung and can happen even if your ribs weren’t broken. (I had crackling lungs from CPR – and no broken ribs). Moreover, a collapsed ljng can happen after the immediate injury. For your own health, I’d go back to the doc.
The principal needs to do her job supporting her staff no matter what her difficulties wuth communications. She should have your back. Period.
When I worked for a hospital, we got a certain number of paid time off hours per month. If you got sick, you used these hours. If you wanted vacation, you used these hours. I never liked that. If you are sick, you’ve just lost vacation time. Or even if you’re not sick, you are hesitant to use your vacation time because you never know if you’ll be sick. Other jobs I’d worked had dedicated sick time allotted, in addition to paid vacation days.
I hope the OP feels better soon. I also confess I don’t understand the need for further punitive action. Isn’t there some kind of intervention which could serve as a better teaching opportunity for this kid, who was clearly clueless but not malicious?
Well, not to address the OP’s question, but there needs to be IN SCHOOL suspension so it’s not a danged vacation for them!
OP here. On Thursday the WC urgent care called to see how I was doing. When I said my pain was no better they wanted to see me again that afternoon. I had a different dr., who reviewed the x-rays again and read the notes. He believes the crunchy, grinding sounds indicate tearing of rib cartilage. This injury takes longer to heal than fractured ribs. He gave me Dilaudid to try for the pain. He also suggested that rest may help more than I could imagine.
I stayed home yesterday. Dilaudid seems to give me a headache, so I am back to the Vocodin, but I think my pain has lessened overnight. I woke at 3 am for the first four days, in too much pain to sleep. This morning I slept until 7. On the mend!
As for the rest of the issues. I don’t want this to become a teacher bashing thread. Please. There are other issues involved that relate to why I was upset. Just this week, which was only 3.5 days long, in my grade level, we had my incident and a student who flashed a laser at at teacher. He got one day of in- school suspension. The Code of Conduct, which is signed by every student and a parent, states that a laser pointer is considered a weapon and will be treated as such. Should he have been given the punishment outlined in the CofC? Minimum of 10 days OSS? He didn’t hurt anyone. The problem is the randomness of the discipline. Two kids can do similar things and have different outcomes. A 6th grader brought a small pocket knife to school, never took it out of his backpack, and got 10 days of OSS.
Another teacher in my grade accidentally scratched a student this week. The kid was running and yelling obscenities in the hall. He made a grab for his hood and contacted skin instead. The teacher got indefinite suspension, until judgement can be made. All of this is keeping us rather off-balance and unsettled.
I plan to have a talk with the kid that hurt me. I don’t need the principal to tell him to apologize. I can ask myself, and he will give it. He shuts down when he feels threatened so I’m not sure things would go well if she got involved in that anyway. As far as my talk with the principal, I have talked with several other teachers. She has a pattern of avoiding people when she knows they feel she has been wrong about something. I have experienced it myself once before. The ball is in my court if I want to discuss it, and even then she may put me off until I give up. She will never ever pass me in the hall and ask how I am feeling. For those that said I need to meet with her and tell her about it and tell her I’m filing a WC claim, trust me, she already knows all about it. I assume (ass, U, me?) that she doesn’t care. I could go on and on about that part of it, but I have decided it’s time to just let it go.
One last item, the ISS and OSS. I agree with the poster that said why do we give them a vacation when they misbehave. In ISS they sit in a room with an adult and are forced to do the work the teachers give them. No sleeping, no electronic devices, no socializing. When they have OSS, most of them sleep late and play games/watch TV all day. Parents are at work and can’t control what the kid is doing and most do not take time off to supervise their wayward offspring. Work is sent home with then but most of the time it is not returned. Yes, public schools are in a crisis. It is not the fault of any particular sector. There are good and bad teachers, good and bad administrators, and so on up the food chain,
Kudos to the WC clinic for checking up on you.
Glad you have more information, and the chance to sleep. Pain and no rest seem to slow recovery, as does pushing too hard.
Sorry to hear your description of tensions within the school around behavior issues and communications with the principal. Teachers work under many pressures; some aren’t obvious from the outside. Feel better and take good care.
I have torn the cartilage between my ribs before. It’s pretty painful, and soft tissue injuries do take much longer to heal than bone fractures do. Even years later, I can cause little tears in that tissue (I think it’s from moving stretchers around my medical facility) that leave me sore for days.
Good luck and be sure to follow all instructions so you don’t end up re-injuring yourself all the time like I do.
I am sorry this happened to you and also to the boy who hurt you. It doesn’t sound like it was intentional and he probably doesn’t understand the seriousness of his actions , let alone that an apology is needed here.
I hope he learns from this mistake and also that you get the medical help you need and find the root of the pain. I worry about being prescribed painkillers for any length of time.
Glad to hear you are feeling better. Hope this weekend will give you the rest you need.
It is a very difficult job to be a teacher at some public schools. Teachers often spend more time in disciplining students than actually teaching. It is an admirable job and one needs a certain calling to do it. I came from a culture where teachers are treated with great respect. I have never even heard of kids talking back to teachers.
My kids went to private school. They knew they could be kicked out if they didn’t behave. The parents could voice their concerns about policy or teacher, but they had to be polite. Teachers probably didn’t get paid as well as public school teachers, but I think in general the working environment was much better.
Yes, the randomness. In my school system, I have heard that there is some affirmative action in school discipline. Because African-Americans get in trouble more than whites, some groups are closely watching the numbers. So sometimes the African-Americans get off, while the whites will be punished more severely in an attempt to even-out the numbers.
And, of course, there is also affirmative action regarding discipline for sports stars, particularly when a state championship is on the line.
OP, glad you are starting to feel better.
“The problem is the randomness of the discipline.” This indeed appears to be a huge issue, and I can understand your dilemma much better now. No advice, just sympathy - and wishes for a speedy (speedier) recovery.
"He was entirely inappropriate. He did undermine my authority in the classroom and has shown no remorse. He has told me before he likes to be suspended and get the time off.
He didn’t mean to hurt me. On the other hand, this was not affection. This was showing off and acting up. He impulse control is not all it should be and when he entered the classroom and my back was to him he made a bad choice."
And he is not classified as special needs in any way? This sounds pathological. My state has a ED classification for children who are “emotionally disturbed”. At the very least this child seems to need evaluation for that.
Did they agree to do evaluations on him based on the incident? If he is not special needs or medically or emotionally disabled, then the book should be thrown at him.
As for WC, I filed for it and everything went peachy keen including surgery (note that initially it was only an X-ray and PT, and months later it went to an MRI then surgery, all paid for by WC). I would also check out your state’s short-term and long-term disability rules, as well as your union’s rules on leave.
There are certain districts that don’t even bother to consider the possibility of special needs because it costs money to evaluate. Instead, they use excuses like SES or behavior with administrators vs. behavior with teachers when they need to document, document, document. I think talking to a union rep would be a great idea.
There must be signed parental permission to do evaluations. We cannot force his mom to have him evaluated, even though sped would give him a certain amount of protection.
I am on the mend. When I cough is still painful, as is going to sleep, but otherwise I’m much better.
I spoke with a friend/professional about the discussion with my principal. This friend asked me what outcome I wanted from a meeting with the principal, what did I want at the end? I said for the principal to be crying. HAHA We worked over the issues until I/we decided that I was not likely to get what I wanted from any conversation with the principal. She is not capable of empathy. She considers the school a dictatorship. The principal avoided me until today, when she started barking orders as usual. Has never mentioned the incident.
I am starting the paperwork to join our union. Many of the staff that have taught for many years are now joining. We do not feel safe in the current environment.
Hugs @zoeydoggie. Glad you are feeling better. H has a similar boss right now. It’s really hard. As he commented to be recently, his boss has no soul. I think it’s a personality disorder.