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In reply to the discussion: I retired a little over two years ago and I can honestly tell you this. [View all]BigmanPigman
(51,813 posts)I was sick 90% of the school year. Classrooms are germ factories. When 2 doctors tell you to quit, you listen to them.
Eating right, sleeping, exercise, flu shots, etc did nothing to help me. I got mononucleosis for 6 months and worked every day since no doctor would correctly diagnosed me, even though my eyes were turning yellow and I was down to 85 pounds (I was 40 years old so no one even thought of mono). I also got severe pneumonia but again, the doctors only said to stay out of school for 3 days. I was harassed by the administrators since they were told not to hire substitutes and was forced to work while sick most of the time. On the 3rd day I was out sick I ended up in the ER and had lost more than half of my blood internally. I had to have 3 transfusions of packed blood. Meanwhile I was not worried about almost dying, I was worried that I couldn't leave substitute plans and called the school every day with verbal instructions from my hospital bed since I feared I would be fired. The 4th year I taught I was put into an old classroom that was filled with black mold. I have permanent respiratory damage from that. The school district told me the building was safe. I was coughing up blood and went to the union for help. When I was out sick during the 2nd month I was finally told that the building was so full of mold that it had to be destroyed. I found out they donated it to Mexico, nice huh.
This is why I get so angry with cheap school districts who think teachers are disposable, especially during Covid. Teachers are seen as glorified babysitters who work 50 hour weeks for little pay and respect. We would make more babysitting individual kids.
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