Question for any teachers of Multiple Disabled Students

[DebJ]

My husband who is 61 and has taught Spec Ed for 28 years is teaching in a classroom with Multiple Disabled Students for four weeks this summer. Because of budget cuts, there are only 2 aides in a classroom with about a dozen students aged 14-20. As a result, my husband had to lift a 19 year old young man out of a wheel chair to change his very full diaper. He was injured while doing this; his ham string tore.

Here are my questions:

1. They have as of this moment assigned my husband to this same classroom for the next school year. Could they continue to not have aides who are capable of heavy lifting? Is this legal? My God it's bad enough to be facing retirement where medical insurance would take over half of his retirement pay; to face it with himself becoming disabled is unbearable. He already has had a heart attack, has inoperable blockages near his heart, and diabetes. AND OF COURSE NO ONE SEEMS TO BE CONSIDERING THAT MY HUSBAND COULD DROP ONE OF THESE YOUNG MEN AND CAUSE INJURY TO THEM.

2. Is it a typical requirement that a special educator be able to lift a 19 year old man and then change a diaper full of s***? I don't recall such training being a part of his degree.

For the past 28 years, my husband has labored for this inner city district, working closely with so many parents of students with learning disabilities and for half his time with emotionally disabled middle school students. I think the real issue here is that he could be replaced with a new teacher for less than half of what he earns now. Why not? This is what you get for being good of heart and constantly working to help the disadvantaged. This is what a master's equivalency is worth.

I just don't want my husband to spend the rest of his life in painful anguish because he destroyed his back. I don't recall that he was supposed to expect that as a danger of the job of teaching. Was he wrong?


on edit: He has asked to be assigned to another classroom. I don't think they will do so, because forcing him to quit looks more profitable. It's not about the kids with disabilities. It rarely is, because their parents don't speak up.

[jaxx]

1. There are mechanical lifts that take up little space and save the backs.

I wouldn't think anyone would be required to physically lift a person. It's a danger to the lifer and the one being lifted.

[Tikki]

2. Most Districts have safety and health protocol in place...

We were always required and trained to do two person lifts on even our pre-schoolers.


And 'Thank You' to your husband for all he does for those great young students.


Tikki

[kickysnana]

3. MN law requires two people with lifts manual or mechanical with disabled

Other than that in the world before 2011, teachers would never be expected to do this but we fell down the rabbit hole and I do not have any more information about how to fix his situation.

Thank him for his continued work and I am so sorry he was injured and I hope he recovers fully.

[DebJ]

4. Thanks.

[femmocrat]

5. Is he in a teachers' union?

First, I would not lift a student, any student. He should have had an aide help him. If not the aide, then the nurse. If no nurse available, then call an administrator and ask for guidance. (He could also have gotten in trouble for letting the student sit in a soiled diaper.)

If they still require him to lift students, he must either get the union or a lawyer. There are all kinds of liability questions here.