Director has asked me to be unethical

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Preschool Teachers Chatboard

Director has asked me to be unethical

by adcm

Mar 30, 2012

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I am coming here heavy hearted. I have taught pre-school for a year now and have loved it. I just recently moved to a new room, ages 14 to 24mths. One week in and I am at the end of my rope. First we have a sever biter. The week before I began in the room the child has severly bitten 17 times in one week. My director told me that I was to keep the child strapped in the high table for the whole day. When outside the child is to be strapped into a swing. I was not in agreement with that and let the director know as much.

Flash forward to today. The director has come to me with a new solution. When the child bites am to squeeze lemon juice in her mouth. The parents have signed a waiver allowing me to do this. It just isn't sitting right to me!!!

Also during nap time I have 10 children alone. I am in ratio, yet 3 of my young toddlers are not allowed to nap according to their parents...See More

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KinderDonna Frankly if your director is the person you described, I would resign immediately. You don't want to be working in such an unprofessional environment. My guess is that there's even worse things going there you may not be aware of.

Mar 30, 2012

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eceteacher DO NOT DO IT! That is corporal punishment! I wouldn't care if the parents ok'd it or not. IT's wrong! And illegal for that matter. It's not worth it. I'd leave.

On 3/30/12, KinderDonna wrote: > Frankly if your director is the person you described, I would > resign immediately. You don't want to be working in such an > unprofessi...See More

Apr 3, 2012

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Toddler and prek teacher I'm not sure where you live, but where I live, all these suggestions given to you are ILLEGAL! Regardless of whether or not the parents "authorized" the use of lemon juice for biting, it would be ILLEGAL. As for strapping the child down in a chair or swing for the day - ILLEGAL! What type of a preschool do you work at where your DIRECTOR is giving ...See MoreI'm not sure where you live, but where I live, all these suggestions given to you are ILLEGAL! Regardless of whether or not the parents "authorized" the use of lemon juice for biting, it would be ILLEGAL. As for strapping the child down in a chair or swing for the day - ILLEGAL! What type of a preschool do you work at where your DIRECTOR is giving these as a solution?! I would quit today and give a call to licensing. If this is what you are being told to do, you have to know there has to be other things going on.....

This type of behavior by the ADULTS in the school makes me cringe.

As for naps....these are toddlers. Toddlers cannot go all day on 30 minutes of sleep. What hours are the children there for? What type of education do your parents have? What type of education and training does your director have?! What kind of training and/or education do the teachers have?

Here....by licensing, we can have a 15 to 1 ratio if the toddler are napping - but that means that all of them are ASLEEP. The minute one child is awake, the ratio goes back as if they were all awake. In my school, never is one teacher left with a group of toddler, and that is for not only safety reasons, but also to protect the TEACHERS from someone possibly saying they might have done something illegal or abusive.

The child is biting for a reason. The teacher should be looking for ways to work with the child and the parents to find out why and how to change it. Is it because the child does not speak yet? Is it because the abuse apparently approved by your administration is what the child has become used to having to deal with and has become frustrated?

Honestly, this sounds like such a poor environment for not only children - but for the adults as well, from what you have written. Leave, get training and mentoring from highly skilled teachers, and avoid placed that promote child abuse!

On 3/30/12, adcm wrote: > ------------------------------------------------------------ > -------------------- > > I am coming here heavy hearted. I have taught pre-school > for a year now and have loved it. I just recently moved to > a new room, ages 14 to 24mths. One week in and I am at the > end of my rope. > First we have a sever biter. The week before I began in the > room the child has severly bitten 17 times in one week. My > director told me that I was to keep the child strapped in > the high table for the whole day. When outside the child is > to be strapped into a swing. > I was not in agreement with that and let the director know > as much. > > Flash forward to today. The director has come to me with a > new solution. When the child bites am to squeeze lemon > juice in her mouth. The parents have signed a waiver > allowing me to do this. It just isn't sitting right to me!!! > > Also during nap time I have 10 children alone. I am in > ratio, yet 3 of my young toddlers are not allowed to nap > according to their parents request. The fourth must be > woken up after 30 minutes. So I am alone in a room with 4 > children awake. Yet, most of of my class only naps for > about 30 minutes because of the 3 wide awake children. This > leaves me alone with 10 toddlers for two and a half hours. > My director is well aware of this. She lets all assistants > take break from 1 to 3pm so all the head teachers are alone > during this time. If there was an emergency I would have no > one to come into my room to help. > > I am now beginning to understand that while my center does > not have a high turn over rate of teachers in any other > room. This toddler room does. > > Any suggestions? I am about to resign at this point.

Apr 4, 2012

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