zeptember

Remember yesterday when I was upset that I’d become sensitive to the yellow label Clorox wipes?

It’s not that at all. One of our staff put bleach into the Clorox wipes container.

The problem with that is that Clorox wipes do not contain bleach. They contain AMMONIA.

Today I asked her why the hell the wipes reeked so badly of bleach, thinking my chemical sensitivity was getting worse again. She replied that she was cleaning the bathroom and wanted it extra clean, but then got the great idea to use the altered wipes on the children’s lunch tables, too.

She left the tables wet, right before lunchtime began. I went through and wiped all the tables dry, and lectured her.

She thinks I’m joking - I told her the fumes can KILL her/us. She warned me not to tell the management on her, and then after I left her line of sight, she whispered to another co-worker that she’ll just keep mixing up the wipes and bleach and store it somewhere where SHE can access it.

Ten bucks says she’ll put it in the janitor’s closet, a.k.a. the furnace room.

…gah… I just called the school - she’s still on duty, thankfully. I asked her about the wipes, and told her again what damage it can do. She said she used them all up today, and promised not to make any more.

This is the same person who last week tried to store a 3″ sharp knife in our outdoor classroom cabinet, in order to access it during lunchtime to cut her fruit. I had to also lecture her on that, telling her that we can be shut down if licensing makes a surprise visit, searches the place and finds the knife. Even then she’d given me the “oh that wouldn’t happen” look. I had to tell her in a stern tone with raised eyebrows, “I am serious. We are not even allowed to keep adult-sized scissors out here. Put the knife away.”

Three strikes and she’s out - I will in fact go to the management.

November 18, 2009 Edit:
Her third strike was on November 17th.

Many children have sweets packed in with their lunches. It is a policy that the children eat their protein, first. Of course, like most children, they go straight for the sweets. We remind them every day. Some children throw fits, others begrudgingly eat their protein. It’s a daily thing, no big deal, part of what goes with children.

This same woman I’ve been having a problem with - she saw a child (we’ll call him “M”) going for sweets/snacks and ordered him to eat his protein.

M protested, and she got angry with him. I had to go deal with other children who were trying to have a food fight. There were a couple other assistant teachers on lunch duty, also tending to other children (about 4 adults vs. about 34 children, yes we’re short-staffed this week).

When I was finished putting out the food fight fire, I looked over and saw that M was bawling his eyes out, and the woman was not near him. I went to him and he told me through choked sobs, “She told me my lunch is trash and it’s not!” I looked at his open lunch box - the snacks he wanted were now bundled up in a paper towel.

I found the woman at the next classroom’s lunch table. I went over to her and asked what she’d told M. She gave a smirk and told me proudly that she’d told M that if he didn’t listen to her and eat his protein, that she’d throw his snacks in the garbage.

I told her she has now upset M to the point that he didn’t want to eat ANY food. I told her that we are supposed to encourage, not force children to eat their protein. I told her not to do this again to a child. She looked at me like I was overstepping my bounds with her. She’s used to bossing people around (I thought she was a supervisor when I first started working there).

I resumed monitoring the children, and saw the woman go to M and talk a little more calmly. She was able to convince him to eat some of his protein. She unwrapped his snacks from the paper towel. I came back around to check on him a couple of times. He recovered and was soon smiling and being his usual boisterous self again.

When I went on my lunch break, I reported the woman to her supervisor.
Surprise, surprise, supervisor said she’s been hearing from other co-workers that this woman is harsh towards the children, but she didn’t know about the bleach/ammonia or the knife incident. She said she would talk to the director.

Now I get to walk on egg shells, wondering if this woman will be talked to, and wondering if I get to bear the brunt of retaliation if she’s talked to.