In all honesty when it came to the issue of ‘Passes are needed to head to the clinic, unless you are bleeding or a serious emergency is being administered’, I was both amused and I’ll admit ignorant to reasons as to why that may be.
This past school day a friend of mine injured her foot and wanted some ice in order to soothe the injury. We had exactly five minutes before the bell signaling seventh period would ring. When we entered the clinic the first thing we were asked by the nurse was what kind of injury was to be diagnosed. After having explained the issue to the nurse, what do you know we’re asked whether we have a pass or not.
The first thing that came to mind was how ridiculous of a situation this was. Why in the world would you need a pass when you have a person who’s injured right in front of you? Even more, what was a pass to do?
Now, as we stood there, my friend and I glanced at each other questioning the possible outcomes of this situation. Should we lie and state we were at lunch or admit defeat and scowl all the way back to class to get a pass. Well, we finally just excused ourselves and walked back to the classroom to gather our stuff only to head to our next class putting the situation at the back of our heads.
As you can imagine this made me a bit more conscientious with the situation at hand. I wanted to find out more without continuing to point my finger in judgment and complain; And so like a good journalist I headed to the Clinic after school.
I gathered all my necessities that of which included a notepad, a pen and my awfully unquestionably blinding charm. However that didn’t work to my advantage considering the Nurse didn’t have much to say due to her fear of being misquoted in this article. However she was positively sure with one of her statements.
“The HSA’s Health Department Handbook says that passes are to be used in Middle Schools and High schools when going to the Clinic. The only circumstances you would not need a pass would be if you’re coming from P.E, the lunchroom, Band, Orchestra, or lastly if you are bleeding or it’s an emergency,” School Health Nurse Ms. Ann Labbe said.
As explained, one of the main reasons behind the pass rule has to do simply with the HSA Handbook. The rule attempts to keep students safe in case of some dangerous or catastrophic circumstance in which the staff would need to know your whereabouts.
Besides stating what class you were in, shouldn’t a nurse focus on the issue at hand rather than a silly handbook of principles? This doesn’t make sense to me. Although I understand the precautions being taken, it still seems a bit drastic. The catastrophes that could potentially occur at McLean are at odds, and even then it is still a ‘if this were to happen’type of scenario. Should you really base a possibility on a student’s inability to come into the clinic if no pass is presented.
I dug in a bit more and found out something else. Here’s the thing, many students have abused the privilege of going to the clinic last year in attempt to skip class or get away with not taking an exam. That’s when I got a bit frustrated…If a student needs to go to the clinic then they should have the right to go under any circumstances. A teacher shouldn’t base their decision on whether they can go or not on past misconceptions. Not only that but, whatever poor judgments the student makes should and would be taken care of if suspicion were to arise; not on a what if.
Lastly for those students who’ve cussed at the rule like I’ve done, I understand the frustration. Even now the so called logical explanations It still isn’t adding up.Sure the student’s safety is being considered but how about each and every one of those student’s respect.
I can’t mess with the rules, so yeah OK, passes to the clinic aren’t meant to disturb you. I’m aware it isn’t Ms. Labbe’s fault as she simply has to carry out the rules given to her. It’s just really a big hassle to have to go all the way back to class when all you’re in need of is a band-aid or an ice pack.
