Lifesavers for Latasha

“Several of you are using your sick days faster than you’re earning them. Mrs. So and So didn’t take any sick days during her cancer treatment, and that’s the kind of teacher we expect here. So, if you’re one of the teachers who have used all your sick days already or use them as soon as you get them, you need to try to be more like Mrs. So and So,” said my principal at a faculty meeting.

I was one of those teachers she was talking about who used her sick days before I earned them or as soon as I got them. As a teacher in Alabama, we earned one sick day a month. I did my best to schedule doctor’s’ appointments on holidays or during school breaks. But, there were times through the school year when appointments had to be scheduled on work days. Since most of my appointments at that time were in Atlanta, I couldn’t schedule it for after work.

These appointments were all day long. I had to wake up between 3 and 4 a.m. to get ready and get on the road by 5:30 a.m. in order to drive the 1 1/2 to 2 hour drive from home to Emory in Atlanta. If I got stuck in traffic, which pretty much almost always happened in Atlanta, then the drive could take even longer. My appointments usually started at 9 a.m. I would have labs done, EKG, ECHO, pacemaker check, meetings with doctors and nurses, and any other tests the doctors wanted done. I may or may not have time to grab something to eat or drink. When everything was done, it would be 3 or 4 p.m., just in time to hit rush-hour traffic to try to get back home. I wouldn’t get home until 7 or 8 p.m., maybe later if traffic was really bad.

That particular principal had questioned me a couple of times about me taking sick leave, especially if I had appointments on a Friday. The principal insinuated that I was taking a sick day on a Friday in order to have a long weekend. Really? Did this person seriously think I would rather wake up hours early to spend all day driving and in the hospital than just coming to work?

When the principal continued to question me about taking sick days, I submitted paperwork from my doctors to the district’s HR department to explain my chronic diseases and need for using my sick days. This principal didn’t care.

I didn’t last much longer at that particular school. I ended up quitting, because of that principal. People, like that principal, who have never dealt with a chronic disease have no clue what people like me go through on a daily basis just to try to have a “normal” life. Comparing Mrs. So and So’s cancer treatment to my own diagnoses was also wrong. There are many cancer treatment centers in that area. However, the closest Adult Congenital Heart Disease Center was in Atlanta. I have no control over that. Perhaps Mrs. So and So was able to schedule her cancer treatments for after school hours, because she could get them done locally. I didn’t have that choice. And I shouldn’t have been made to feel guilty for taking a sick day when I needed to for my appointments.

I have never tried to make excuses for anything, and I have always pushed myself extremely hard to try to overcome my diseases. This principal opened my eyes to how uncaring people can be and showed me the type of leader/principal I never want to be.