And what can I tell you...

The paperwork we receive about children in the company office (health forms etc) had the proper boxes checked. Louis has more than one official diagnosis, and none of them are good, ya know? Obviously telling you what those are would be a serious breach of privacy, and I don't want to ever even sort of identify a child here, even with a diagnosis and a fake name.

I find it dismal and appalling that no one from my office followed up on the issues mentioned before just signing off and sending him to my little happy group, as at least one of his issues would preclude most children from attending any sort of recreational program.

As shitty as my old company was in some ways, they were very careful about their programs with regards to kids like this. If the child was not in a regular classroom, it was very unusual for that child to be allowed to attend one of our programs.

Louis isn't a child who should be in the general population.

Again, I have to say it's not his fault. I don't like him, he's not a likeable person, but I do care about kids, Louis included.

Whatever else he is, he's a child who deserves the best he can be given as far as emotional and physical support and I'm sorry I can't provide that.

But my program isn't the place for those issues.

I like my kids, I work to give them a fun and safe space, and I have a lot of toys, great games and crafty ideas. But when you get to the core of it, I am a babysitter.

A good one, yes. I have a sense of humor (essential!!) and a keen memory. I remember what it felt like to be a child and I try to let them be who they are. I laugh with them and enjoy their presence and try to be the same person for them every day.
But what I do is babysit. You can call it child care, you can call me an educator, you can call me everyone's mom. Doesn't matter what you call it. It doesn't even matter that I'm great at it.

What matters in this case is that I am not a specialist in any sort of differing ability.

Yeah, I've had kids with ADD/ADHD. Trichotillomania. Autism. OCD. Timid children. Bold and brassy kids. Kids who are physically aggressive, kids who tell lies, kids who steal. Kids who don't like me at first and sort of give me a hard time because they don't want to be in day care. Kids who are dependent/fixated on other kids and don't even really hear the adults in their lives. Kids with snotty attitudes. Kids who have diagnoses with initials and scary words and descriptions.

Since taking on this job in 2004, I have successfully dealt with a lot of different issues with kids.

I say successfully because they have always integrated into the program within a certain amount of time and the usual amount of conversation and explanation (we don't do that here because _____ ) was enough to get them headed in more or less the same direction. I've never had to consider having a child removed from any of my programs before.

But none of them were unreachable the way Louis is. He doesn't care about anything. Including himself. It's sad.

And when you allow someone with his particular set of, um, issues into a mixed age group of typical kids, the outcome is probably not going to be very good.

His group of teachers has been very supportive, coming to visit with me during morning program and catching up with me in the halls to update me on, well, stuff.

So there is a meeting scheduled with the parties involved (not Louis, he wasn't invited) during this next week. I am not sure what will be said. A manager type person as well as certain school personnel and me. And the responsible family members.

I'm not sure what our stated goal will be, I know that my goal is to not have him messing up my program anymore.

My understanding is that he *will* be allowed to come back under some very specific guidelines (which he won't be able to maintain) and then we can say we tried everything and remove him from the situation.

But if he is allowed back in, I will refuse to work without a 2nd person on site.

His teacher and school counselor are backing me on that, by the way. The respect I have received from school staff (and not just in this situation) is very gratifying.

If you've been reading here any amount of time, you know that I had to leave my old job/school with a lot of sadness. That place was my second home. Everyone was supportive, kind and let me know in many ways that they appreciated my presence.

The school staff at my new school has treated me with great respect and I feel welcome and appreciated very much.

That goes a long way when things aren't perfect, believe me.

So that's what's going on at work.

Tomorrow I'll try to tell you about the repeated early morning noise violations (SEVEN on SATURDAY FUCKIN' MORNING!!!) from the people doing the school construction across the street from my house. I finally put my objections in writing and sent them to the guy I had spoken to on the phone a few times about the issue.

I think they're going to stop that shit.