Today I taught two classes of fourth grade and two classes of fifth grade. First period with fourth grade cruised right along and I was set to go for second period. About five minutes into the class, a nurse comes in and tells my coteacher in Korean that she needs to borrow the kids for 5-10 minutes for a "test." She has all the students line up at the front of the class and hands them each a stick (kind of like the one shown above) as they file out of the classroom. I try to inquire about what they are screening for, and my coteacher responds that she's not sure, but she thinks it is diabetes. Around this time, the kids start coming back into the classroom, carrying their little sticks. As the boys start jousting with them, trying to touch each other and diving out of the way of their friends' jabs, I begin to get a sinking feeling. As I watch the glistening sticks drip onto the floor of my classroom, I nervously and ask my coteacher "Um...what exactly did they do with these sticks? Did they put them in their mouth or did they...(gulp)...urinate on them?"
"Urinate."
AAAAGH. I know for certain that my mouth DROPPED open out of utter shock. WHY ARE THERE CHILDREN HOLDING DRIPPING PEE STICKS IN MY CLASSROOM?! I sprinted back to my office and collected the tiny bottles of Bath and Body Works Hand Sanitizer before heading back to class. When I returned they had been sent to "wash" their hands, but I know that they didn't use soap and most probably hadn't even rinsed. Frantically I tried to figure out in my head everything that they could have touched with their pee hands while I was gone. Why? SO I CAN NEVER TOUCH THOSE THINGS AGAIN. I made every single student use hand sanitizer (only upside of this horrible event was that I used Sea Island Cotton scented antibacterial gel so my room smelled like clean laundry) but that did not make me feel any cleaner. I want to Clorox the whole freaking room.
When my second co-teacher came into the room for third period, I was telling her about it and she was not nearly as grossed out as I thought she should be. I mean, I know I'm a little OCD about some germ related things (ie- my refusal to use bar soap- even in my own apartment where I'm the only one using it- because it totally grosses me out...and don't even get me started on the bars in the bathrooms at school that hundreds of children's hands touch...ugh) but I am not alone in thinking that bodily fluids should stay the hell out of my classroom...am I?
They do this every year at the public schools and yes it's for diabetes. I find it a little weird that the nurse doesn't just collect them right away, but it doesn't gross me out to the degree that it grosses you out. However, urine is the most sanitary human body fluid...so try to keep that in mind next time.--Rachel
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