Every Child Matters - Children with Diabetes

I was having none of this, so booked a 5-minute meeting with her on Mondaymorning at which I outlined what needed to be done to make sure Williamcould be included (i.e. blood glucose testing before going in the pool with timefor extra snack if necessary, monitoring on poolside, testing on getting out ofpool with time for snack to digest while they get dry and dressed, so he wouldbe fine to walk back - with me doing all this so she didn't have theresponsibility, also me detaching and reattaching his pump, and deciding ontemp basals etc - no way would I expect that of any member of staff withoutfull training). I also offered to walk back with them for the first couple ofweeks - she seemed reassured and appeared fine about it. How wrong I was!At the pool, the teacher came up to me (I was on the poolside with the fullsupport and preference of the swimming pool’s own instructor I might add!),and said that William couldn't test on the poolside because of "needles" andwould have to keep his stuff in the changing room and go in there to test if hefelt hypo (on his own presumably since she had 29 other children tosupervise). I said that wasn't possible, she then said, "I'll ask the head teacherwhat we should do", I said (a bit rude perhaps but feeling very fed up by now)"it doesn't matter what the head teacher says, this is what we have to do". Shethen surreptitiously asked the swimming instructor to tell me that I couldn'ttest William on the poolside and would have to take him out of sight (ofdecent non-diabetic people presumably) into the first aid room). I protestedat this, as we swim there regularly and poolside testing has never been aproblem, whereupon the swimming instructor admitted that it was the classteacher who had asked her to say this, as the class teacher doesn't really wantme being on the poolside. The instructor then said I could do as I thoughtbest, maybe sitting a bit further up to be less obtrusive. In this case, she getsthe final say. Unfortunately the class teacher refused to utter a word to me onthe walk back and went straight to the heads office to complain. So I wascalled in like a naughty child and an extract of the conversation wentsomething like this:Head Teacher: "please stop interrupting when I'm trying to speak to you, younever listen"Me: "I just feel rather unsupported at the moment"Head Teacher (stands up): "I am extremely offended by that remark" (writesthe word "unsupported" on a post-it note); "this school has bent overbackwards to help you and your son. I'm going to ask you to leave nowplease". Whereupon she gets up and opens the office door.I've never been so astounded in my life. I stayed sitting and asked her to shutthe door and let me say something more. After several minutes of thisridiculous standoff she eventually did shut the door and sit down. Then to myshame I more or less apologised and said that I hadn't meant that the schoolhad been unsupportive (what's the matter with me - I am so intimidated bythis bullying woman!). During the further conversation she indicated that shethought that I was a “problem parent” and then said "I don't want to have tostop you coming in to do William's insulin" with the clear implication that shewill if I continue being such a “nuisance”. I am even more ashamed and angrywith myself to admit that at this point I burst into tears.22