Not My Responsibility?

[77railer]

Be forwarned that in the corprate world one must know what is their repsonsibility and what is not. Apparently if you are an educator and you walk out of your room and smell smoke its not your responsibily to find the source of the smoke and if it just happens to be the trash can blazing in the boys bathroom its not your responsibility to put out the fire. Please also remember that if you leave your room to put out the fire that is burning in the bathroom trashcan and the superintendent walks in the building while you are combating the flames and two of your co-workers tell him/her that they are watching your class because you are dealing with a "FIRE", that instead of checking on the situation (which I might remind you is a "FIRE") they might actually sit in your class and time how long it takes you to get back and then have your supervisor chastise you for leaving your room while kids were "unattended" despite the fact that two other educators are monitoring them. During the "lecture" you recieve from your supervisor they might also point out that while they appreciate the fact that you put out the "FIRE" it was not your responsibility because you are not an administrator, no one left you in charge, and you left your kids "unattended" in the process of doing so. Apparently they will also convey that the correct procedure would have been to notify an administrator, oh wait, I forgot to add that there were no administrators in the building...no principal, no assistant, no guidance counsler, and no one knew who was "in charge". My reply....next time let it burn.

Does anyone else out there see the lunacy here?

Sorry for the rant....had to vent.

77Railer

 

[N Gauger]

Yeah!!! I see a bit of lunacy there ...... but ... I work for the Government too

If you had let it burn - until the sprinklers/fire alarm went ogff - it would have been more right in their eyes, but also - you probably would have gotten it for not reporting it or trying to put it out......

Catch 22 if I ever saw one.. and I can say this, because I work for them too 23 years of "whys & Why-nots"

Second guesses are just like hind site - it's all understandable in the rear-view mirror

 

[shaygetz]

And folks wonder why I homeschool my kids. Glad you found it before it became a real problem.

 

[Ray Marinaccio]

In my opinion you did the right thing.
Following rules is one thing but saving lives is another.
Sounds like they're just pointing the finger at you to draw the attention away from the fact that they weren't where they were supposed to be.
If the administrations #1 priority isn't the safety of the students and teachers, I would question whether they belong in that possition.
I would point that out to the parents at the next school board meeting if they want to press the issue further.

Safety is everybody's responsibility.

 

[ausien]

Sound likke a saying my dad has:

There`s three ways of doing things, the right way, the wrong way, and MY way.
to stay out of trouble(mostly) we did it his way.
But in my opinion you did the right thing, before it got out of hand...hope you would do the same thing, should it happen again.
just a thought, what would have happened, if you hit the fire alarm, and evacuated the school instead?....have a good one..steve

 

[emt49]

I had kinda the same deal with a school but i was a student not a teacher and it was a school bus not in the restroom.

i was on my way to school when we saw a lot of smoke comming from the back of the bus. the driver stoped and everyone got off i was in the last seat in the bak so i was the last off so i grabed the fire extingusher.

(i guess this a good time to say i was a voluniteer firefighter for three years at that point). so i opend the hood and put out the fire i got called in the office were all the admins were and thay told i should not have done that thay would have rather had the buss burn thay didnt even thank me or nothen

 

[revandy]

Then everyone wonders why we lack heroes today........whatever happened to the expectation of "going above and beyond the call of duty".....
Rev. Andy

 

[Zman]

Sorry, but I have to disagree with you guys here, having been a firefighter. In the case of a fire in a school, you should pull the alarm and evacuate the children as quickly as possible. Determining the cause of the smoke and trying to put it out yourself can waste valuable time and potentially lead to a very dangerous situation. There's also the issue of insurance liability. It's always easier to file a claim when it's accompanied by a report from the fire department.

In the case of a car fire, never EVER open the hood! Get out of the car and run. One car fire call we had involved a guy who had tried to put the thing out himself, and wound up in the hospital with 1st degree burns over half of his body. Most people don't realize just how flammable gasoline is. One pint of gasoline has the explosive potential to lift a one ton weight 1000 feet!

Get safe, and let the professionals do their job.

 

[RailRon]

So next time you evacuate the kids, have a great picknick outdoors and watch the school house burn down...

Something is running completely beside the rails in your school, as it seems.
(I assume that every teacher had a basic instruction about fire: Sounding an alarm bell comes first, and then how to use a fire extinguisher, and finally some informations about which kind of fire to attack, and which type to leave alone and ONLY call the professional firefighters. (E.g. I wouldn't even go near a burning car with gasoline engine - perhaps a smouldering diesel is a different case.)

But in these times common sense obviously doesn't count anymore. You have to get supervisors and evaluators for nearly everything which is more complex than blowing the nose. And of course these waterheads have to earn their place - and they do it by chastising everybody below them, and licking the ... of everybody above them by filling out useless reports (like yours).

In our school luckily we don't have such morons yet. But as it seems, the time is approaching fast when we'll have the same situation like you in America here in Switzerland. The terrible thing is that these bureaucrats are ruining the school climate, taking away time which you could use for real school activities, and therefore are diminishing the quality of our education work.

Ron

 

[spitfire]

I think it's very unfortunate when a person comes to the rescue and gets dumped on for their efforts. I can totally understand how you feel 77. Nowadays though, the powers that be are more concerned about what the insurance companies have to say about things, which I can also understand, since rates keep going up and up. We're in a no-win situtation here, where personal initiative is a bad thing, and going by the book is all that matters.

Speaking of going by the book, was this policy ever made known to you? It's also unfortunate that so many "policies" are only communicated to us after the fact, when everyone is scrambling to point the finger elsewhere.

Val

 

[ezdays]

When I lived in Wickenburg, we attended St. Anthony's church. During mass a few years ago, some guy stopped breathing and started to turn blue. The lector looked up and saw what was happening and yelled if anyone could help. A firefighter jumped up, scaled a couple of pews and got the guy breathing again. After mass, the pastor took the lector to task saying that it was the usher's responsibilty to act, not his. Now I know these ushers, and great guys they were, but not trained in first aid, nor could they react that fast to save this guy's life. Now I didn't see this, but heard it from the lector's wife. Seems as if after I had my go-around with the pastor and quit all my volunteer posts, everyone came to me with some other horror story about what this priest did.

In his defense, an God knows, he really needs defending, he was not well and couldn't take stress very well. He finally retired and became a changed man immediately once the stress was gone. The point here is that some people in leadership positions can't handle the stress of their job and react rather strangely when confrunted with an emergency situation.

Who's to say whether 77 or this lector did the right thing by not following"procedure", but based on the results, what happened afterwards could have been handled with a lot more tact and understanding.

 

[N Gauger]

Speaking of going by the book, was this policy ever made known to you? It's also unfortunate that so many "policies" are only communicated to us after the fact, when everyone is scrambling to point the finger elsewhere.

Val

.......... ( Our "Policy and Procedures Book" is 300 Pages long and is broken down by departments... The general policies, procedures and personnell section is about 100 of it... So my department alone has about 130 pages to read.

Yes it was built by the bean counters & the solicitor so a new hire has to be at least familiar with those 130 - 150 pages depending on department....

There is no way you can remember, after a couple of years, what you should do "Outside of common sense" in an emergency...

Further - the book is a living entity, in that just like this bulliten board it changes every so often Of course they send updates to all employees and one copy for the books

To make it even more interesting, The Safety Committee (I'm on it) just about a year ago initiated an emergency evacuation system for all of our buildings & Employees... Thereby adding another 20 pages to "the Books'

It's a shame that the flow of insurance rates and lawyers and people so eager to sue has gotten so way out of hand

 

[who_dat73]

A heros thanks to you railer

One thing I am gonna say is is it in the Policy book that all the Adminstrators are allowed to be gone at the same time??
I am speaking from a parents point of view and I "Thank you Railer" for trying to save the schoole that will be teaching the kids. From what I have seen so far these kids have enuf tough breaks and hard enuf time going to schoole. What happens if there isnt one to go to??
I am assuming railer isnt stupid if he has a degree in teaching so if the fire was somthing that he couldnt take care of he would have taken more drastic measures and if it's so dad gum important that a adminstrater know about the fire what the heck was he doing sitting in the classroom? Was he waiting to see if you got burned alive?

I Salute you railer for being a hero in my book right up there with all the people in this country that WONT stand idally by and ignore the problems around us as the rest of the world goes to hell in a hand basket.
Just my two cents worth :thumb:

One other thing if we have a fire here at the Gauge do we have a policy book that we have to go through before we can try to save our beloved site??
Or do we throw the policy book into the flames and run.
Just trying to be funny hopw no offence

 

[spitfire]

..... if we have a fire here at the Gauge do we have a policy book that we have to go through before we can try to save our beloved site??

Yep - loco's and rolling stock first.

Val

 

[eightyeightfan1]

We did have a fire here a couple of years ago....
Unfortunatly......I damaged the policy book while trying to beat the flames with it.
Sorry...........

 

[ezdays]

We did have a fire here a couple of years ago....
Unfortunatly......I damaged the policy book while trying to beat the flames with it.
Sorry...........

Uh, not to worry, we saved a copy on tape, just in case. It got recorded on eight-track knowing full well that nothing could ever replace eight-track technology.

Sheesh, who knew?????

 

[N Gauger]

Policy: In Case Of Fire:

You bring the hot dogs, I bring the Marshmellows

 

[sumpter250]

Policy, procedures, insurance, lawyers, etc., etc., ad nauseum.........
In all cases, it is easier to beg forgiveness, than to ask permission.
Responsibility is owned, it really cannot be assigned. If you have done the right thing, then, in the long run, you'll never end up blaming yourself for what you did.

 

[77railer]

Thanks Fellas....Nice to belong to such a great bunch of guys.

77Railer