Teachers Protest Having to Do Medical Procedures

A teachers' union is taking issue with its district's policy requiring them to do medical procedures they say school nurses should provide.

The Mahomet-Seymour Education Association has been pressuring the school board to sit down and negotiate a protocol for those procedures - some students, especially those with special needs, sometimes require catheterizations, shots and other needs. But 5th grade teacher Linda Meachum says school nurses aren't dispatched to do those tasks, and it's been up to teachers.

"We should hire additional medically licensed personnel to take care of all students' medical needs," Meachum said. "No other staff member, as a condition of their job, should be required to perform medical procedures."

Mahomet Seymour superintendent Keith Oates has been unavailable for comment - he has said in the past that teachers have always been asked to change catheters, and the policy is not new. The union is demanding that medical procedures be negotiated, and they may file an unfair labor practice claim if the district doesn't bargain. Mahomet-Seymour's current teachers' contract expires next year.