As the school bus rolled to a stop outside her Lake County home, Beth Jones adjusted the bright yellow document protruding from the pouch of her daughter's wheelchair, making sure it was clearly visible. Posted on 12/10/2007 10:11:05 AM PST by Sopater
As the school bus rolled to a stop outside her Lake County home, Beth Jones adjusted the bright yellow document protruding from the pouch of her daughter's wheelchair, making sure it was clearly visible.
In bold letters it warned, "Do Not Resuscitate."
The DNR order goes everywhere with Katie, including her 2nd-grade classroom at Laremont School in Gages Lake. The school is part of the Special Education District of Lake County, where an emotional two-year discussion ended this summer when officials agreed to honor such directives.
Now, district officials find themselves in the unusual position of having planned the steps its staff will, or won't, take to permit a child to die on school grounds. Although DNR orders are common in hospitals and nursing homes, such life-and-death drama rarely plays out in schools, where officials realize how sensitive and traumatic the situation could be for nurses, teachers and students.
Katie's brain was deprived of oxygen before birth. She can't walk, talk or do anything for herself. She is fed through a tube in her stomach and has an increased susceptibility to infection. Violent choking and coughing spasms have signaled a turn for the worse in her condition.
A Do Not Resuscitate order is a doctor's directive, issued with the consent of the family, that cardiopulmonary resuscitation will not be used if the patient suffers from heart or breathing problems. It can also prohibit using such devices as a defibrillator or an intubation tube. 
The new DNR policy puts Katie's school district at the forefront of a growing national debate about severely disabled and chronically ill children whose lives have been extended by medical advances -- and whose parents must face heart-wrenching decisions about the future.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
Because it is a silly waste of time to try to get people (especially kids) not to 'gawk' at someone as 'different' as this girl. The schools are supposed to be teaching reading, writing and arithmetic, not handling social engineering.
It’s certainly more useful socially than learning about tolerance for sexual preferences
Neither belong in the school curriculum.
DNR is basically a CYA to keep the shark lawyers at bay, as well as a guideline to health care workers to not take EXTRAORDINARY measures to resuscitate someone. What's wrong with NOT doing CPR on someone that is terminal? What did people do BEFORE CPR? Should EVERYONE have CPR done on them, or should a natural death be allowed? There's a difference between euthanasia (actively killing someone), and allowing someone to die naturally. Maybe this child doesn't belong in school. That way, when her time comes, she will be at home.
“I’m with you, I don’t understand why this child is in school, first off she can’t walk, talk, do anything for herself and her brain was deprived of oxygen at birth, what can she possibly be learning, secondly, if my child was this close to death I would not let her/him out of my sight, I’d want to spend every waking moment with my child.”
i cannot speak for this particular case but i do know that my mother volunteered at the public school in my old home town to work with brain injured kids - some apparently as bad off as this. The teachers try to (and you will forgive me if i am not using correct terminology) have the kids “remember” motor functions doing numerous exercises and other such things. I visited her there once and it is so heartwrenching. Now again i dont know about this particular case however sending a brain injured child to school is not unheard of.
i cannot speak for this particular case but i do know that my mother volunteered at the public school in my old home town to work with brain injured kids - some apparently as bad off as this. The teachers try to (and you will forgive me if i am not using correct terminology) have the kids “remember” motor functions doing numerous exercises and other such things. I visited her there once and it is so heartwrenching. Now again i dont know about this particular case however sending a brain injured child to school is not unheard of.
i cannot speak for this particular case but i do know that my mother volunteered at the public school in my old home town to work with brain injured kids - some apparently as bad off as this. The teachers try to (and you will forgive me if i am not using correct terminology) have the kids “remember” motor functions doing numerous exercises and other such things. I visited her there once and it is so heartwrenching. Now again i dont know about this particular case however sending a brain injured child to school is not unheard of.
Again, the issue here is whether I and others are allowed to make our own moral decision when confronted with a dying child.
Your position leads inevitably to the conclusion that I can be punished if I help an ailing child whom her mother wanted me to leave for dead.
You are the one arguing for the state to compel the moral decisions of others, not I.
I have found that my other two boys, as well as every other child that comes in contact with my oldest son, learn some of the best life lessons that one can learn. Don’t judge by outward appearance, realize that different isn’t bad, compassion for others is good, love one another as your Heavenly Father loves you.
Pam
I guess you never heard of charm school!
Based on the article it would appear this girl is not long for this world and that being the case I don’t think they should be sending her to school alone.
While I can appreciate that some here would not want the directive forced upon them, there are apparently those willing to work within the confines of the DNR.
You keep throwing out these insults to the parents...
Now it’s “Leave for dead”
How does that differ from “Allowing to die and pass into the arms of Jesus”?
“Do Not Resuscitate.”
Gee thanks Mom.
I don’t think this about the right to a free educaton. If she is so bad off can she learn is the only question in my mind. If she can’t learn and can’t mentally participate with her classmates, I don’t think the school should merely provide baby-sitting service for the family.
Probably in that allowing someone to die is ending a situation where they are not breathing, but a machine is breathing for them.
OK,
so what if someone has a disease (Huntingtons, ALS, MS) where the end result is not being able to breath without machine.
DNR means don’t put them on that machine in the first place... why prolonge suffering. CPR can break and crack ribs and then breathing HURTS Vents can be uncomfortable if not painful.... and with cracked ribs, excruiating.
There needs to be a point, not just ‘keep them alive so I feel good about myself....’ Because, well, you dont’ when you do that (Been there, done that).
“Learn” what?
As David Ring says, “What is normal? You think you’re normal?”
I homeschool my other two boys and I question what the kids in public school learn everyday.
My last post....
Pick t, u, r s, a, n, m...Apply where needed.
Same with .,! and :
Thank you.
Severe and Profound children do indeed learn, they just don't learn what others learn at the same age. She is probably learning how to feed herself, gait training, signaling for self-care, perhaps keyboard or communication board training.
Is she 'learning' enough to one day be a productive member of society so that she will contribute financially? No, probably not. But when we put 'value' even relative value on a person and how much they can give back, we start down the path of eugenics, assisted suicide, euthanasia, and other ways to create the perfect person. As a nation, to our shame, we already kill millions of innocent babies every year. I'd just like to not go any further
That is true, the “school” decided - but not all the staff and faculty. Surely there are some who would object, but majority rules.
This is a life-or-death question, and some people, no matter what the majority think, just don’t want to make that choice. Their morals say you must help no matter what, as life is more important.
The school order of honoring the DNR is still forcing some people against their own wills to honor what they find reprehensible.
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