OTB
02-06-2009, 09:13 PM
Some of you know what kind of work I do; I'm a culinary instructor at a private school for kids with emotional disturbances. It is a level 5 school, which means we have, within state and federal guidelines, the ability to hold, restrain or otherwise prevent these kids from harming others or themselves. This can take the form of anything from simple arm/shoulder standing restraints, to judo-type takedowns and prolonged multi-team member prone restraints.
A little background.
Our population comes from a broad geographic and socio-economic cross-section of the Baltimore area, but most of the kids are inner city based. Most do not live with either of the birth parents; some live with relatives but most are either wards of the state in group homes or are in temporary foster care. All have been booted out of the standard school system for agressive and/or violent behavior, usually for constant and repeated peer assaults, but some for assaults on school staff also.
Some of the kids have organic-based psychiatic issues like fetal-alcohol syndrome or toxic lead poisoning (which is astoundingly prevalent in a majority of the inner-city population of agressive kids even in this day and age) and or suffer from the effects of prolonged sexual and/or physical abuse (which is another reason they are no longer in the family home) but many are also just truculant misbehavers who have never been shown rules, boundaries and limitations with forceful consequences for straying from the aformentioned limits. We service primarily high-school age with a smaller middle-school population.
Assaults on peers are a daily occurance, assaults on staff slightly less so but still common. Teaching is performed secondarily to behavior control. All doors in the building are locked at all times with passkeys or electronic cardreaders required to go from area to area, including bathrooms. Security cameras are located aout every 50 feet. Our staff to student ratio is about 2-3 to 1 (our population varies from 50-90 students with 30-40 staff, depending on injuries and turnover).
This past year I have been assaulted 5 or so times; twice punched, stabbed once and bitten twice (the last time I was on AZT and "the Cocktail" prophylaxisis for twelve weeks because the parent wouldn't allow the child be tested for Aids and Hep; so I managed to lose 20 lbs the hard way).
I've done this work for a couple of years and as a rule, I don't as a habit talk about this much, either on the boards or with folks face-to-face, as most don't understand why I'm doing this. Suffice it to say I went into this with my eyes open and it can be a frustrating yet rewarding job.
Things have now changed. I have a new boss, who is more of a functionary worried about how things will look to the upper-level Administration than about keeping staff safe first and to hell with next year's performance review, so he really is a cover-my-ass-first kind of guy and he's already thrown a couple of staff to the wolves (imagine the kind of state and county oversight we get DAILY with everybody playing Monday-morning quarterback!).
I think it's time for me to find something else. yesterday a little darling tried to skewer me with her pen because I got in the way of her trying to mangle another student. My boss was also involved in the incident and the kid picked up a desk and tried to bean him with it. Rather than using one of the "approved" holds, I used the more exigent method of a hip throw and a body smash to stop the assault; my moronic boss wrote me up for saving his lousy hide in a non-approved fashion; so I'm now being investigated by DCS for alleged child abuse.
I'm getting too old for this crap....I can handle the kids, I can't handle suck-up weenies who sell your ass down the river when you save theirs.....
So: anybody know of any businesses in the Balt-DC area that need a classically trained chef with 35 + years of experience in food production, food and beverage management, corporate standards management and development, P&L management, as well as H&R POS systems development (and I'm a talented and skilled furniture repair tech and a pretty decent shot with small arms).
A little background.
Our population comes from a broad geographic and socio-economic cross-section of the Baltimore area, but most of the kids are inner city based. Most do not live with either of the birth parents; some live with relatives but most are either wards of the state in group homes or are in temporary foster care. All have been booted out of the standard school system for agressive and/or violent behavior, usually for constant and repeated peer assaults, but some for assaults on school staff also.
Some of the kids have organic-based psychiatic issues like fetal-alcohol syndrome or toxic lead poisoning (which is astoundingly prevalent in a majority of the inner-city population of agressive kids even in this day and age) and or suffer from the effects of prolonged sexual and/or physical abuse (which is another reason they are no longer in the family home) but many are also just truculant misbehavers who have never been shown rules, boundaries and limitations with forceful consequences for straying from the aformentioned limits. We service primarily high-school age with a smaller middle-school population.
Assaults on peers are a daily occurance, assaults on staff slightly less so but still common. Teaching is performed secondarily to behavior control. All doors in the building are locked at all times with passkeys or electronic cardreaders required to go from area to area, including bathrooms. Security cameras are located aout every 50 feet. Our staff to student ratio is about 2-3 to 1 (our population varies from 50-90 students with 30-40 staff, depending on injuries and turnover).
This past year I have been assaulted 5 or so times; twice punched, stabbed once and bitten twice (the last time I was on AZT and "the Cocktail" prophylaxisis for twelve weeks because the parent wouldn't allow the child be tested for Aids and Hep; so I managed to lose 20 lbs the hard way).
I've done this work for a couple of years and as a rule, I don't as a habit talk about this much, either on the boards or with folks face-to-face, as most don't understand why I'm doing this. Suffice it to say I went into this with my eyes open and it can be a frustrating yet rewarding job.
Things have now changed. I have a new boss, who is more of a functionary worried about how things will look to the upper-level Administration than about keeping staff safe first and to hell with next year's performance review, so he really is a cover-my-ass-first kind of guy and he's already thrown a couple of staff to the wolves (imagine the kind of state and county oversight we get DAILY with everybody playing Monday-morning quarterback!).
I think it's time for me to find something else. yesterday a little darling tried to skewer me with her pen because I got in the way of her trying to mangle another student. My boss was also involved in the incident and the kid picked up a desk and tried to bean him with it. Rather than using one of the "approved" holds, I used the more exigent method of a hip throw and a body smash to stop the assault; my moronic boss wrote me up for saving his lousy hide in a non-approved fashion; so I'm now being investigated by DCS for alleged child abuse.
I'm getting too old for this crap....I can handle the kids, I can't handle suck-up weenies who sell your ass down the river when you save theirs.....
So: anybody know of any businesses in the Balt-DC area that need a classically trained chef with 35 + years of experience in food production, food and beverage management, corporate standards management and development, P&L management, as well as H&R POS systems development (and I'm a talented and skilled furniture repair tech and a pretty decent shot with small arms).