Yes. My first eyetest at highschool I couldn't read the bottom three lines. I queried this being 'normal' and was told it was nothing to worry about.
Me being me, went home, told my mum, had an optician's appointment within days and a pair of glasses within a week. My eyesight was marginal, but marginal in a way that as a deaf lipreader the optician reckoned they were worth it. If we had decided against glasses at that time, she'd have had me on 6 monthly (as opposed to my already yearly) checkups and I'd probably have definitely needed them 6 months later.
My mum wrote an official complaint to the head teacher who was vile and claimed it was not her problem and she wasn't having anything to do with it. That pissed my mum off, so she contacted the LEA and found out who the 'nurse' worked for so she could write a formal complaint.
The crux of our complaint was that there was no way my eye test results should have gone unotified to my parents in a letter.
If the nurse knew I was deaf then she should know it is extra important for deaf people to have optimal vision where possible.
If the nurse did not know I was deaf, then why not - she had my school notes in front of her which said DEAF SPAK in big letters across it.
We got an apology and an acknowledgement that they'd screwed up. They said they'd clarify the policy and ensure that parents received notification even in marginal cases like mine as well as being extra careful to ensure other 'medical' issues were known about when doing testing. My mum also got an apology from the school governors for the obnoxiousness of the head teacher who while not directly responsible, should have referred us to the LEA and not been obnoxious to us.
I was lucky my mum didn't trust school screening for anything. As a spakchild I was medically checked out yearly by incompetent school designated GPs. My mum also had me checked by our own GP so that anything amiss could be compared to MY normal and we could point out how shit the screening for things was.
It is wrong that our generation and younger are still unable to see properly at school ffs.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2007-10-24 06:19 pm (UTC)Me being me, went home, told my mum, had an optician's appointment within days and a pair of glasses within a week. My eyesight was marginal, but marginal in a way that as a deaf lipreader the optician reckoned they were worth it. If we had decided against glasses at that time, she'd have had me on 6 monthly (as opposed to my already yearly) checkups and I'd probably have definitely needed them 6 months later.
My mum wrote an official complaint to the head teacher who was vile and claimed it was not her problem and she wasn't having anything to do with it. That pissed my mum off, so she contacted the LEA and found out who the 'nurse' worked for so she could write a formal complaint.
The crux of our complaint was that there was no way my eye test results should have gone unotified to my parents in a letter.
If the nurse knew I was deaf then she should know it is extra important for deaf people to have optimal vision where possible.
If the nurse did not know I was deaf, then why not - she had my school notes in front of her which said DEAF SPAK in big letters across it.
We got an apology and an acknowledgement that they'd screwed up. They said they'd clarify the policy and ensure that parents received notification even in marginal cases like mine as well as being extra careful to ensure other 'medical' issues were known about when doing testing. My mum also got an apology from the school governors for the obnoxiousness of the head teacher who while not directly responsible, should have referred us to the LEA and not been obnoxious to us.
I was lucky my mum didn't trust school screening for anything. As a spakchild I was medically checked out yearly by incompetent school designated GPs. My mum also had me checked by our own GP so that anything amiss could be compared to MY normal and we could point out how shit the screening for things was.
It is wrong that our generation and younger are still unable to see properly at school ffs.