By George Wilson
While working at Houston School as a vice principal in the late 90's, I was called down to the 3rd grade classroom via my walkie talkie for a medical emergency! I ran down to the room to find a third grade girl sitting in a chair by the sink, with her face covered in blood soaked Kleenex tissues. The teacher tells me that the student had a bloody nose on the playground and it would not stop bleeding. I take out a wad of Kleenex from my pocket and asked the student to replace the tissue she has on her nose with the clean ones I have in my hand. In the split second this exchange takes place, her nose does the "Old Faithful" routine just inside the comfort zone of Dr. Wilson! With a small emergency alarm going off in my head, I quickly radio down to the main office for the principal, Phyllis Almendarez, to contact the school nurse. A short time later, Phyllis radios me back and says that she has received some instructions from the nurse and will be coming down to the classroom ASAP! Within a minute she is in the classroom with a smile on her face and a note in her hand.The note reads as follows: Pinch above the nose, lean the student forward, place an ice pack on the back of the neck, place a TAMPON in on side of the nose that is bleeding (cut to fit), and contact parent. About the time I get to the part of the note that reads "cut to fit," Phyllis and I are bent over laughing both thinking about how to shove a tampon up a third grader's nose. Luckily, Phyllis had not had the time to stop in the girl's bathroom and so we were left to just use the tissue. Later I was thinking, "Oh great, what if Phyllis HAD stopped in the bathroom, I would have had to shove a tampon up a third grader's nose!" I think I would have had a better chance of getting a ripe watermelon through an eye of a needle.
Thankfully, the injury report reads: Bleeding stopped, student sent home with parent, returned to school the next day in good condition. The report on Dr. Wilson and Dr. Almendarez is still pending!
