Nursing the wounds

OPINION > LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Add Comment | Comments: 0 | Posted Dec. 29, 2011

To the Editor:

I was extremely concerned to learn that more than 140 School District of Philadelphia employees, including 47 school nurses, are being laid off. These layoffs, combined with other cuts earlier this year, have resulted in the number of school nurses in the Philadelphia School District being reduced by more than a third. District officials are on record stating that where they are aware of schools with “medically fragile” students, they will have nurses on duty five days a week.

These assurances ring hollow to me. More than 37,000 children in Philadelphia suffer from pediatric asthma. Children with pediatric asthma are not able to schedule their attacks on days when a nurse is in their school. In many instances, children aren’t even diagnosed with it until they experience their first attack. I urge the Philadelphia School District to reconsider their decision and find a way to address their budget shortfall without jeopardizing the lives of our children.

Deb Brown
President and CEO,
American Lung Association
of the Mid-Atlantic