Several Profile editions ago, the 1999 one to be exact, I highlighted the way School District 241 was compassionately providing the proper care for the dozen or so diabetic students in the local system.

Friday, February 23, 2001

Several Profile editions ago, the 1999 one to be exact, I highlighted the way School District 241 was compassionately providing the proper care for the dozen or so diabetic students in the local system.

It was my sincere intention to compliment the two school nurses, the administration, staff and teachers, plus the fellow students for their fine cooperation in helping the Type I (insulin-dependent) diabetics cope with their complex challenges in life.

Now I’d like to do some updating, and also explain why I decided to revive this topic.

An article in the February 2001 issue of the &uot;Diabetes Forecast&uot; magazine, published by the American Diabetes Association (ADA), is based on problems some parents with diabetic grade school children are having with school administrators. The article said,&uot; According to ADA National Director of Legal Advocacy, Shereen Arent, the Association is hearing of an alarming amount of discrimination in schools. For this reason, the association has stepped up its commitment to champion kids with diabetes.&uot;

Out in Seattle, Wash., several diabetic children were forced out of their neighborhood grade school and sent to a more distant school where there was a full time nurse on duty. In reality, all these younger children needed was daily monitoring of their glucose (blood sugar) levels, a fairly simple procedure. In

other Seattle schools without nurses on duty, the teachers and staff are trained to help diabetic students with &uot;finger sticks.&uot; After a lawsuit was filed, the Seattle school district resolved this problem.

Last September in St. Paul a diabetic girl, age 6, was forced to attend another school an hour away from her home. The ADA backed her parents and this resulted in the city’s superintendent making some changes in policies. This child is now attending a grade school near her home. Also, the ADA is advocating a firm statewide standard through legislative action for diabetic students in all the school systems.

I could cite still another example of

discrimination against diabetic students in Florida; we’ll pass on the chance to give this state more publicity.

Thankfully, we don’t have these problems in the Albert Lea Area Schools.

For this a lot of the credit can be given to the two school nurses, Carol Bosma and Ann Cavanaugh. They work closely with the parents of the students diagnosed as diabetics, plus the staff and teachers in the schools they attend to make sure the proper care is given.

Just how many diabetic students are in the Albert Lea schools? That question can be answered in two ways. The ADA says one in every 400 school students are Type I diabetics. Carol says there are about 4,000 students in the local system, and of this number 13 are diabetics. That’s one more than the number mentioned in the 1999 Profile Edition article.

Supplies used for the testing of and by diabetic students in the Albert Lea school system, such as the monitors, lancing devices, lancet needles and strips, have been furnished through the years by two organizations.

Starting in the early 1980s, the local Masonic organization furnished these supplies. This ended in May 1997. Since then, these supplies have been furnished by Leo Carey Post 56 of the American Legion.

&uot;We appreciate this so much because it really helps the students and their families,&uot; is what Bosma told me back in 1999. She estimates that these supplies used in School District 241 still cost about $1,000 a year.

According to several publications issued by the American Diabetes Association, the present system used by School District 241 fully meets the recommended guidelines set up for diabetic students by this national organization.

How was this last part determined? As a member of the ADA, I had access to obtain those guidelines and make my own determination. Also, as a Type II (non-insulin dependent) diabetic, I can rely on personal experience and knowledge to say that School District 241 is doing a superb job with this particular group of students.

Feature writer Ed Shannon’s column appears Fridays in the Tribune.