For Low-Wage School Workers, Lessons in Survival
January 28, 2018
By: Debbie Truong
Source: The Washington Post
The list of the boy’s allergies was lengthy: peanuts, tree nuts, seafood, sesame, melons, chickpeas, kiwi fruit, most seeds.
So when the 9-year-old at Lovettsville Elementary School in Northern Virginia was stung by a wasp and began complaining of a funny feeling in his mouth, Karen McCall knew what to do. The school health clinic specialist administered epinephrine, a medication used in response to allergic reactions.
The boy’s mother, Anastasia Kim, said that had it not been for McCall, “I could have a dead child on my hands, quite honestly.”
McCall’s annual pay after accounting for health insurance deductions? About $28,000. And not nearly enough, in her estimation, for the responsibilities that she and others in her position must shoulder.
Concerns about teacher pay are nothing new. But there’s an emerging battlefront over schoolhouse salaries, and it involves compensation for the employees who play supporting roles in schools…