Autism Teacher

[Unregistered]

I have a new student in my Severe Autistic class gr. 4 coming from a hospital/school/home environment. One of my assistants has Hepatitis C. The new student has but her 4 times and broke the skin. I have notified the nurse, principal, psychologist and assistant supervisor. I was not sure how to go about telling the mother so I asked the principal. My principal held a staffing and still did not address it! Three weeks have gone by and the student is biting others as well. I am worried for the health/safety of all involved AND confidentiality. Is it my place to inform her mother? I thought becuase of the serious nature that the principal should do it, but I guess I was wrong. The administration is acting like they don't want to notify the mother. When I ask them about it they skirt the issue and will not give me an answer. I sense a huge liability. Anyone familiar with this type of situation??

[Unregistered]

To the best of my knowledge, the parent/guardian must be informed that the child may have been exposed to Hep. C and for the parent/guardian should take precautions. (get the child examined etc.) As for Admin not replying to your concerns, I'd keep bothering them. Write notes, send e-mails or getting some time when they're not too busy, get them to sit down with you and talk it over with them. If this doesn't work, I'd contact the actual supervisor. (you said you only talked to the assistant supervisor). Otherwise, contact your union (I assume you have one.) then state your concern of a lack of responce.

AS for the biting, I'd inform the assistant first to learn to aviod that type of situation, or some basic self defence. If necessary, I'm sure they're within their right to hold the child to prevent injury.
Thankfully I worked with a high functioning autistic child and they could understand what was expected behaviourly.
Find out why the child is actually biting. Are they frustrated or upset? Find out what bugs the kid and try to avoid that. Anyways, if you could give a bit more info on the situation, I'd be happy to listen and give some ideas.