10/29/09
A Chimayó man greeted his 6-year-old daughter as she got off the school bus Oct. 6 like any other day. That is until he noticed splotches of coagulated blood in her hair and on her shirt.
“It was a shock,” John Chavez said. “Her hair was a sticky mess. The blood that didn’t stick to her hair ended up on her shirt.”
Four hours earlier, Chavez’ daughter had hit her head while climbing up a ladder on Chimayó Elementary’s jungle gym known as “Big Red,” Chavez said. She went to District Head Nurse Karen Martinez’ office, and Martinez sent her back to class, Chavez said.
Principal Wilfredo Aguilar later wrote Chavez a letter stating Martinez found “no evidence of any injury” during her examination of Chavez’ daughter, Chavez said.
“How do you miss that much blood?” Chavez said.
Swelling from the injury is still, weeks later, the size of half an egg, and Chavez said he is afraid of any long-term consequences that might result from the lack of immediate treatment.
“What makes me most upset is we have five emergency numbers listed with the school,” Chavez said. “They could have called me, my wife, the house, the grandpa and the grandma. But they didn’t call.”
Aguilar confirmed mishandling the situation.
“Regretfully there was miscommunication with my request for the nurse to call (her) mom,” Aguilar wrote to Chavez. “I agree you should’ve been the first to receive notice of any injury to your child and every effort will be made by my administration of our school to ensure the practice of calling parents is upheld at every juncture.”
Superintendent Janette Archuleta echoed those sentiments.
“The nurse followed standard care procedures regarding the examination and documenting visits to the nurse,” she said. “I can say we will do a better job of contacting the parent (in cases like this).”
Chavez questioned Archuleta’s first claim, saying the nurse recorded the injury Oct. 7, rather than Oct. 6 when Chavez said it actually occurred.
Martinez, who works at several school sites on a rotating basis, did not return calls seeking comment.
Despite the administration’s apologies, Chavez brought his case, and his daughter’s blood-stained shirt, to the School Board at its Oct. 21 meeting to get some answers about what members would do to prevent a similar communication breakdown from impacting other families.
“How can this go unnoticed?” Chavez said, holding up the stained shirt. “A teacher and a nurse failed to notice (the injury) or to contact us parents.”
Board President Leonard Valerio broke a long silence after Chavez’ impassioned plea, informing Chavez he had one minute remaining in the five minutes the Board allows for each public presentation.
Chavez again demanded of the Board why no one in the school bothered to contact the family. He also asked the Board what it would do to ensure this oversight would not happen again, and how it would ensure the staff at Chimayó Elementary would not retaliate against his child for Chavez coming forward.
Valerio promptly announced a recess, during which the high school mariachi band entered the auditorium to sing happy birthday to Alcalde Elementary and Española Military Magnet School Principal Leroy Martinez.
Despite the jarring shift, all Board members except Floyd Archuleta approached Chavez during the recess to say they would do their best to ensure this miscommunication would not happen again, Chavez said.
The District has made multiple playground upgrades over the past four years at the recommendation of its insurance company, Poms and Associates, but none of those have included modifications to jungle gyms, Facilities Manager Paul Salas said.
Instead, the District has removed some tetherball equipment and replaced the sand at a number of school sites, Salas said.
The District has replaced the sand, which could harden under certain circumstances, with a mulch-like material that requires no maintenance, he said.
“We have not had as many broken bones since we went to the mulch,” Salas said.