[monster]

The background:
Our swim club runs lessons for toddlers in a theraputic (= warm, zero depth entry) pool at an elementary school. They have the pool because they have a program for kids with physical special needs, and they are required to make it available to us to offer lessons to the community. Classes are either on Mon/Weds or Tues/Thurs. They should have started last Monday, but the health dept closed the pool because the levels were bad (that's the school's responsibility). So they started Tues. On Weds, a kid at school pooped in the pool, so it had to be shocked and was unavaialble for Weds night. Thurs was fine. Friday too (we run two baby/parent classes then). Monday was MLK day -on the calendar as a no swim day. Tues was fine. Tonight (Weds) a kid in our early class barfed in the pool. so we had to cancel the late class (no-nos are poop, barf and blood). We sent an email out immediately we heard....

Pool closed for late class tonight because of throw up in pool. Sorry for inconvenience.

(I didn't write it, but I think it makes it pretty clear what happened)

and we got this from a parent

I am getting upset at these cancellation after cancellation. My kid looks forward to swimming.
This is America please work very hard to keep to the original schedule, now I have to adjust my schedule each time.
I am getting out right sick of this.


Milon

What exactly the fuck do they expect us to do? duct tape all mouths and buttholes before kids enter the pool? Including the kids in school during the day? WTF does America have to do with it? (I'm not the prez -who is American through and through- she deals with the emails. Although we share the pain.)


this was my suggested reply:

Milon,

We are as upset as you are. All swimmers and coaches are excited to attend. Furthermore, it's not very pleasant for us to receive emails like this when we are unpaid volunteers doing the best we can with situations beyond our control, so please let us assure you we would avoid this if we could. All we can say to futher protest our innocence is that It was not any of the board's children who threw up in the pool tonight.

Unfortunately we cannot schedule when swimmers will have bodily function accidents in the pool, and -as this is America- American Health regulations dictate that we cannot allow swimmers in a pool containing feces, vomit or blood. Did you really want your swimmer in that pool tonight? With the vomit?

We would be interested to hear how this adversely affects your schedule so we can take that into account when we decide what to do regarding make-up classes/credits. Parents are required to stay during class, so it's hard to understand the problem. Did you need to cancel a babysitter you have hired for other children? Or are you concerned about potentially being unavailable for make-up classes?

thank you for your consideration and insight into this matter

go for it.....