A Plea for Help From Friends of a Teacher With a Devastating Diagnosis

UPDATE: THANKS TO THOSE WHO RESPONDED.
DONATION OPPORTUNITY IS BEING SET UP WITH A BANK OVER NEXT FEW DAYS. I WILL POST THE FUND AND ADDRESS IN THIS POST AND ON SIDEBAR WHEN INFO AVAILABLE.

IN THE MEANTIME EMAIL SARA: nutmeg74@msn.com.

Hello everyone,
 
The last few weeks at PS 15 have been a whirlwind as we found out our dear friend, colleague and physical therapist, Katie McGloin, mother of two young children, has been diagnosed with brain cancer.  All of our thoughts and highest hopes are with Katie and her family right now.  She has a long road ahead of her, but with the support of her amazing family, the PS 15 community, and our extended communities across the city, we know she can fight this.
 
I hope no one minds me bringing this issue to our listserves; I know everyone has their own struggles, but we want to support Katie as much as possible and given the attacks on teachers today, I thought it proper to bring this issue into the consciousness of folks outside of our community.  None of us knew the DOE policy on sick day donation, and we were shocked to find out that you have to have 50 days banked in order to give at all.  In addition, you have to give two days in order for Katie to get one. The PS 15 community is majority female and the vast majority are caretakers, so having more than 50 days banked is not our reality.  Plus, you would have had to work for five years and never take a sick day to even have 50 days at all.  This horrific policy highlights one of the many ways in which teachers and teacher union members are NOT raking in the cash and benefits on the backs of taxpayers as the national discourse would have folks believe, and quite to the contrary, the treatment of woman in the workplace is still far from where it needs to be.  Educator rights in terms of maternity leave and sick leave fall way behind what the humane expectation should be.
This is just shameful.
 
If you are a DOE employee and are able to donate sick days to Katie, please see your school secretary (just tell them you want to donate days to Katie McGloin from PS 15K, if there are any problems you can contact your UFT rep.  The UFT has done an AMAZING job supporting Katie and her family and I want to thank Leo Casey who went above and beyond to get speedy assistance for her).   
 
In addition, we are having a fundraiser for Katie in Red Hook that our occupational therapist, Sara Folland, put together.  The information can be found on Facebook here:  http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/event.php?eid=187410017976534.  If you are unable to attend this fundraiser, but wish to help, please contact Sara at:  nutmeg74@msn.com.  You can of course feel free to contact me as well.  Please share this information with anyone who cares!
 
I thank anyone in advance who can help!
 
 
All the best,

Julie Cavanagh