Teachers: Don't Keep Your Student's Glasses at School

OK prepare for rant. I've been meaning to blog about this for some time now but haven't got around to it. But I just had another two of these cases this week and I'm a little riled up so now is the time. Apparently some teachers are very annoyed by students who lose their glasses and leave them at home, obviously making school work a problem. So annoyed, in fact, they have the brilliant idea that in order to make their lives more convenient and presumably help the student with their school time performance they decide it's best if the teacher keeps the glasses at school! That way when the student shows up, the teacher has kept the glasses safe overnight or over the weekend (or over the SUMMER EVEN) and the student can perform in the classroom! What a nice idea. This obviously occurs almost exclusively in low in come areas with low income schools and students. Let me tell you what I think of this idea: it's absolutely terrible, and even selfish. These teachers may think they're helping the student but they are not. YES I UNDERSTAND the reasoning: the patient has one pair a year paid for by Medicaid or whatever insurance plan, and without them they can't see in the classroom, and the parents are unable to spring for another pair if/when they're lost/broken. I get it. But some of these kids literally can't see w/o their glasses. Earlier this week I saw a kid with 5 diopters of astigmatism, teacher has his glasses at school. In fact she took them up from him to "keep them safe" before he left school early for his EYE EXAM APPOINTMENT. Just now I saw a 10 year old with -8.00 glasses. Teach: this kid can't see anything past about 4 inches and you kept her glasses at school. Why? So she can pass the TAKS test or whatever next week? How do you expect her to walk to school? Watch TV? Heck make it from her bedroom to the bathroom? It occurs to me that you might not understand just how poor this patient's vision is...? Please stop keeping the glasses at school, no matter what your reasoning is. If you see a kid with glasses on, assume they need them all the time, not just from 8am to 3:30pm weekdays.