May i pls get an article on the topic " dealing with diabetes among school children" in about 120 words.
Answers
THE sixth-grade class attended by Catherine Agonis was going on a trip for five days to a nature center in northern Connecticut. Catherine's mother asked teachers if an adult, who knew how to take action if her diabetic daughter's blood sugar dropped, could accompany Catherine. The teachers said no and that Catherine should stay home. Except for teachers, the trip was to include only children, they explained.
Jill Agonis, Catherine's mother, appealed to school administrators in Greenwich. They allowed Catherine's stepfather to accompany her. He was able to give her a routine blood check at 2 A.M. to make sure that she had not passed out or gone into a diabetic coma. To avoid interfering with the teachers' planned activities, he kept his distance from the class. Catherine and her stepfather slept in a cabin separate from the rest of the group.
Catherine is one of thousands of children around the state with juvenile diabetes, a disease that is estimated to strike one in 500 children across the country. Although estimates vary on the number of children with diabetes across the state, advocates of children with diabetes and medical centers say that the number of children with the disease seems to be on the rise and advances in technology are permitting children to better manage the illness. But they say also rising is the number of reports, like Catherine's, of problems with the way schools handle diabetic children's needs.
Although she is 12 years old, Catherine Agonis has joined the effort as well, serving as a a one-person advocate by writing letters to solicit money for research, donating her abstract paintings for fund-raisers and giving speeches around the state about the illness. She was one of 100 children from around the country with juvenile diabetes who went to Washington this summer to help raise awareness about the disease in Congress and to lobby for more funds for research.
At a meeting with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, the children cited examples of discrimination against them in their schools based on their illness. Catherine said she also talked to U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat, about the issue.
''Why can't the school just help?'' she said.