Can You See Me Mayor Bloomberg?

Posted by A Voice in the Wilderness

July 17, 2008

A few months ago, our high school received a letter from the infamous New York City Department of Education which stated that there were no records of vision screening for 2,000 of our students. Naturally, our Mayoral Controlled DOE did not offer any reasons for the absence of records; they merely informed us that we had to test all 2,000 children within a two week time frame.

We usually don’t deal with vision screening on the high school level, as it is assumed that such has been taken care of in the earlier years. Apparently though, Mayor Mike Bloomberg decided that such tests were not important and instructed elementary and middle schools to stop conducting such trivial exams. As a result, we found ourselves forced to screen a huge amount of children with little or no resources.

We quickly put together a “team” of people who had time in their schedules to conduct vision screenings. We don’t have a registered nurse on staff – another needless expense in Mayor Mike’s eyes. Luckily, one of the secretaries on our team had previously worked for the Department of Health and knew all about vision screening.

Thanks to her, we had a half hour training in Snellen Charts and Occluders. We were then ready to screen the children.

It truly was an enlightening experience in many ways. It was amazing to see how genuinely grateful and humble our students were to be receiving simple testing that many of us take for granted. “Can I see?” Excited teenagers would ask us after being screened. “Did I pass?” They would ask us upon leaving.

On the other hand, it was truly frightening to learn of how many of our students could not see. After a few days of conducting the screenings, it became unusual to find children who actually possessed 20/20 vision. Most of the children – perhaps 65%- had moderate to severe vision problems.

As we watched them struggle to read the charts, we would say, “What do you do in your classes?” To which they would reply, “I sit in the front,” or “I squint.”

Needless to say, we learned a great deal about our students through this process. We managed to get all 2,000 students tested for vision problems, and provide those who needed it with referrals for discounted and free eyeglasses. We also managed to fill out the obligatory reports to the DOE and thereby save their collective butts from some impending audit. We also began the dialogue of linking low student performance to health problems which could have been avoided, had Mayor Mike not banned such earlier testing.

Thank God for Mayoral Control!