And I should say that I have nothing against nurses. My wife is entering nursing school soon. The compassion and sensitivity that nurses have is unparelled. Several of my friends are nurses and yes, they are intelligent.

That being said, I am a teacher for students with special needs (residential facility). We've only had one fire alarm since I've been there, but we've had two or three severe weather warnings. While I am there, I am responsible for the safety of my students. During the recent fire alarm, the paraeducator (who was a sub at the school) and the classroom teacher and I decided that after we were out of the building, we should take the students (several in wheelchairs and walkers) across a side street into a parking lot, to get safely away from the building. When the person came around with the checklist to account for all of the students, she scolded us for taking them across a street because "this is a volunteer fire department and sometimes they come flying down this street". Strangely enough, we could see clearly down both ways of the street for a long distance and the trucks didn't came that way anyhow. She then informed us that our "area to gather" was on a grassy knoll (her words) that was much closer to the building, not a safe distance IMHO, and very hard to negotiate quickly with students using walkers and wheelchairs. Another paraeducator who joined us commented "that's easier for her to do her checks, that's all". The person with the clipboard then stated that our "area to gather" is posted in my classroom. We are in a temporary location this year due to remodeling, and I have to admit that I never looked for this posting. The door to the outside is connected to my classroom on the groundfloor and the shelter area for severe weather is out the other door to my classroom. I guess I had already thought about where I would take the students. As it turns out, this posting of where to go for emergencies was not there. Put in the same situation again, the other teacher, the paras and I all agreed that we would do the same thing again.

I know that the nurse I encountered was doing her job. I know she's got a responsibility to take care of the people under her roof. But I had been in that hallway just a couple of minutes before, and saw nothing to indicate any fire that I could make worse by opening the doors (on electro-magnets, but come to think of it, they were wooden, so not fire doors per se). I didn't feel compelled to explain my reasoning in great detail to her at that time; my priority was to get to my family. And to quote Kevin Costner from "Robin Hood", "One man fighting for his home is stronger than ten hired men". Protecting one's family, I feel, is more motivating than protecting people who are entrusted to you. No one in that hospital is going to care more about my family than me. Here again, I may be close to stepping on toes. 9-11 showed this country the courage, dedication and selflessness of police and rescue workers. As hard as I would fight to protect my students, I have to believe that I would work even harder to protect my own family.

Maybe that nurse was doing her job and not on a power trip (the clipboard lady at my school IS on a power trip, demonstrated almost daily). In the end, I would do the same thing again, with no apologies.