Wandering Off
We took a large group of 4 and 5-year-old children to visit a farm/petting zoo/pumpkin patch. We had three vehicles. I was in charge of my own group, but I noticed one of the other teachers was being very lax in her supervision for most of the trip.
When it was time to leave, I loaded my children on the bus along with some other adults and did a head-count/attendance check. Before getting on my bus, I noticed that the other teacher had climbed onto her bus and sat down BEFORE the children boarded. She walked on first and had the kids follow her.
I almost let it go, but gut instinct told me she wasn’t counting her students. Once they were all boarded, I walked back and climbed on her bus. She seemed irritated when she realized I was checking on her.
I was not a supervisor or anything, just a fellow teacher, so she didn’t answer to me in any way. She said, “We’re all good. Let’s go”! I knew how many were in each group, so without answering her, I did a quick count. Sure enough, we were missing one. I ended up leaving the bus and going to find the kid myself.
He was still on the playground with children from another school. When we got back to the bus, the other teacher blamed the kid! She said he “wandered off”. Meanwhile, she was the one who gathered the group and left the play area.
She was the one who “wandered off”. She got mad when I went to the administration about the incident.