Thank you for your concern. Thank you for your support. Always remember the ranting of Jen is not necessarily coherent, but the passionate underlying remains true to fact and form. I was a little shaken up by the events in the cottage this week, obviously. I needed a little bit of time to process this, obviously. Here is where I stand.

1. There is a crisis staff on duty overnights, 24 hours a day every day. I did not have the phone nearby to call. I did not choose to call upon seeing the girl out of her room, (no one would have…) HOWEVER NOW I will do so immediately the next time I see anyone up and not following my first directive, and so will every other staff on this campus. (I was not expecting to be jumped, it has never been necessary to carry a phone at all times.) PLUS it is my negligence for having personal keys not locked up in the safe. Again, all staff will now make sure that everything is locked up.

Whenever there is a report of any type of a problem, this crisis staff is stationed to be in the cottage with me overnight. However, there are five cottages. We also have a supervisor on-call to come to campus at any time. After crisis staff arrived, I also had the on-call supervisor, my direct supervisor, the assistant director as well as the director in my cottage dealing with this situation. NOT to mention the school principal came directly into the cottage when arriving and hearing about the situation. And, the police were there in about 2 minutes.

2. I filed an agency incident report. The police filed a report. I filed an employee injury report. I went over to the school nurses office to get the report and was examined by them, and given ibuprofen. Documentation is well covered. I over document everything, always had always will…the legal nature of the beast known as Jen coupled with excessive verbosity…my supervisors LOVE me! I have no visible bruises, or bumps…just aches and pains.

ALSO *my agency* provides free medical care at their “Healthworks” location for anyone who needs it. I could have went to the doctor and left campus immediately at 5:30 if I needed to. I could have left campus at 7, 8, 9…I did not have to stay until 2 that day. I chose to, and I explained to everyone why I felt that was necessary. I have never been one to not state my opinion that I need to leave…again, trust me on this decision, I know it does not make sense to you but it makes a HUGE difference in the eyes of the residents.HUGE. If I felt like I was seriously injured in ANY way, or mentally unable to deal with the situation I would have been out of there in a second, with the support of *my agency.*

3. In addition to agency policy, child care counselors are protected by a union contract as well, which states that we are required to be in a safe working environment at all times. There are procedures to be followed, special conferences to be called etc…and this process is occurring at this time. The resident who jumped me is in isolation at this time, away from all the other residents in a separate building. The other two girls who were directly involved are in the cottage on lock down. Lock down requires 1:1 staff for each resident. Yesterday morning there were 4 staff in this cottage.

4. Legally in NYS- I can only charge the resident with harassment, not assault. She is in violation of her probation, and petitions have been filed. HOWEVER THE CURRENT SYSTEM is bullshit…and she’s likely to get a slap on the wrist from the judge. We have had residents that have been repeatedly violent in our care…much, much worse and it takes weeks to get them removed. Even if the resident had harmed me physically, she would have been taken to lockup for about, oh one minute and returned back to our care. The system is overloaded, and SEVERELY underfunded.