From Our "Too Much Time on their Hands" Department Part 2......

Below is the text of another email from above we received at school last week. The reason I had so much trouble finding it last night was that it was in my DELETED files. Now why on earth would I delete something so important?

Workers comp issues:

Our workers' comp. consultant has noted that staff wearing flip-flops is a safety hazard. At the principals' meeting, we concluded that a shoe is a flip-flop if it bends... So, bendable flip-flops are not allowed (for staff only). Thong-style shoes that don't bend are not flip-flops... Open-toed shoes are okay.

Also, we have been asked to remind staff that anyone making a workers’ comp. claim for a fall must pass a drug test within 24 hours of the fall. Insert your own comments on that one.

Wouldn't you just love to be in that meeting of principals as they debated just what constitutes a flip-flop?

This reminds me of a school where I taught. The dress code said students could not wear "rubber flip-flops." When I sent a girl to the office one day for shoes that were clearly flip-flops, she and her mother took them to the school board meeting, where it was determined that they were not indeed made of rubber, but of foam.

The school board later voted to change the wording. The new policy said that students could not wear THRONGED flip-flops. I told my students (because I knew I was leaving the next year) that they could interpret that to mean they could wear flip-flops all they wanted, just not in large numbers.

Back to the current shoe issue. I just cannot understand why these folks have nothing better to do with their time. It makes me wonder if a workers' comp claim has been filed because a staff member had on flip-flops and fell. Hell, I can fall off a floor wearing sneakers. I once fell off a horse that WAS NOT MOVING. I don't see why my own clumsiness has to dictate the footwear of everyone else in the county.

My first reaction to the email was to say, "Wait....don't all shoes bend?"

I stand corrected. I think our new uniform shoe will be this:

Those suckers surely won't bend.

Or how about these?


Or maybe these?


Those suckers are guaranteed not to bend.

And another thing.....

Just who is going to be the checker-of-shoes-to-be-sure-they-don't-bend?