(Oops, posted this in the other thread, but wanted to say it here, with some edits <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif" border="0"> : )
If you have had cf problems all your life, and everyone knows and has known since you were little, that's one thing. If you haven't had any/many problems, and/or were diagnosed later, and therefore, it has never come up before, that's something else, and it should be your decision about who knows and who needs to know it. Not everyone is kind in this world nor has the best intentions. A well intentioned gesture is not always the appropriate gesture.
Humor me for a moment, please:
Translate it to the adult world: You are diagnosed as an adult. You go in the hospital. Your manager gathers the whole office together and, without your or your family's knowledge, tells the entire office why you are gone and your medical condition. Then, somebody googles it and tells everyone else what they read, and that the median age is 37, and since you are 36, it's not looking good. Nevermind the fact that you are (for example) presently healthy as a horse except for this flare up, and most of what they googled may have nothing to do with the present situation. And you go back to work and you notice a few people looking at you out of the corner of their eyes and you see people whisper as you go by. Then you find out what happened. That's uncomfortable, even as a well grounded adult.
First, there's the decision about the lawsuit <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif" border="0"> .
Then there are the coworkers who will want to be educated, and will try not to breathe on you when they come to work sick. Then there are the ones who will go "Oh." and treat you no differently. Then there are the ones who will try to use it to undermine you for their own advantage. Then there are the ones who will unconciously undermine you. Now you have to deal with them all, when you really were comfortable with your work life and the people you chose to share with, and the only reason it changed is because someone shared something that was none of their business to share. School is no different, just often more blatent and cruel (real or perceived). This is one of the reasons there are rules about this stuff.
Yes, the first thing that most of us would do is call a meeting and meet this problem head on. But she is a CHILD, and maybe she doesn't want to be the spokesperson for cf this year, or maybe she feels that her hair is too red, or her feet are too big, or whatever, (insert your own adolecent insecurity here ), and doesn't want to be put on the spot. The teacher invaded her privacy, both mentally and legally, and it was wrong.
Sure it's not a perfect world; sure this won't be the only instance where a kid with cf will have to deal with being different, but there are rules for a reason, and the teacher broke the rules, and then compounded it by having someone else, a classmate! share with the class about what her condition entails. That was wrong, whether it was about cf or any other medical condition.
And again, not everyone who doesn't tell the world they have cf are ashamed- some of us are just private people, and chose to share it on a "need to know" basis. If my DH introduced me to everyone as "This is my wife, Andee, and she has cf" I'd throttle him LOL. Can he tell people and discuss it with them? Sure, no problem. And as far as I go, get to know me, I'll get to know you, and then if I feel like sharing my medical condition with you, I will. <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif" border="0"> The only exception to that is if someone needs information or to be informed (Like the lady at the mall over Christmas who was telling a sales lady that most cf's don't make it past age 12. Correct information time! <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif" border="0"> ).
