I was injured by a student running toward a moving school bus 5 1/2 years ago. He was angry and fast! The classroom that I was teaching in is called an EBD room. EBD stands for emotionally and behavioral disabled. I had requested help from my principal multiple times due to the dangerous acts of some of the children. I was told that I was not allowed to send the children to the office no matter what. The assistant that worked with me in the classroom ended up being on crutches due to a student tripping her and breaking her leg. She was my only help in a classroom with children that would try to cut themselves with sharp objects they would break, constantly run from the classroom which opened directly to the outdoors, and throw chairs at other students and teachers.  

Since then, I have had the fight of my life getting medical care. As an injured worker, that was injured in front of the school district sheriff deputy and my principal, I did not expect to be living in true hell and in pain every day of my life. The child ended up injuring my neck, left shoulder, and back. I have ended up developing a pain disease and have severe severe depression due to the fact that I cannot do things that I once could with my family; I tend to miss a lot and I only have a short time with my children before they leave our home for college. Injured workers in Florida and in other states throughout the United States should not have to fight for individual care for every little thing. I am not able to work anymore as a teacher who spent a costly 4 1/2 years in college. I should not have to worry about not paying my bills each week nor having to wait for petitions for the school district to help me with finding doctors and okaying injections and surgeries. The effect this has on individual workers in Florida and throughout the United States has a definite impact on a an injured workers mental health. There are so many delays in this process and I believe those delays are in place to have the injured worker give up and have their personal insurance take care of medical bills. I find that my husbands insurance (our government) should not be responsible for something that happened on a schools campus in front of several higher up staff members. If I am having to fight so much for proper healthcare and pay so that my family does not starve and become homeless, I can’t imagine what other injured workers are going through that did not have witnesses. I am a military spouse and my husband sacrifices a lot for this country, but we have seen the other side and the other side is ugly when it comes to Worker’s Compensation in the United States! Governor DeSantis, I am asking for you to please look into the Worker’s Compensation laws in Florida and please help me and others who are desperate for timely healthcare and not constantly being afraid of not paying their mortgage or their rent and having their families live on the streets. It happens way more than you want to believe and insurance companies in the state of Florida along with big school districts do not seem to care because their bottom line is keeping money for what they deem necessary. My healthcare and health care of others is not important to them. If you go onto the JCC website, you can look at cases and how long they’ve been going on and what petitions are having to be brought to court. I had a petition that had to be put in by my attorney for a very small payment of a prescription under $30 . That is wasteful and completely unnecessary. It’s one example of how the system is so unjust and needs to be changed. I saved an angry student from running in front of a moving school bus! Most likely, I saved that young students life and for that I will live with severe pain, fatigue, lack of use of arms and fingers, and mental health issues that have been caused from my last 5 1/2 years of dealing with Florida Worker’s Compensation insurance. Instead of getting better, I am now so much worse than several years ago. This is the thanks that the school district gives me in the state of Florida. 

There are so many stories out there like mine and people are afraid to speak up because of the ramifications it may cause. I have been that person for five years, but my mental health cannot take anymore and the pain that I feel on a regular basis I cannot take anymore. Please help so this no longer happens to injured workers and your teachers in Florida; please help other injured workers. Please ensure that they and I are able to get proper healthcare at the beginning; not healthcare provided by a doctor that is paid off by the school school district or the insurance company, to say that you were not injured in order to save the insurance company money. There are so many other cases out there like mine and even worse cases and you could do so much to help us. As a military spouse that moves often, I have much respect for you, Governor DeSantis, and I know that you will do the right thing for the injured workers in Florida. Thank you so much for reading this and I’m sorry for any grammatical errors as I am using text to speech and my Southern accent does not like it, ha ha!