Bosses blame workers for being under staffed

Today my co-worker jessica was in a tough situation. Jessica, as instructed, took her kindergarden class after recess, to drink water. It was the same route that she takes everday, but this was unlike any other day because one of her kids was playing in line and accidentatly hit his head on a set of stair case that split his head. Immediately she took the kid to the office so that he could be taken to a hospital. Her mind after that incident was lost in time, there was no way in bringing her down. Then the principle was checking all the T.A's on how we were keeping the kids under control.
The opportunity to talk with Jessica and our other co-worker about the incident was not until our lunch time. Jessica begins by blaming herself, feeling she needed to be more responsible for the kids. Our response to that claim was that she is not entirely at fault, we are under staffed, we cant see all the things the kids do. We shouldnt be taking the kids to drink water when clearly the kids should do it on their own. On top of that we are 3 T.A's to 14 teachers, let alone the 2 hours that we are assigned as yard supervisors. This conversation was significant, it gave her confidence that the T.A's weren't blaming her and the real blame comes from the principle in that she was not hiring more staff. Its a lie that there is a budget crisis when banks get multi-trillion dollar baillout and education gets the ax. We were all on the same page as to how the T.A's are under such pressure.
Jessica was to go and meet with the principle after our lunch, we tried offering her the assistance of the shop steward being present a the meeting, but she refused. During the meeting, the principle tried to make her feel as if it was all her fault and nothing more, but that didnt break her, she knew the other T.A's were backing her up. Jessica asked why there isnt a fountain closer to where the playground was, the principle's response was, its out of the question and we cannot do that. Yet there has been 2 teather ball courts installed as we as a funnel ball court. Plus, Jessica pushed the idea that we as T.A's should not take the kids to drink water, as was discussed prior to the meeting.
After their talk, the principle made an announcement over the P.A system and said that the kids have to take themselves to drink water and go to the bathroom because they need to take more responsibility on their own. This meant that the principle was not blaming the T.A's as much for the students not being careful, in a sense she was retreating her statement. The reason that this happened was becuase of under staffing. This was in our mind a concession to the workers.