THIS TEACHER IS LUCKY. SHE THINKS TENURE PROTECTS TEACHERS, BUT IT ONLY PROTECTS WHEN THERE ISN'T ENOUGH MONEY TO TRASH THEM. THIS TEACHER IS WRONG. SHE THINKS RETALIATION IS SOMETHING A TEACHER CAN SHOW IN COURT. THIS IS NOT TRUE. HORWITZ' HEARING OFFICER SAID HE WOULD HEAR NOTHING ABOUT WHAT THE ADMINISTRATORS DID TO HER. MOST TEACHERS DO NOT GET THEIR DAY IN COURT TO PROVE RETALIATION. THIS TEACHER IS PASSIONATE. SHE TOOK THE TIME TO SHARE THIS TO HELP OTHERS. THE QUESTION IS HOW MUCH LONGER WILL IT TAKE TO WEAR HER DOWN SO SHE WILL RESIGN? SURE SOUNDS LIKE THAT IS THE PLAN! AND YOU WONDER WHY WE DON'T HAVE MORE DEDICATED, PASSIONATE TEACHERS? NAPTA

A True Story

Lately, after work, I start walking and I keep walking. I could walk across America and back.

I know that in the movie, Forrest Gump didn’t walk. He ran. But I am not a runner, so I walk.

Poor Forrest. His heart was broken. He left home and ran and ran until, one day, he stopped. His broken heart was mended. Mended, but still soft.

For me, the various outlets I’ve tried to relieve a broken heart and stress have been numerous. It started years ago — at the time of this writing, 6 years ago.

First, before I start the story, I want to give you this next paragraph of information to use as you need to. Then read my story. I found this site, NAPTA, to be sad but empowering. May it also empower you and any friends in need.

The best thing I did was file on my school district with The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing. I recommend you do the same, if you think you are being bullied or harassed. If you can legitimately identify a discrimination that would definitely be to your benefit. After I filed, the labor lawyer said to me that now if I were to get a bad review or be fired, it will look like retaliation and that he would step in to save my paycheck. It wasn’t his idea, or the union’s, that I file. It was my idea in desperate pursuit for Justice and due process. The next best thing is to file with your local Grand Jury any injustices you may see in your school district.

Now the story ...

It was a Saturday, the day that the teachers of my school district had an opportunity to attend an in-service course. We would be paid about $250 to attend, minus taxes.

At the in-service, as always, some teachers were grading, or sitting with friends with an occasional chat permeating the silent pauses of the presenters. Actually, my own department head had brought a newspaper. For my part, I had checked out a new laptop computer from our own school library to take notes. I wanted to see how the laptops worked and since I was considering a laptop purchase it was an excellent opportunity to integrate learning, note taking, and new technology into the day.

The program, about reading and writing skills, was less than excellent. It was geared more to elementary school, rather than high school, educators.

The presenters starting using a basic reading book called “The Important Book.” It was about color. It was dated. On one of the pages in the book, it said, “the important thing about snow is that it’s white.” Many skiers and mountaineers in the group were taken aback. We know snow can be a lot of colors. We also know the important thing about snow is probably not that it’s white, but that it can be melted for water. Together we decided to broach the subject: This book is “less than excellent” and probably should be negotiated out of the curriculum! (Although we didn’t use those exact words.) The funny thing was that one of our own high school typing teachers said she was using it in her class to practice typing. (She did say it a bit tongue and cheek!)

Well, we split into break-out groups and the formal presentation ended. Of course, this is just a brief overview of the day. It was the beginning of the “No Child Left Behind” syndrome. It was the beginning of testing as a prerequisite to graduate from high school in California. The exit exam was a topic of discussion also. We had just seen some of the essay question examples, including some that were also “less than excellent”. There was a question about pets, and many teachers said that in itself might be biased, since many children don’t have pets. There was also a sample question on abortion the students had told some teachers about. Numerous teachers questioned the validity of such testing. After a brief discussion started, we finished our break-out groups and it was time to convene and go home.

Sometime the next week I was summoned to an office in my school’s administration. I was reprimanded for:

1. Multi-tasking at the In-service.

2. Sticking my tongue out at the Curriculum director.

3. Going to the in-service only for the pay.

I was aghast. Another teacher was called into the office and given a slap on the hand. But, my reprimand letter was going into my file. Really? The letter was signed by the Human Resources Director who was not even present at Saturday’s In-service event, and to my knowledge was going on nothing more than hearsay.

My accuser, whoever it was, never came forward. If such accusations can’t be substantiated, the school should throw out the letter.

First of all, for all teachers, multi-tasking is a daily necessity.

Secondly, I never stuck my tongue out at anyone! It isn’t my style.

Thirdly, if I was being reprimanded, then 100 other teachers needed reprimanding also. No other teachers would have been there on a Saturday if it were not for the pay. Like almost everywhere else in our economy, participation requires compensation. Our mo-tives for working are our own business. Throughout the civilized world, there’s actually a much-admired concept called the “profit motive”!

I expended a lot of effort and I got the letter removed from my file. I thought that would be the end of the matter, but I was wrong. That letter and In-service was the beginning of a nightmarish litany of anguish, stress, and more letters.

The next letter was about grades.

It turns out that it’s wise to get a list of who’s who in a small town. Heaven forbid that you might give a well-connected student a lower grade than they’re accustomed to!

In the interest of fairness, I actually prefer not to know who my students’ parents are. The problem is, certain members of the community have a direct access to preferential treatment in the schools. Those people don’t want to hear that their son or daughter might not be an A student. Administrators’ kids, athletes, the children of school board members and benefactors, or the kids of the whiny parents who show up in the teacher’s lounge — give those kids at least “B” grades or their parents will be down your throat. Which is exactly what happened.

Now, suddenly, after 4 years with no grade complaints, I failed to give someone’s precious someone an A. Another litany of woes ensued. This time was called into the principal’s office via Post-It Note.

Now remember, at this point, I had already had one major dose of their dishonesty and had been forced to contact the union about the previous issue. I walked into the Principal’s office and as I was sitting down, two other administrators walked in from opposite entrances to his office. I start wondering what this was about. Outflanked three to one! A common bullying tactic, I now know. (Three out of the four administrators on duty have dropped everything to be with ME? I must be really important!)

It was about grades. A student earned a C and the administrators didn’t like it. When the principal questioned me, he gave me no chance to respond. As he would seem to pause and as I would begin to try to explain, he would interrupt me and say I was butting in. I looked up after five or ten minutes and said I’m sorry, but I need a union rep here. At that point, of course, he had to stop the meeting. This is how I found out about the “Weingarten Act”. It is law about bosses trying to intimidate employees.

If you’re in a position anything like mine, you should know about the Weingarten Act. You have the right to have a union representative at any meeting, assuming you are a member of a union.

I recommend you make use of the Weingarten Act. But a word of warning: some reps are biased, so you also have the right to choose your rep. Take our school district, for example. Here, the union president is married to the district attorney. This could be considered a conflict of interest. This is another thing worth looking up.

Over the next 6 years it has been a series of letters, memoranda, grievances, arbitrations, and meetings. The meetings with union reps, grievance reps, mediators, lawyers, principals, human resource people and others have been endless. It has been a waste of everyone’s time and a waste of taxpayer’s dollars.

Over a period of a few years I could count possibly 2 weeks at the most without some letter of reprimand, memorandum or some other nonsense at the whim of the school’s administration.

I have felt compelled to spend many hours talking to my family and friends about the absurd allegations. Here are a few of them:

I was called in because I didn’t give homework assignments for a sick student.

The facts? The student wasn’t in my class anymore. I had had her the previous semester. To do the decent thing, I had even offered to take her back into my class, since she knew me and my routine, to make it easier for her. However, she hadn’t been returned to my class.

I was accused of not informing the administration that the air conditioning unit wasn’t working.

The facts? A long-time resident of the community who had been my substitute said one day that he would tell them, since it had been discovered when was out for a doctor’s appointment, and while he had been the sub. It seems like a straightforward explanation, but they wouldn’t give me an opportunity to counter the accusation. They said some students complained it was too hot. Of my 150 students, I only knew of only 3 who mentioned it being too hot! I was then accused of discipline problems in my class room in regards to this issue.

Our department head said he only has seen me do one project with my students.

The facts? Over my time in this school district, I have introduced my students to more than 250 projects, not counting many more variations of those projects. Not every teacher in the department can say that. One art teacher did the same project with her students every year. She survived in her position all the way to retirement. It may have helped that her brother was the superintendent of the schools. (Nepotism is a huge problem where I am. The other three teachers in my department are all related to officials in the school district.)

The department head in question, also a beneficiary of nepotism, has over a long period of time earned the private nickname I have for him, “the tattler.”

I have been accused of “inappropriate dress in the classroom” i.e. no bra.

The facts? It isn’t clear who was looking. They tell me the accusation came from a parent. Well, there hadn’t been any parents in my classroom. Besides, we don’t have a dress code. There are no guidelines on what body measurements require what undergarments. There are male administrators and staff members who have bigger breasts than me. Do they need bras also? I take pride in my appearance and I have always been professionally dressed.

One letter of reprimand was about moving furniture in and out of the classroom.

The facts? The bone yard, the place for surplus furniture and equipment, is near my classroom. I had gotten permission for a project to refurbish some of it. My students would clean it up for a recycling project and we would put it in the teacher’s lounge for whomever needed it. We painted a table that had been donated along with 6 chairs. When a local family suffered a devastating fire, we donated the set anonymously. The family was thrilled. A few teachers and counselors recognized the product and they were thrilled as well. So, now I guess we can’t do that any more.

But it gets worse: over night one of the administrators came into my classroom and left a few chairs and tables. Now, remember, in the letter I was warned not to move anything in or out of the classroom.

The photo that follows shows that they are split and slashed vinyl kitchen chairs with deteriorating foam stuffing emerging from the slashes. These chairs are unfit and unsafe for students to use. Parents would be justifiably appalled if they knew such chairs were being supplied for student use. Spiders, scorpions, or insects such as cockroaches could be concealed in them. I immediately hid them in a back storage area. It took me more than two years to have them removed. The janitors, decent people that they are, finally stepped up to the task. I followed the rules and never removed them. I have enclosed a picture of these infamous chairs. They have become a symbol of how I have been treated in this school district. After the chairs’ removal, an administrator told the janitors that this was between ME and HIM. That statement sounds like an outright admission that the chairs were put there to humiliate me.

Allegations of misuse of my prep time.

The facts? Teachers have a variety of different prep times. Using that time as we deem necessary has been one of the adult things about being in education in our district. You can grade and do paperwork, or if you need a coffee or tea break during your prep, that’s your decision. Then, all of a sudden, the administrators don’t like what I do on my prep time. The union had to step in in this instance, because, basically, the school district has to enforce rules equally. Of course, they don’t. They make up rules as they go along. The union called over 50 teachers and asked what they did on their prep time. Only one said they sat in their classroom. Now they want me to sign in and out, but they aren’t making anyone else do the same.

One good thing I found through this event is that if you do sign in and out you are covered by workman’s comp if something happens, but if you don’t, you might not be covered. That is the only legitimate reason to sign in and out. Many teachers frequently arrive late, or don't sign in and out to take their children to school and then come to work. A retired teacher called to say that he had seen my department head eating lunch on his prep time. Well, that's fine with me, as long everyone gets to play by those rules.

I was accused, in a letter, of inappropriate language in the classroom.

The facts? Well, I had a hard time imagining what language I could have used. The specifics amazed me: I found out you can’t use the word “punishment,” because the new word is “consequence.” They never asked me in what context I had used the word. In fact, if I remember correctly, I had said something like, “I prefer not to use textbooks as punishment, because I want you to enjoy reading. But if you aren’t listening to directions, I still have to be able to trust you with proper tool use in the lab, so we’ll have to read out of the textbooks for our theory instead of doing the lab.” It doesn’t seem like a threatening statement. It wouldn’t have been an intelligible statement with the substitute word “consequences.” But the result was a two-page letter saying I had used inappropriate language in the classroom.

The girls who accused me, who are thought of as good Christians and upstanding in their youth groups, had been “less than excellent” in class. Over the next few days, I watched them pass notes to each other, talk, and not stay “on task.” Eventually I confiscated one of their notes. It said I, the teacher, was stupid, and then went on to say something about getting into some boy’s jeans. This incident was the distraction that led to my statement that included the word “punishment,” and that led to the accusation of inappropriate language.

Yes, kids can be kids. In a small town I prefer not to embarrass anyone. Children will grow out of this phase, but this incident, left unattended, would now not only have me saddled with not only an uninformed “tattle tale” department head, but with student spies! I suspect the girls were related to, or friends with, somebody in the administration. Ultimately, the letter of reprimand was glossed over. Years later I ran into the father of one of the girls. He admitted she had misrepresented what I had said.

The other three teachers in my department are related to officials in the school district and grew up in this little town. Suddenly, I’m given 5 students more per a class period. That means that I am teaching the equivalent of one more class than the other teachers and not getting paid for it. If they had the overloads equal to mine they would get 4-5 dollars a head for the day. One of the teachers related to officials in the district actually taught an extra class a year before she retired, giving her a huge salary addition for her retirement. Wouldn’t we all like that?

Supplies, top students, desirable classes, and other choice assets are preferentially distributed. Our superintendent and assistant superintendent are sisters. Three of our administrators, of the four we have on site, are related to important people in the district. The new head of maintenance, which seems to have appeared out of nowhere, is now, we find out, related to an official in the district office.

I’ve seen wonderful teachers with administrative credentials bypassed in favor of “related family members.” One such related person was made an assistant principal after two non-consecutive years of teaching. According to state rules, an administrator needs five years of consecutive teaching or a minimum of three years to become an administrator.

I was getting so many letters with weird allegations, I had to constantly wonder, what next? The perpetual stress was making me tired and upset, and I started handing the letters to a colleague to read. This person became my buffer so that I wouldn’t be upset in my classroom. It’s gone farther now, if I get a letter I only open it when someone is present. In one instance a friend of mine made me date and put his name on a letter as a verification of when it was open and read. It was fortunate he did that, as it was a letter wanting a meeting, and of course they wanted me to respond that day. I opened it ... at 6 P.M., long after school had closed. My friend worked in a company where similar political situations took place, so he knew what to do. He told me he’d be happy to be subpoenaed.

In the wake of my ugly experiences, I find the NAPTA Web site sad but empowering. It is amazing to me how deceitful, corrupt, and unethical some administrators and staff are. Our tax dollars support this activity.

A really big issue recently was that the school district broke the contract. As tenured teachers we are evaluated every other year. It wasn’t my year to be evaluated. Also, we aren’t supposed to be evaluated less than 30 days prior to the end of the school year. Anyway, our bully of a principal tried. Two weeks prior to the end of the school year, he wanted to see me about my evaluation. (WHAT?) The union had me go to the meeting. He had a list of supposed errors of mine that I had never heard about. I showed the letter to the lawyer, who said that it looked like the principal had just taken comments from numerous other teachers’ evaluations and put them into one letter. This time we do have it documented that they broke the contract. I guess we’ve been waiting for this one. It wasn’t my year to be evaluated. It was less than 30 days prior to the end of the school year. He was almost certainly trying to get me to quit. It appears that in the stages of abuse on this Web site, they have done at least two-thirds of those things to me.

I think I’ve gone through all the phases of trying to hide out and not be seen, because a person wants to stay “under the radar” or “out of the line of fire.” I change my arrival times: early some weeks, later others, to see what feels like the safest time to pick up my mail in the front office. Eventually, one morning, I rubbed shoulders with the principal, and I knew that he’d probably show up in my classroom within a few days. He showed up during the next class. Of course, I didn’t see this as a friendly visit. I saw it as a continuation of the pattern of harassment, of the “bullying and abuse” game.

And that’s what it feels like to me right now — a game. It’s a very tiring game, though. So, after this visit, he decided he wants to see me, and told me I have two student com-plaints. If I have had 25 student complaints in my years of teaching, my record is very good. I’ve educated over 2000 students just in the years I’ve been teaching at my cur-rent school. I’d say my record is a success story.

As it turned out, the principal canceled two proposed meetings we had set up, and wasn’t available for the days he said he wanted. Then he twisted the letters of reprimand and memorandum to say that I hadn’t made the meetings, or called, or e-mailed. It seemed to me that calling his secretary should have been enough.

Anyway, at this point, after I had received a good evaluation in the fall, he now was saying he didn’t recommend me for re-hire the next year. Yet, within a few days after his unannounced visit, he sent me a note saying how much he enjoyed my class. Oh, by the way, on that occasion I had been wearing a very padded bra!

“No Child Left Behind” is really “No Child Allowed Ahead” and “No Teacher Left Standing”! Teaching has challenges enough without having to deal with unreasonable and bullying administrators.

They’ve pitted teachers against each other. I have tried to get the local union to have an ice tea and lemonade social so we could get to know each other, to no avail, which is a shame.

But, when it comes to ideas, it seems the good ones eventually show up, but someone else takes credit.

Some years ago, I suggested to our administration that we might put up some nice canopied areas for student to sit under at lunch. They might stay on campus more if it was more appealing. His response was “well, they are expensive and anyway kids use lunchtime for dating”! (Well, maybe he used lunchtime for dating, since he is a graduate of our school. I keep thinking there should be a law prohibiting working at the school you graduated from, as it often perpetuates a bad atmosphere from one generation to the next. Decisions are made by people who find it very easy to live in the past.)

What showed up just before arrival of the accreditation team? You guessed it — sun-filtering canopies. And umbrella tables showed up some years after my chat with the principal as well.

When I was reading the accreditation report that resulted from that visit, I noticed a picture of two administrators dancing on a chapter title page. This might seem inane to even mention, but it got the hairs on my back standing up. Why? Just last year I was told that “some” students don’t like my teaching style, which included my dancing in the classroom. What? I had been doing Egyptian Hieroglyphs with the kids. We were translating our names into them and making cartouches. What a great project it was! I shared with them some of my stories from my trips to Egypt, Morocco and other African Countries. I had also been in a mid-east dance troupe and I showed them a dance routine called the Camel. I told them a story about when I was once bitten by a camel. I even had a video and said I would share the video of my trip with them. I believe that learning is more effective when information is conveyed imaginatively, with context.

So, not only had they call me on the carpet for dancing in an academic setting, but now they were dancing in the academic setting themselves — and using it to promote their own agenda. I was livid! It’s almost as if they had deliberately stolen my curriculum integration technique.

More to the point, they had never even asked me what I had been doing or why. I was just WRONG. It has come to the point of that, if I look right, I am supposed to look left. If I correct what they object to, the rules change on me again. It may sound similar to some of the other stories you read on this site.

Just last week the school newspaper, on its front page, ran the photos of the principal and assistant principal dancing.

You can see there is obvious selective targeting going on. That is what they do.

If this was a marriage I would have left it a long time ago. But one can understand why people stay: money, comfort, an economy with few other jobs out there, and a big hurdle — the challenge of another job in education when you have to put your current administration and supervisors on the applications. Those applications are very redundant. I have been looking, and when I apply I feel like I’m filling out a McDonald’s application. Obviously, if I have a teaching credential, why do they still need to know where I went to elementary school? I mean, I am happy to tell them when I’m hired. If I have a credential, and I have gone to school, why do they need the original transcripts prior to my job or interview? I’ve taken continuing education at a number of schools, for a total of 7 transcripts. That’s at least 50 bucks and recently one application I looked at would have cost 150 dollars. That is for a public school application. I wonder if that is legal.

And how do you get letters of reference from an administration that has been bullying and targeting you?

But, that’s when the messenger comes in. For the one of the last meetings, they sent the only one not related to anyone in the district. He even said, not knowing what he was saying, that he was only “the messenger”!! I had just discovered the NAPTA site and almost smiled at the time, but I had to immediately stand my ground and call the union because the Human Resources person was in the front office with the principal and wanted to see me now. Thank goodness for the Weingarten Act.

Thank goodness I’m tenured. New teachers have no recourse.

If I was in a larger school district I would have already transferred to another school within the district, but unfortunately in a small district there’s no place else to go.

This is just the “tip of the iceberg” in the little town I’m in. I’ve become disillusioned with America. Disappointed in our legal system and that these people can get away with deceitful antics, harassing, and targeting. The funny thing is if that if they don’t want me here, which is obvious at this point, they’ve kept me so preoccupied with just saving my position that they haven’t given me time to really FILL OUT THOSE OTHER APPLICATION FORMS for other districts. So, they are defeating their own purposes. Sometimes, I think this is a bit like the fireman who needs a fire to put out and becomes a pyromaniac so he’ll have that fire. These small-town people don’t seem to have anything better to do than to pick on someone and create an issue that makes them feel big. It’s a good thing that I don’t base my self worth on the way they treat me. It’s hard to stay separated from the reality, though. I advise YOU not to let THEM get you down either. Educators are professionals. Too often administrators don’t have management skills and just treat the teachers like they are students, when indeed they — the staff — are professional adults. It’s would be like serving Kool-aid at teacher conferences: bug juice is for kids! One expects that adult conferences would have different kinds of seltzer water, and flavored ones at that.

It can be challenging to keep your chin up while being targeted with unfair and unbalanced enforcement of the rules. The list of things that have helped me include travel, friends, good students, good parents, hiking, and taking positive actions for due process. As a friend of mine said, if you are targeted even if you haven’t done anything wrong, they will simply make things up. Recently a coworker said to me that he had been cleared of something in another job. The letter was to have been taken out of his file. When he went to look at his file (after all, they usually have time to fix the file before you get there), he found the letter, with a note on the back that said “disregard this letter.” That doesn’t constitute taking the letter out of his file! The next thing my coworker said to me is that it just goes to show you “it’s just a job.” This noble profession of teaching has become just that, “just a job”! It seems to educational professionals that “they” don’t want teachers, teachers who challenge the kids to excellence; “they” want babysitters. Keep the kids quiet! How often have I heard a teacher say they hope the kids are behaved when they have their evaluations! If the principals can’t stop fights on campus, what are they thinking about the classroom? Maybe too many of them have been out of the classroom too long! Maybe they should continue to teach some classes part-time and of course maybe the disparity of salary between administrators and teachers should be addressed. Maybe that disparity makes administrators think they are TOO ABOVE the teachers.

It just seems the days of a community picnic or job picnic are gone. The schools profess to be for the community. But instead, I see a lot of tearing down and favoritism. No wonder students, parents, and teachers are discouraged.

Well, some other things that help get you through: hot baths and showers, let the negative energy wash down the drain. Any hobbies, get into them! Find a good psychologist who specializes in stress recovery. Shame, that a profession would take you to this extreme, but it can.

The good news if you have never had a bad evaluation and you have to file on the school district, if you then get a bad review, it can then be considered retaliation. If they fire you, then it is my understanding that the lawyer can step in to save your paycheck. Public school districts aren’t likely to buy out employees the way private companies can, but you never know. Sometimes they try to put a GAG order in the buy out, so you can’t chat about the whole situation. It is a bit of trial and error because every situation is different. The sad think is that we have to get lawyers now for everything, because people aren’t following the contract or rules. At one time a handshake sufficed. Our ammunition is now harassment, bullying and legal action. Bullying and harassment is a slow death. A death of spirit, emotionally and physically. See a doctor. Take care of yourself. Try to get sleep. If you can. A friend of mine advised me to see all the doctors I needed to see. Cover yourself. I even found myself at a psychiatrist. When I filed with Fair Employment and Housing, I thought, this is my job! I’m crazy to take time off with differentiated pay. But, I had had enough.

My principal seems to want to make up the rules as he goes along. He wanted me to grade every week. Well, then, wouldn’t everyone have to grade every week?

He wanted me to take attendance at the same time every day, at the beginning of class. Well, then everyone should have to take attendance at that time. Crazy, but I know some teachers who put theirs in the computer at the end of the day instead of during each class, because they hadn’t been given these attendance-roster-taking rules.

I’ve found different friends to lean on over the years. They each have had to take their turns. Some know enough about the story to say “same old stuff, different day.” Some of them are right there with you day to day that year. It does get tiring repeating the allegations not only to friends, but to union reps lawyers and others. But it is cathartic also to be sharing.

This NAPTA Web site was created in 2002. It was March of 2002 when some of my travails began happening to me at my school. I have worked at other public schools for shorter times — long enough to see some of the politics starting but not long enough to be entrenched in it. Believe me, some days I feel like I’m in the trenches!

Parents write to the school with favorable letters about me, but they seem to disappear. Get copies. Keep little notes from students. Keep little gifts. (Or photograph them for your files!)

Hound your union. They didn’t tell me about Fair Employment and Housing or the Grand Jury. I had to find this on my own or from friends. Sometimes, I was too tired to do the paper work. Get a friend to sit with you to do it. Print it out. Keep it on a desk waiting for a day when you’re ready. If it makes the district your in clean up their act a little in the process even if you don’t win, they are investigated. It might seem sick to bully back, but sometimes they say you have to fight fire with fire.

A friend of mine said whatever you do don’t quit. Well, in all honesty, if I had a husband or another good job I may have quit by now, because abuse does take a toll on a person’s health. Last year when the lawyer looked at the evaluation prior to the end of the school year, he said it isn’t healthy to work under those circumstances and he’s correct. What is someone to do? Sigh? Do the best you can and do what’s right. Good Luck and thanks for reading this distillation of my story.

— Another “Wild West Teacher”

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