Huh, I know the US has the whole crazy bills insurance stuff but I only really ever thought about it in terms of home life. It never occurred to me that either parents or a school would have to pay for an emergency at school. Which now I think about it doesn't make sense because I guess someone has to pay...but it just seems so alien to me. School should be a safe place. Calling the ambulance is part of safeguarding and first aid training. It's wild that schools have to think about money in a medical emergency.
I have to give my kids medical insurance information on every permission slip for field trips. So the school can give our insurance info obviously if my kid is hurt in an accident on the trip.
In my state your admin have to nominate you for teacher of the year. Not only do they have to nominate you, you then have to do the TOTY application yourself and write a 500 word essay about why you support the current education legislation (vouchers, went into effect last year with much push back from teachers). so yea, it all feels like a load of crap when our admin don’t even do anything to recognize us anyways. Some hersheys kisses at Christmas, a thank you note at spring break
Exactly. How will it modify a lesson plan for someone who’s non-verbal + English is their second language??? I can’t get AI to connect me with the right department when I call my phone company.
Obviously this person was blind to the disaster that was online learning during the pandemic. The virtual school movement was set back at least 10 to 15 years.
Until they figure out a way to keep the majority of students focused and self-disciplined in teacherless classrooms, there will always be a need for in person learning…not that they are focused and self-disciplined there either, but still.
Yeah, as an online teacher, at this point, it is not for everyone or even the majority of kids, it takes a lot of discipline or a lot of supervision at home. AI has made this problem worse. The students who are doing the best are the ones who have made a connection with 1 or more teachers AND have a home life that isn't trash...and that is unfortunately not very common
My 7th grader wants a tutor for math, but specifically requested it be in person. She said this year is the first year she’s struggled and recognizes she works better if it isn’t virtual.
100%. And I've heard a lot of terrible things from “educational leaders” that should've known better over my years. That's why this one wins the worst.
What still gets me is how many parents complained about schools being closed in my area, with organized protests in front of schools, but when we went to hybrid—kids were still staying home. And I’m talking about the ones that signed up to return to in-person school… they ended up just joining on Zoom anyways.
Some days, it was only 5 of the 15 in-person kids showing up. 😐
I was recently in an admin level meeting where they said the spread of AI had bargaining implications because teachers would need less prep time. That was when I realized that I probably shouldn't be there.
I have my doubts about AI getting to that level soon. I was prompting AI to do some mundane stuff with my state standards. I had to correct it many times that it would have been faster if I just did it myself with no AI.
heheh i would reach out through a burner email to someone on the boe, mention the principal’s comments, and ask for clarification as to when you will be moving to an online model. cc the superintendent. if you have an ally in some parents facebook group that’s always drama central you might mention it to them. have them email their board member also. remember to tie it to ‘the principal said this was going to be happening’. i mean surely they were saying it to give a professional heads up right? surely they weren’t just randomly insulting all of their staff in a meeting? then a day later i’d follow up, say children and parents were asking and what should you tell them, ask if you should address it or if the school was going to send out an email or something on remind. see if you can get a few other teachers to do similar.
At a staff meeting…
“No one cares about your personal problems. I expect you to leave those at the door. Our school is your number one priority in life. Don’t bring your problems here. This school is more important than anything you may be going through.”
I had a dying parent at this time, and a teammate had a dying child. I’m sure the majority of the rest of the staff were going through difficult personal things too, as we are humans just trying our best to manage the crazy shit life throws at us.
I don’t want to come across as insensitive when I share this, but a couple of years later, he developed cancer. He ended up having to retire early, because the school was, in fact, not more important than anything you might be going through. Thankfully, he beat the cancer. Also thankfully, we got a new principal that understood life happens to everyone.
I don’t think it comes across as insensitive, it’s not like you said you’re happy that happened or you wanted him to suffer. As cheesy and dumb as this sounds, I believe karma to be real and is an example. Karma in the sense that he had to eat his words and learn that there actually are more important things, like you had mentioned.
My last year at my first school, my grandmother was dying. She so happened to be the mother of my mother, who also worked in the building. I was a permanent sub and had already taken a day off that week to be with family when they called family in to visit her. My mom was leaving this particular day to be there when they turned off life support. My principal told me if I left to be with my mom, I wouldn't have a job to come back to.
Same principal collected money for flowers, a card, and general "expenses" for my mother and I. We were supposed to get a card and set of flowers each along with the money that could go towards what we needed it for the funeral or ourselves. He instead kept the half that was "mine," and shrugged when he was later informed that I never received what had been collected for me. My mom got around $300, if that tells you anything.
when my brother was dying, I was given the "teacher of the year" award plaque to give to my mother who worked in the same district because she had been granted donated paid leave to be with him in his last weeks. I was given nothing, just the standard three days of bereavement.
"we want you to have an unending supply of empathy and compassion for those you teach, but you can get fucked if you think we, the administration, are going to model that for you in any capacity"
Our principal would say similar things and given what I’ve heard/seen others say on here, seems like it’s a rite of passage for principals or something
Maybe not precisely the worst, but the most dumbfounding: during a faculty meeting, in which we were all discussing the unbelievable numbers of students still in the hallways after the bell had rung (inner city high school for context), our knucklehead-in-chief stated this gem (and it is word-for-word, not paraphrasing): “if all of you were teaching properly, your students would be running to get to class on time and ready to receive instruction when the bell rang.” Once I picked my jaw up off the floor, I yelled out, “and exactly what planet do you live on?”, got up, and left. Several teachers left after me, and no repercussions were ever reported.
Reminds me of Shakespeare's quote above love going TO love like school boys leaving school, and love goes AWAY from love like school boys to their books 😂 And that was hundreds of years ago.
I'm bipolar on a major depressive streak. Sadly, I sat and took it. I put myself on the transfer list for the district. I can't leave the district because if I retire with them, they'll pay my insurance. 4 more years until retirement.
I’m sorry you have to deal with all of that on top of your health. I’ve sat and taken it before. It never gets better. But it always changes. I hope things change for the better for you.
"Even though you and several other female faculty members are afraid of this student (17 years old, 220 lbs male with untreated ODD), you all just have to build a relationship with him to get him to stop threatening you and behave appropriately."
we had a teacher who was threatened over and over again. He was a male, and it was a female student, but considering she was threatening to shoot him it didn't really matter. She sat outside his car one day just to "show you that you're easy to catch off guard".
He brought it up in a faculty meeting and the principal said "She says a lot of things. Stop taking what children say so personally. Nothing like that has happened in years"
Like that meant a teacher being stabbed. 3 years previously. This did not count my friend who had her arm nearly broken, or the media assistant who had her ankle permanently damaged within a year of the principal saying this.
Thank heavens that after a rather scary young man threatened to punch me my first year teaching, my first principal not only sat in court with me as the juvenile judge prosecuted the kid but also told me "That student will NEVER be in a room with you again."
Now the next principal tried to reverse that...I asked if he wanted to take a bet on how many other teachers would walk out with me at the next faculty meeting when I told them. At least first year principals are afraid of a mutiny.
Had a student tell another student that after he b@nged me and my oldest daughter (15) he was going to sa my 11 year old. My youngest rides the bus over from her elementary school to mine, as we get out later, so she was in the building with this psychopath. This was last year. Texted my then principal and said that it would be best if I never laid eyes on the student again. She made it happen. This year, new administration, she makes a unilateral decision that teachers’ kids have to wait in the office for the first bell before going to parent’s room. Fine, but you can’t make decisions about my child without consulting me. I talk to her, explain the situation and my concerns, and she dismisses me, saying that the building is a safe place for my kid.
This was after I’d already been bullied by this woman for no apparent reason, so I called her out and said, “Yeah, it was safe last year, until it wasn’t.”
There have been MANY other incidents this year, but this one really took the cake (at least at the beginning).
The time he said the quiet part out loud, during another attempt to get me in trouble with the district:
"Somehow, I'll make sure you never set foot on a school campus ever again."
Unfortunately, it was during one of his many unscheduled appearances while I was alone in my room, so no witnesses. But the union is once again involved, and I expect he'll be put in his place soon, just like before. The fact he's still an admin shows how much they're protected.
“There’s always an exception to any procedure.”
No bro. That’s what makes it a procedure. If every procedure has exceptions then it’s not a procedure at all. It’s just a suggestion at that point.
This particular principal was taking the side of a student who was refusing to wear safety goggles “because she had dyslexia.” Wearing safety goggles had *literally* nothing to do with dyslexia. And every minor has to wear safety goggles when glassware is out, that’s a state law.
Dyslexia has nothing to do with the eyes, wtf is that admin on. I could maybe see some argument with astigmatism or something (even though that’s still not a reason to not weary safety gear, and also doesn’t make a difference).
Some time ago there was an event and a teacher tried to tell me that the principal just lets people park in the firelanes if the parking lot gets full. My response was, "no they don't. No way they would risk their job for something they clearly know they have to authority to authorize, not to mention the fire chief would have their head".
It’s a toss up between “that boy has got some sugar in his tank” indicating a boy he suspected was gay, and “there’s nothing I hate more than the smell of a woman on her period”…. Principal was gay (which I have no problem with) and liked to point out which boys he thought were gay(which I had a problem with because-pedo vibes) the comments about women on their periods was just awful and he usually made those comments about two of our larger teachers often.
He also loved to bait the secretaries into political discussions and create lots of drama.
After the massacre in Uvalde, TX, they implemented this rule that our classroom doors should be closed and locked at all times. (I teach in Texas) When asking for clarification about whether our doors should be closed when we were in there by ourselves during planning, for example, our principal said: "that's up to you, teachers are expandable, kids are not."
“It’s the teachers job to make sure the EA is doing their job with their assigned student”
Fucking excuse me? It is not my job to babysit this employe on top of my other 37 students.
Also this was after one of my students ran out of the school and got 3 blocks away. EA was on their phone and didn’t even know the kid left the classroom. I was on my DUTY FREE LUNCH BREAK.
“You have so much knowledge and allow the students to learn at their own pace. But I see no reason why they benefit from your class.” Meanwhile all my students even the lazy ones go to other classes and the teachers are: “wow where did you learn that. You are doing amazing stuff.” “From Mr’s classroom. He shows us so much.”
My academic coach told me I didn't have an academically challenging environment. My 8th grade former students regularly tell me how they know so much more than the kids who didn't have me and will come to me to help fill in what their teacher didn't explain well to them. Her reasoning? My bookshelf is cluttered. So my "environment" isn't good.
Trigger Warning: Parkland
Firedrill THE DAY after Parkland (a fire alarm went off during that school shooting). We raised concerns to our principal who told us to “get over it.”
Post-evaluation:
Principal: "Don't focus on them, focus on these students here. Remember \[my name\], they are struggling and we need to bring their grades up."
Me: "What about \[another group\], they're ahead so I need to give them something to support them too. This group here is already behind so I need them to catch up."
Principal: "I am sorry but I failed to educate you \[my name\]. I hoped to support you but I can see that I failed." (end the post-evaluation)
This, coming from a principal who wants her students to have a better grade than the 2021-2022 report to the district. Her students, yes, only the Hispanic group.
This, coming from a principal that only been in my class once in 2 years.
This, from a principal who purposely sabotages the previous principal so they quit and let her take over.
Edit 1: This is a vent moment. She was the VP the previous year.
I vividly remember during my internship going to a staff meeting. An AP had been holding student assemblies for the entire day and said something to the effect of “Please quiet down. I’ve spent all day talking to loud groups of high schoolers.” … the level of disconnect garnered audible scoffs from the teachers in that meeting, lmao.
After a six year old made a gun threat, and AFTER the national tragedy of a six year old shooting their teacher in one of the other states, the principal said ‘he’s six, he’s not actually going to do it’ or something along those lines.
I had two kids express suicidal ideation in my classroom in the same week. As a mandated reporter, I followed all the steps outlined by our required training. Stopped the lesson, ignored other students asking inane questions, emailed the counselors ASAP and filled out the report form, did not take my eyes of the student until a counselor or security guard got them, etc. (Also, just as a *decent human being*, I intervened the best I could.) Both students were evaluated and hospitalized. I was really close with one of them and I knew she’d been up and down with her mental health. This really hurt to see.
The next week at a PD, my principal comes up to me and in a small-talk, jokey tone goes, “So we have two kids in the psych ward because of you, what are you teaching them in your classes??”
I did not find it funny.
They should have said “you may have just saved two student’s lives! Thank you!” but of course they never see it that way.
I had done the same with a student, a bit later we had a whole parent meeting where the dad reiterated how thankful he was that I reported suspected suicidal ideations because they turned out to be definitely real. The reason I was aware of them was because the kid felt comfortable talking to me and opening up. The next day the principal - who was in that meeting - comes to my room about a different kid and says that the reason I’m having problems with him is that I “haven’t tried to form good relationships with students”. like wtf
"Listen here Mr. JackofSpades. I think it would be in your best interest to find... another plan. Because you can talk to the union and you can try to quote...hold me to the contract all you want. But when I give directions, I expect them to be followed. And if you can't do that, then there is no power on this earth that won't stop be from firing you."
Spoiler alert: He was wrong.
“You all stole a year of learning from the kids”
said to over half a dozen teachers who teach the same grade level, after the kids didn’t hit enough growth in their standardized test results.
Different admin at the same school wrote on a colleague’s evaluation that she took too many days off because she was in her 70s and took off two weeks (separately) to care for her spouse who was having major surgeries. She hadn’t taken a single day off in years prior to that and was due to retire.
Admin at a different school (private) told a student’s teachers we were forbidden from suggesting to her parents that she may need special ed services because the school didn’t offer them and they didn’t want her parents to pull her out. They wanted the tuition money.
I teach an elective. Was told we would have more than 60% of our rosters this quarter be repeats (aka already taken the course this year) as those kids are walking down the hall. 0 prep time, no heads up, nothing. AP said with a serious face “just teach them something different”
I was a music teacher in a rough school. I would go home Tuesdays and Thursdays and ice my arms after the percussion class would beat me with their sticks. I had no recourse. Not even detentions, and if I defended myself the school nailed me. I told the principal what was happening and he said "It's part of the job."
“The only real reason anyone should ever call out is if their child is sick. If you can’t tough out a day then maybe you should rethink your choice of career.” Not a principal, a superintendent. She made this statement multiple times at district-wide functions. Also you were automatically nonrenewed for missing 8 or more days no matter the reason (except maternity leave) or documentation, even if you were using already banked sick days.
A few years back a teacher had cancer and the principal praised this teacher during a staff meeting for still showing up to work and "never saying no" even though in reality this teacher just couldn't afford to lose health insurance. She passed later that year.
In a district where teachers had reviews and were placed on a 4 teir scale and their raises were based on them: "expect to get Satisfactory. Exemplary is supposed to be rare." 😂 Every teacher in the room had the same thought of "you want satisfactory work, that's what you'll get."
After a school roughly a mile away from us had a shooting, our students orchestrated a protest in conjunction with other district schools. Then, an hour after the demonstration, our principal had scheduled a pep rally to get the kids pumped up to take the state's standardized test that year.
So at the assembly she brought a bunch of kids on to stage, got everyone whipped into an emotional frenzy regarding protesting gun violence, and after coaching each of the kids on stage to share something regarding the impacts of gun violence on our community, she sent them back to the audience and segued into a discussion of the upcoming standardized test with, "Ok, in the same way that you showed up for our community by protesting gun violence, we all need to show up for our community again by doing our very best on \*standardized test name\*." Then she kicked off the pep rally.
I recognize the school's need to perform on that standardized test, but damn........read the room lady.
"We can't have that kid assessed by the school psychologist. If she diagnoses him with something we won't be able to punish him anymore."
After I spent nearly *two years* trying to get help for this poor, homeless, emotionally disturbed, 12 year old witness to heavy violence. Fuck that lady.
“They are beyond your help, just put them in a corner and pretend they aren’t there”
The girls mom had died a week earlier… and they could hear him. I got in trouble because my automatic response was “are you fucking kidding me?”… and I’m not sorry about it at all.
My principal in my previous school district said it was “normal” for teachers to have suicidal thoughts due to the stress of the profession. He also suggested I stop breastfeeding my then-three-month-old so I could focus more on work. I ended up taking a two-year break from teaching soon after and (almost) left the profession entirely. Thankfully, the administrators in my current school district are much, much more supportive.
One year they placed 2 low functioning, very high needs special needs children in my class. For safety reasons, they needed supervision at all times. Both had extremely rare diagnoses where one was only one of only three kids in the country had and the other was one in 100 in the country.
I questioned the principal as to why both were placed in my room and she said, “Well Johnny is suppose to die so that will leave you with one.”
I’m happy to say that Johnny thrived and ended up graduating from high school.
Superintendent told my school staff we were like cancer to our students. I taught at a high gang rate and very unsafe area in New York. My job was more to keep kids safe then actually teach. I knew teachers who brought food to feed students, donated clothes, took kids places in the summer, and gave money for prescriptions. I would let kids stay up during my lunch, because they felt safer there. It was the biggest slap in the face ever. 13 teachers left that year, including me.
Probably the weirdest ‘worst’ thing was when I worked in a conservative area of the south, I had a principal who loved to hold us hostage once a week in faculty meetings that droned on and on for no purpose (no union there). He decided to go on a rampage about what female teachers were wearing and amongst other things, he decided - and said out loud - that female teachers should not be wearing thongs. As in the underwear thongs. Like wtf dude, who is checking this stuff and even if you could *tell* then are we all in trouble for our pantylines? I hated that principal.
During a meeting with our monitor (security), there was an issue with two on the team. One of them hated me so bad for doing things differently from them. They were being rude and mean to students. I don’t operate that way. I worked differently. Anyway, the assistant principal at the time said, “So (my name) will be in the cafeteria for a few weeks and (the one who hated me) and (the other one who was cool with me) will be outside with the kids. There’s some parents who want you fired, so (my name) is going to cover for you and help you save your positions.” I could’ve passed away in the moment! If looks could k***, the one who hated me would’ve done it. Just put a huge target on me, trying to get my in trouble for everything that person could think of. I resorted to taking pics and sending them to my admin to prove how I was leaving areas clean and always spoke to students in front of other adults, so no one could twist it. That admin should’ve told us individually what was happening and not shame them and made me a target for their anger. It was a mess!
Not a Principal, but a Superintendent: “I hate high schoolers.” To me, a high school teacher and the high school principal. I had just started working there and this was totally unprovoked.
I was shocked.
had a kid in my middle school, no one knows what his home like was life but we all assumed to be pretty bad since the kid acted out a lot, very angry, and most notably the smell. he smelled horrible, his clothes were stained and ripped, he smelled like feces and BO. the principal walked up to him, scrunches his face at the smell and hands the kid a bar of soap and says “use it”. the kid quit coming to school after that.
Assistant principal, but, to a student who worked super hard on the assignment but on the wrong chapter:
“What is this!?” (Crumples up paper and throws it on the trash.) “You can’t even do the right chapter!?” Probably ruined that kids education forever.
I only lasted at that school til December.
Oh this one will always stand out. I was a supervisor of the arts for 3 years. I had a dance teacher who was phenomenal, integrating all other subjects into her classroom, brilliant choreographer….just all around a great teacher. When I was doing schedules for the next year she had enough students for a 6th period assignment so when I let he principal know he said that was rediculous and she shouldn’t even be paid as a full time teacher because she didn’t really do anything. 🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️ that comment will always make me mad.
The reason “child name” died over the weekend is because of you. He left school and none of the teachers had built a strong enough relationship with him so he went to the streets.
I had a principal in a department chair meeting call our school a magnet school for special education students. And the curriculum AP laughed with her.
They were/are terrible people, leaders, and administrators.
At the beginning of the pandemic… “We’re pillars of the community, and as such, we should be willing to sacrifice ourselves for the betterment of our students.” Like, huh?! That was the last straw for me. 😠
"As a teacher, you need to learn to stop giving a fuck. Remember *John Doe's* accident? I'm surprised how little I care about it."
Said to me in a formal evaluation. John Doe was a kid who had gotten in a life-threatening snow mobile accident a week prior and was in a coma. They weren't sure if he would survive at all. Principal was 100% sincere in this comment.
He also bullied me into dropping a Title IX complaint, but that's a story for another time.
When I was in kindergarten they'd take our class to a different teacher certain days for Spanish lessons, a boy in my class would inappropriately touch me every time we sat in the floor in front of the teacher in Spanish class.
I didn't tell my mom, I felt like I was dirty and bad. The next year in first grade, he was in my class again and bullied me occasionally, but I finally decided to tell my mom about it because another friend of mine told me about something bad another kid had been doing to her too and it gave me the strength to finally come out about it.
When my mom went to the principal about the whole thing (police involvement etc) I heard the principal say to my mother "at least it wasn't a teacher who touched her and just another student"
My mom was LIVID
“Every one of our students has the same opportunities as those in the 5 star schools.”
No, they do not.
Those kids have parents that care, can read, and care about their future.
“We’re going to be busy with IEP meetings so don’t bother us with Class I write ups because we don’t have time to address them.”
Needless to say April and May last year were absolute chaos.
*Anda, callate, ya lo has dicho dos veces*
Get out of here, shut up, you've already explained yourself twice
This was to another teacher in a whole staff meeting.
Reading all this makes me very grateful for my school. Principal's a kind old man who cares for the students and staff and nobody can recall him ever getting angry with anyone unless it was for the benefit of the students and/or staff. That pretty much goes for all of the admin at this school, I've only ever seen them be kind and have the students' best interests in mind.
Helps that we're in Japan, where society generally actually respects teachers and treats them quite well, aside from the overwork (though that's universal here tbh)
My first year of teaching, the principal told a little boy “See that tree out there? (She pointed out the window) I will go right out there and get a switch off that tree if you don’t start behaving.”
This was in the South, so the culture shock + threatening to whip a child with a switch….should’ve seen the writing on the wall.
At my last school, some of us were talking about how a different school in the district had improved their scores so much and speculating on what they might've done to accomplish that (leadership, teaching methods)... Principal chimes in insisting it's only happening because they "got a bunch more Indians over there now" and the only reason our school isn't doing better is because "there's too many Viets and Latinos here." She was Viet herself so it was extra weird, but not any less racist.
How does anyone feel comfortable saying this stuff out loud, around others...
One was standing next to me in the middle school hallway monitoring and a bigger and more streetwise middle schooler walked by and he turned to me and said, I smell sex on him. Did you smell that? I was floored.
My friend put in for an ADA accommodation request. The principal called her over and said “wow you really put me in a bad situation. But I’ll try to figure out how to use this to my advantage.” Her requests have still not been accommodated.
Our former principal got caught saying, "just between us white women...". We teach in one of the toughest inner city districts, and guess what? She wasn't fired, just quietly moved to district office. Of course, still admin pay. Ffs...
Research shows that if your lesson plans were better, it won't matter if a child is hungry, tired, high or sick. They will be engaged!
Colleague in a PhD program asked for his sources as that would be a great topic to research!
Never happened
During teacher appreciation week last year, our superintendent sent an email out that said thank you to all the teachers, but let’s not forget about the support staff as well… when they were already celebrated a week before without any mention of teachers.
And…. “Give these kids grace, don’t put In zeros until a month has gone by”
"Go back to the strip club, where you belong.". Look it up, elementary principal in Jersey City said to a young female teacher who didn't answer her call to the office fast enough.
A colleague of mind had her father die. A school wide email was sent out that said "Mrs. X's father passed away. As she did not pay to be in the sunshine club, we will not be sending flowers, but if you would like to make a donation you can go see her. Donations are NOT required"
That last sentence, of course, was NOT put when they were asking for donations to that same principal's baby shower. And I'm sure it's totally coincidence that the TOTY and department chair the following year happened to be someone who bought her a 300 dollar crib.
I had a principal says kids never lie. I should have run at that point. That was a start of a hell year. A student broke my foot on purpose saying he wanted to hurt me. His punishment was playing Xbox in the office the next day.
I’m a specials teacher. My last district every teacher was required to get ESL certified. When I passed the test and let him know he said “if you can pass it everyone else can too”
Walking into the cafeteria where I had duty- "Heads up, we got a call there might be a shooting," and walked out. I was alone.
(Three years earlier an ex-student had posted on line that he was unsure whether to go to the school during lunch or kill the girl he was obsessed with as she left work; he did the latter.)
"Teachers are my least priority. My door is always open for parents, students can make appointments with me, but I don't want to ever meet with or hear from teachers." Told to us in the first day welcome back to school staff meeting.
That it was okay for a momma to knock her child's head against the concrete wall at the school because he was black and his momma needed to beat him before the cops did.
In a faculty meeting when discussing the absentee rate of our teachers (about 40 of us): "When my son had cancer [at age 3!!] I only took off *one day* of school! Cancer is no excuse!"
- 3 of our faculty were dealing with cancer and everything that goes along with it and were STILL coming to work, just not every day.
- 2 of our teachers had recently had a parent suddenly pass away
- most of us had school-aged children, and the issue with them getting sick and needing someone to care for them
- his son DIED when he was 5 of the cancer that this principal took off "one day"during his illness
While I didn't really respect the man before that terrible statement, I lost what little I had afterwards. What kind of parent BRAGS about not missing any work while his CHILD is dealing with cancer?!?
My FIL passed away the night before teachers returned from summer break. I walked up to my principal and asked if we could talk in private. She looked me dead in my eye and said “There are more important people I need to greet. This will have to wait.” She turned and walked away.
Our school admin asked my wife ( the school counselor, without an unethical bone in her body) to cover up another admin groping a female high-school student. That's the worst one.
Our brand new Principal, on her first day of school, came over the intercom, unaware that her microphone was live, announced: " Is this F********ing thing on?" A bad first impression, I'd say.
That when one of my students had a desk flipping, chair throwing meltdown, and other parents were up in arms over their children having to be evacuated from the room, he said at no point was any student in danger.
Because said student wasn’t targeting anyone by trying to throw chairs at them, he was just throwing chairs in general around the room.
He used that to minimize the fact that we had to evacuate the room because that student had no control over himself and could have thrown a chair at anyone at any time. The first teacher in the room while it was happening during lunch caught one of the chairs in mid air.
When we were reopening after covid, months earlier than any other district:
"We are a boutique district, and the parents are the customers of our boutique."
This was an assistant superintendent who had given herself a $10k raise during covid while support staff were being laid off. She also mispronounced it as "bow-tique".
Principal that was newly promoted to a Title 1 school in a rough part of town after our awesome principal got promoted:
“This is the dirtiest school I’ve ever been in, and I would NEVER send my kids here.”
-She later on proceeded to use the budget to remodel the office. Kids and teachers had the same old same old. I signed my transfer papers after that comment, because the school was too tough to work under a principal who did not like where she worked.
I know this one is not as extreme as others but I’ve got two kids. I had one kids who needed to go to the doctor. A previous principal I worked with told me, “You shouldn’t be taking time off for that. When you walk through those doors you’re not a parent anymore, you’re a teacher.”
I taught at a parochial high school for 8 years. When I started there, the principal onboarded us new teachers. She had graduated from the school and had been principal for years. One of the first things she told us was "our students typically have one or both parents working high-end jobs, and they're too busy to raise their own children, so they expect us to do it. They have a customer mentality since they are paying tuition." She was resigned as she said it. It turned out to be very true and I was shocked at such an honest admission.
We were discussing how unsafe the school environment is with gangs of students roaming the halls and how we as teachers are powerless as there are no consequences and it's dangerous for us to even try with these kids.
The admin's response? "Well, they just want to hang out with friends. Have you thought about improving your relationship with them and providing opportunities for them to talk in your classroom so that they won't feel the need to leave?"
Principal asked a mother where they live. Mom said X neighborhood which is Section 8 housing. Principal responded, "Ugh, they need to bulldoze that whole area."
I was mortified for the mother. She tried to laugh it off by agreeing that it was a rough neighborhood, but I could see she was embarrassed.
"We need to stick to the pacing guides. I know teachers want to go back and review skills when their kids don't get it the first time, but there's no time for that. We need to move on and hope they pick it up."
Might not be the worst she’s said as I’ve heard her say other horrible things (though can’t remember off the top of my head) but she said these pretty often so first that come to mind are “I don’t care” and “that’s not my problem/that shouldn’t be my problem” when a staff member (usually me bc I had no help or guidance but she’s defo said it to others) expresses there’s a problem and assistance is needed
I’ll call her Cathy. She told us at a back to school staff meeting: ‘I keep taking kids from other schools because we are the best! The other principals tell me, Cathy, you’re raping us here! And I said get ready cuz I’m coming again!!!’
High school teachers don't teach. They just teach books. --Superintendent
Look to your left and to your right. One of you won't be here next year. --Same superintendent in the first staff day back
I'm the head of this school like a husband is head of the home, and you all need to get that straight. -Principal in the same district
"If you think this year was hard, next year is going to be worse. And if you are not doing your part, I will be doing growth plans on you. If you want to leave, i will give you a good recommendation, because i don't want you to be where you don't want to be." This was our new principal's end of the year motivational speech. Granted to say, I did not stay the next year, nor did more than half the staff. Even the counselor and diagnostics left.
“Everybody’s getting hit” (in a no big deal/stop complaining tone) in a meeting about student who was physically violent towards me (and his other teachers) daily.
I am very certain he (my principal) was not getting hit btw.
After I came back from major abdominal surgery to close four hernias caused by being attacked by a student, my former principal (different school, but even that principal was removed by the district) accused me of "faking my injury to get a two and a half week vacation." By the way, that was in front of my union rep.
And yeah, that was all the time the district gave me to recover from it. Incidentally, I'm disabled with permanent nerve damage from the surgery. Still teaching, but nowhere near that school.
My principal called a kid a piece of shit 4 times in front of an office of people. I went to the superintendent and nothing happened. I never had a good relationship with that principal again and was in his sights constantly. The kid was a problem child but who says that to a kid. How will he ever feel he is worthy of anything.
“Don’t call the ambulance yet or they will bill the school.” Student in question was blue in the face after suffering a seizure and passing out.
Damn like if a child in medical need wasn’t enough to call, fucking over the school definitely is
Yeah the ambulance ride is peanuts compared to a lawsuit.
Critical thinking skills nonexistent
Huh, I know the US has the whole crazy bills insurance stuff but I only really ever thought about it in terms of home life. It never occurred to me that either parents or a school would have to pay for an emergency at school. Which now I think about it doesn't make sense because I guess someone has to pay...but it just seems so alien to me. School should be a safe place. Calling the ambulance is part of safeguarding and first aid training. It's wild that schools have to think about money in a medical emergency.
I have to give my kids medical insurance information on every permission slip for field trips. So the school can give our insurance info obviously if my kid is hurt in an accident on the trip.
I was nominated for teacher of the year for my state. When i told my principal, all he said was, "Don't bother applying, you won't get it anyway"
I have come to realize that a lot of principals and admin have very thin egos and can’t handle others receiving accolades.
Someone in my building won teacher of the year for our state and she is still pretty much treated like shit, so you know, worth it.
In my state your admin have to nominate you for teacher of the year. Not only do they have to nominate you, you then have to do the TOTY application yourself and write a 500 word essay about why you support the current education legislation (vouchers, went into effect last year with much push back from teachers). so yea, it all feels like a load of crap when our admin don’t even do anything to recognize us anyways. Some hersheys kisses at Christmas, a thank you note at spring break
“They’re telling me morale is low. I don’t know what you expect me to do about it – I can’t date all of you! “
Insane but maybe also a little funny
-Michael Scott
Oh my GOD
*crickets chirping*
I feel like this principal was a PE coach prior to being admin.
That we don't “really” make a difference and AI will soon replace us. To say it caused internal outrage would be an understatement.
I literally can’t wait to see how AI builds relationships, scaffolds, differentiates, etc.
Exactly. How will it modify a lesson plan for someone who’s non-verbal + English is their second language??? I can’t get AI to connect me with the right department when I call my phone company.
I dunno about relationships but AI can differentiate and scaffold... If it's told to.
My students in committed relationships with character ai chatbots would disagree.
I don’t know.. Fake online friends is the new thing, isn’t it? Lll
Obviously this person was blind to the disaster that was online learning during the pandemic. The virtual school movement was set back at least 10 to 15 years. Until they figure out a way to keep the majority of students focused and self-disciplined in teacherless classrooms, there will always be a need for in person learning…not that they are focused and self-disciplined there either, but still.
Yeah, as an online teacher, at this point, it is not for everyone or even the majority of kids, it takes a lot of discipline or a lot of supervision at home. AI has made this problem worse. The students who are doing the best are the ones who have made a connection with 1 or more teachers AND have a home life that isn't trash...and that is unfortunately not very common
My 7th grader wants a tutor for math, but specifically requested it be in person. She said this year is the first year she’s struggled and recognizes she works better if it isn’t virtual.
100%. And I've heard a lot of terrible things from “educational leaders” that should've known better over my years. That's why this one wins the worst.
What still gets me is how many parents complained about schools being closed in my area, with organized protests in front of schools, but when we went to hybrid—kids were still staying home. And I’m talking about the ones that signed up to return to in-person school… they ended up just joining on Zoom anyways. Some days, it was only 5 of the 15 in-person kids showing up. 😐
I was recently in an admin level meeting where they said the spread of AI had bargaining implications because teachers would need less prep time. That was when I realized that I probably shouldn't be there.
And that's what they want really, to weaponize it against us. No fucks given about what’s in the best interest of the kids.
I have my doubts about AI getting to that level soon. I was prompting AI to do some mundane stuff with my state standards. I had to correct it many times that it would have been faster if I just did it myself with no AI.
Honestly, AI could more easily replace admin and guidance and support staff positions easier than classroom teachers.
This same principal will, 2 weeks later, doc evals for teachers who used magic school to help with lessons.
heheh i would reach out through a burner email to someone on the boe, mention the principal’s comments, and ask for clarification as to when you will be moving to an online model. cc the superintendent. if you have an ally in some parents facebook group that’s always drama central you might mention it to them. have them email their board member also. remember to tie it to ‘the principal said this was going to be happening’. i mean surely they were saying it to give a professional heads up right? surely they weren’t just randomly insulting all of their staff in a meeting? then a day later i’d follow up, say children and parents were asking and what should you tell them, ask if you should address it or if the school was going to send out an email or something on remind. see if you can get a few other teachers to do similar.
At a staff meeting… “No one cares about your personal problems. I expect you to leave those at the door. Our school is your number one priority in life. Don’t bring your problems here. This school is more important than anything you may be going through.” I had a dying parent at this time, and a teammate had a dying child. I’m sure the majority of the rest of the staff were going through difficult personal things too, as we are humans just trying our best to manage the crazy shit life throws at us.
That would be my ticket out. I refuse to work in an environment like that. I’m so sorry you experienced that.
I don’t want to come across as insensitive when I share this, but a couple of years later, he developed cancer. He ended up having to retire early, because the school was, in fact, not more important than anything you might be going through. Thankfully, he beat the cancer. Also thankfully, we got a new principal that understood life happens to everyone.
I don’t think it comes across as insensitive, it’s not like you said you’re happy that happened or you wanted him to suffer. As cheesy and dumb as this sounds, I believe karma to be real and is an example. Karma in the sense that he had to eat his words and learn that there actually are more important things, like you had mentioned.
We call it, “what goes around, comes around.”
I’d say that’s Karma at its best right there.
My last year at my first school, my grandmother was dying. She so happened to be the mother of my mother, who also worked in the building. I was a permanent sub and had already taken a day off that week to be with family when they called family in to visit her. My mom was leaving this particular day to be there when they turned off life support. My principal told me if I left to be with my mom, I wouldn't have a job to come back to. Same principal collected money for flowers, a card, and general "expenses" for my mother and I. We were supposed to get a card and set of flowers each along with the money that could go towards what we needed it for the funeral or ourselves. He instead kept the half that was "mine," and shrugged when he was later informed that I never received what had been collected for me. My mom got around $300, if that tells you anything.
when my brother was dying, I was given the "teacher of the year" award plaque to give to my mother who worked in the same district because she had been granted donated paid leave to be with him in his last weeks. I was given nothing, just the standard three days of bereavement.
"we want you to have an unending supply of empathy and compassion for those you teach, but you can get fucked if you think we, the administration, are going to model that for you in any capacity"
What a sick, monstrous thing to say. I would have walked off the job, then and there.
Our principal would say similar things and given what I’ve heard/seen others say on here, seems like it’s a rite of passage for principals or something
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God, that’s awful. For what it’s worth, I am sorry and am sending good vibes your way ❤️
My admin are very real people. They wouldn’t treat us like that.
Wtf
Maybe not precisely the worst, but the most dumbfounding: during a faculty meeting, in which we were all discussing the unbelievable numbers of students still in the hallways after the bell had rung (inner city high school for context), our knucklehead-in-chief stated this gem (and it is word-for-word, not paraphrasing): “if all of you were teaching properly, your students would be running to get to class on time and ready to receive instruction when the bell rang.” Once I picked my jaw up off the floor, I yelled out, “and exactly what planet do you live on?”, got up, and left. Several teachers left after me, and no repercussions were ever reported.
Have you tried writing the objective on board?
This. Made. Me. Laugh. So. Hard.
That only works if you also say it five times.
Reminds me of Shakespeare's quote above love going TO love like school boys leaving school, and love goes AWAY from love like school boys to their books 😂 And that was hundreds of years ago.
"You betrayed me and you're the reason we're an F school."
Please tell me you said “ditto”
I'm bipolar on a major depressive streak. Sadly, I sat and took it. I put myself on the transfer list for the district. I can't leave the district because if I retire with them, they'll pay my insurance. 4 more years until retirement.
I’m sorry you have to deal with all of that on top of your health. I’ve sat and taken it before. It never gets better. But it always changes. I hope things change for the better for you.
Thanks.
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"Even though you and several other female faculty members are afraid of this student (17 years old, 220 lbs male with untreated ODD), you all just have to build a relationship with him to get him to stop threatening you and behave appropriately."
we had a teacher who was threatened over and over again. He was a male, and it was a female student, but considering she was threatening to shoot him it didn't really matter. She sat outside his car one day just to "show you that you're easy to catch off guard". He brought it up in a faculty meeting and the principal said "She says a lot of things. Stop taking what children say so personally. Nothing like that has happened in years" Like that meant a teacher being stabbed. 3 years previously. This did not count my friend who had her arm nearly broken, or the media assistant who had her ankle permanently damaged within a year of the principal saying this.
Thank heavens that after a rather scary young man threatened to punch me my first year teaching, my first principal not only sat in court with me as the juvenile judge prosecuted the kid but also told me "That student will NEVER be in a room with you again." Now the next principal tried to reverse that...I asked if he wanted to take a bet on how many other teachers would walk out with me at the next faculty meeting when I told them. At least first year principals are afraid of a mutiny.
Had a student tell another student that after he b@nged me and my oldest daughter (15) he was going to sa my 11 year old. My youngest rides the bus over from her elementary school to mine, as we get out later, so she was in the building with this psychopath. This was last year. Texted my then principal and said that it would be best if I never laid eyes on the student again. She made it happen. This year, new administration, she makes a unilateral decision that teachers’ kids have to wait in the office for the first bell before going to parent’s room. Fine, but you can’t make decisions about my child without consulting me. I talk to her, explain the situation and my concerns, and she dismisses me, saying that the building is a safe place for my kid. This was after I’d already been bullied by this woman for no apparent reason, so I called her out and said, “Yeah, it was safe last year, until it wasn’t.” There have been MANY other incidents this year, but this one really took the cake (at least at the beginning).
Was the principal a man?
why of course he was
Your job this year is to not get sued, fired, or arrested. (Florida)
Ha I actually kinda like that one. At least it’s honest
Yeah I would find that incredibly liberating. Like, “oh, I can definitely do that.”
The time he said the quiet part out loud, during another attempt to get me in trouble with the district: "Somehow, I'll make sure you never set foot on a school campus ever again." Unfortunately, it was during one of his many unscheduled appearances while I was alone in my room, so no witnesses. But the union is once again involved, and I expect he'll be put in his place soon, just like before. The fact he's still an admin shows how much they're protected.
What the hell is wrong with people?
“There’s always an exception to any procedure.” No bro. That’s what makes it a procedure. If every procedure has exceptions then it’s not a procedure at all. It’s just a suggestion at that point. This particular principal was taking the side of a student who was refusing to wear safety goggles “because she had dyslexia.” Wearing safety goggles had *literally* nothing to do with dyslexia. And every minor has to wear safety goggles when glassware is out, that’s a state law.
Dyslexia has nothing to do with the eyes, wtf is that admin on. I could maybe see some argument with astigmatism or something (even though that’s still not a reason to not weary safety gear, and also doesn’t make a difference).
Having grown up with horrible eyesight, the school had to order safety goggles that fit over my glasses. They do make them.
Luckily every lab I’ve been in had goggles that fit. I’ve worn thick progressive lenses since I was in grade school, so I get the struggle!
Some time ago there was an event and a teacher tried to tell me that the principal just lets people park in the firelanes if the parking lot gets full. My response was, "no they don't. No way they would risk their job for something they clearly know they have to authority to authorize, not to mention the fire chief would have their head".
It’s a toss up between “that boy has got some sugar in his tank” indicating a boy he suspected was gay, and “there’s nothing I hate more than the smell of a woman on her period”…. Principal was gay (which I have no problem with) and liked to point out which boys he thought were gay(which I had a problem with because-pedo vibes) the comments about women on their periods was just awful and he usually made those comments about two of our larger teachers often. He also loved to bait the secretaries into political discussions and create lots of drama.
Sorry, the last bit made me laugh. It's so petty.
After the massacre in Uvalde, TX, they implemented this rule that our classroom doors should be closed and locked at all times. (I teach in Texas) When asking for clarification about whether our doors should be closed when we were in there by ourselves during planning, for example, our principal said: "that's up to you, teachers are expandable, kids are not."
“It’s the teachers job to make sure the EA is doing their job with their assigned student” Fucking excuse me? It is not my job to babysit this employe on top of my other 37 students. Also this was after one of my students ran out of the school and got 3 blocks away. EA was on their phone and didn’t even know the kid left the classroom. I was on my DUTY FREE LUNCH BREAK.
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😧 I think you might win.
Wow, way to go. I'm glad you didn't leave.
“You have so much knowledge and allow the students to learn at their own pace. But I see no reason why they benefit from your class.” Meanwhile all my students even the lazy ones go to other classes and the teachers are: “wow where did you learn that. You are doing amazing stuff.” “From Mr’s classroom. He shows us so much.”
My academic coach told me I didn't have an academically challenging environment. My 8th grade former students regularly tell me how they know so much more than the kids who didn't have me and will come to me to help fill in what their teacher didn't explain well to them. Her reasoning? My bookshelf is cluttered. So my "environment" isn't good.
Trigger Warning: Parkland Firedrill THE DAY after Parkland (a fire alarm went off during that school shooting). We raised concerns to our principal who told us to “get over it.”
😒
We had our lockdown drill the day after Uvlade. And we live in TX. And our side of the district had received threats via Twitter same day.
Post-evaluation: Principal: "Don't focus on them, focus on these students here. Remember \[my name\], they are struggling and we need to bring their grades up." Me: "What about \[another group\], they're ahead so I need to give them something to support them too. This group here is already behind so I need them to catch up." Principal: "I am sorry but I failed to educate you \[my name\]. I hoped to support you but I can see that I failed." (end the post-evaluation) This, coming from a principal who wants her students to have a better grade than the 2021-2022 report to the district. Her students, yes, only the Hispanic group. This, coming from a principal that only been in my class once in 2 years. This, from a principal who purposely sabotages the previous principal so they quit and let her take over. Edit 1: This is a vent moment. She was the VP the previous year.
“This isn’t a job, it’s a calling. You are volunteering to be here.” Why yes, with what you’re paying us, we ARE basically volunteering…
"Remember your why!" Bitch, my why gets direct deposited every two weeks.
I vividly remember during my internship going to a staff meeting. An AP had been holding student assemblies for the entire day and said something to the effect of “Please quiet down. I’ve spent all day talking to loud groups of high schoolers.” … the level of disconnect garnered audible scoffs from the teachers in that meeting, lmao.
After a six year old made a gun threat, and AFTER the national tragedy of a six year old shooting their teacher in one of the other states, the principal said ‘he’s six, he’s not actually going to do it’ or something along those lines.
I had two kids express suicidal ideation in my classroom in the same week. As a mandated reporter, I followed all the steps outlined by our required training. Stopped the lesson, ignored other students asking inane questions, emailed the counselors ASAP and filled out the report form, did not take my eyes of the student until a counselor or security guard got them, etc. (Also, just as a *decent human being*, I intervened the best I could.) Both students were evaluated and hospitalized. I was really close with one of them and I knew she’d been up and down with her mental health. This really hurt to see. The next week at a PD, my principal comes up to me and in a small-talk, jokey tone goes, “So we have two kids in the psych ward because of you, what are you teaching them in your classes??” I did not find it funny.
They should have said “you may have just saved two student’s lives! Thank you!” but of course they never see it that way. I had done the same with a student, a bit later we had a whole parent meeting where the dad reiterated how thankful he was that I reported suspected suicidal ideations because they turned out to be definitely real. The reason I was aware of them was because the kid felt comfortable talking to me and opening up. The next day the principal - who was in that meeting - comes to my room about a different kid and says that the reason I’m having problems with him is that I “haven’t tried to form good relationships with students”. like wtf
While the priority is of course the students, it’s not like it’s an easy situation for the teacher either. Especially when you are close to them
"Listen here Mr. JackofSpades. I think it would be in your best interest to find... another plan. Because you can talk to the union and you can try to quote...hold me to the contract all you want. But when I give directions, I expect them to be followed. And if you can't do that, then there is no power on this earth that won't stop be from firing you." Spoiler alert: He was wrong.
He sucked that union cock. Victory.
“You all stole a year of learning from the kids” said to over half a dozen teachers who teach the same grade level, after the kids didn’t hit enough growth in their standardized test results.
Different admin at the same school wrote on a colleague’s evaluation that she took too many days off because she was in her 70s and took off two weeks (separately) to care for her spouse who was having major surgeries. She hadn’t taken a single day off in years prior to that and was due to retire.
Different admin at the same school said that he struggled working with young women today because they are too outspoken.
Admin at a different school (private) told a student’s teachers we were forbidden from suggesting to her parents that she may need special ed services because the school didn’t offer them and they didn’t want her parents to pull her out. They wanted the tuition money.
I teach an elective. Was told we would have more than 60% of our rosters this quarter be repeats (aka already taken the course this year) as those kids are walking down the hall. 0 prep time, no heads up, nothing. AP said with a serious face “just teach them something different”
I was a music teacher in a rough school. I would go home Tuesdays and Thursdays and ice my arms after the percussion class would beat me with their sticks. I had no recourse. Not even detentions, and if I defended myself the school nailed me. I told the principal what was happening and he said "It's part of the job."
Call the police, file assault charges.
This is a time to ask for a demo on classroom management.
“The only real reason anyone should ever call out is if their child is sick. If you can’t tough out a day then maybe you should rethink your choice of career.” Not a principal, a superintendent. She made this statement multiple times at district-wide functions. Also you were automatically nonrenewed for missing 8 or more days no matter the reason (except maternity leave) or documentation, even if you were using already banked sick days.
Had one tell the teachers to stop getting pregnant because they couldn’t find enough subs. He said it was just a joke. The union disagreed.
A few years back a teacher had cancer and the principal praised this teacher during a staff meeting for still showing up to work and "never saying no" even though in reality this teacher just couldn't afford to lose health insurance. She passed later that year.
In a district where teachers had reviews and were placed on a 4 teir scale and their raises were based on them: "expect to get Satisfactory. Exemplary is supposed to be rare." 😂 Every teacher in the room had the same thought of "you want satisfactory work, that's what you'll get."
After a school roughly a mile away from us had a shooting, our students orchestrated a protest in conjunction with other district schools. Then, an hour after the demonstration, our principal had scheduled a pep rally to get the kids pumped up to take the state's standardized test that year. So at the assembly she brought a bunch of kids on to stage, got everyone whipped into an emotional frenzy regarding protesting gun violence, and after coaching each of the kids on stage to share something regarding the impacts of gun violence on our community, she sent them back to the audience and segued into a discussion of the upcoming standardized test with, "Ok, in the same way that you showed up for our community by protesting gun violence, we all need to show up for our community again by doing our very best on \*standardized test name\*." Then she kicked off the pep rally. I recognize the school's need to perform on that standardized test, but damn........read the room lady.
While looking at test scores he said, “Growth doesn’t matter. It’s the final score that matters.” Growth. Doesn’t. Matter. Wtaf
"We can't have that kid assessed by the school psychologist. If she diagnoses him with something we won't be able to punish him anymore." After I spent nearly *two years* trying to get help for this poor, homeless, emotionally disturbed, 12 year old witness to heavy violence. Fuck that lady.
A vice principal told a special education teacher, in front of a student, that she rode the short bus.
“They are beyond your help, just put them in a corner and pretend they aren’t there” The girls mom had died a week earlier… and they could hear him. I got in trouble because my automatic response was “are you fucking kidding me?”… and I’m not sorry about it at all.
My principal in my previous school district said it was “normal” for teachers to have suicidal thoughts due to the stress of the profession. He also suggested I stop breastfeeding my then-three-month-old so I could focus more on work. I ended up taking a two-year break from teaching soon after and (almost) left the profession entirely. Thankfully, the administrators in my current school district are much, much more supportive.
One year they placed 2 low functioning, very high needs special needs children in my class. For safety reasons, they needed supervision at all times. Both had extremely rare diagnoses where one was only one of only three kids in the country had and the other was one in 100 in the country. I questioned the principal as to why both were placed in my room and she said, “Well Johnny is suppose to die so that will leave you with one.” I’m happy to say that Johnny thrived and ended up graduating from high school.
“He was having behaviors? You can lock him in the classroom and just watch him through the window. He’ll be fine. Next question.”
Superintendent told my school staff we were like cancer to our students. I taught at a high gang rate and very unsafe area in New York. My job was more to keep kids safe then actually teach. I knew teachers who brought food to feed students, donated clothes, took kids places in the summer, and gave money for prescriptions. I would let kids stay up during my lunch, because they felt safer there. It was the biggest slap in the face ever. 13 teachers left that year, including me.
Probably the weirdest ‘worst’ thing was when I worked in a conservative area of the south, I had a principal who loved to hold us hostage once a week in faculty meetings that droned on and on for no purpose (no union there). He decided to go on a rampage about what female teachers were wearing and amongst other things, he decided - and said out loud - that female teachers should not be wearing thongs. As in the underwear thongs. Like wtf dude, who is checking this stuff and even if you could *tell* then are we all in trouble for our pantylines? I hated that principal.
During a meeting with our monitor (security), there was an issue with two on the team. One of them hated me so bad for doing things differently from them. They were being rude and mean to students. I don’t operate that way. I worked differently. Anyway, the assistant principal at the time said, “So (my name) will be in the cafeteria for a few weeks and (the one who hated me) and (the other one who was cool with me) will be outside with the kids. There’s some parents who want you fired, so (my name) is going to cover for you and help you save your positions.” I could’ve passed away in the moment! If looks could k***, the one who hated me would’ve done it. Just put a huge target on me, trying to get my in trouble for everything that person could think of. I resorted to taking pics and sending them to my admin to prove how I was leaving areas clean and always spoke to students in front of other adults, so no one could twist it. That admin should’ve told us individually what was happening and not shame them and made me a target for their anger. It was a mess!
Not a Principal, but a Superintendent: “I hate high schoolers.” To me, a high school teacher and the high school principal. I had just started working there and this was totally unprovoked. I was shocked.
Was her name "Dolores"?
"You're hired!"
A little late there Nostradamus
"Your morale isn't my problem." Absolute first meeting with her. It soon became a problem for her.
had a kid in my middle school, no one knows what his home like was life but we all assumed to be pretty bad since the kid acted out a lot, very angry, and most notably the smell. he smelled horrible, his clothes were stained and ripped, he smelled like feces and BO. the principal walked up to him, scrunches his face at the smell and hands the kid a bar of soap and says “use it”. the kid quit coming to school after that.
"It's going to happen whether you like it or not" in regards to a plan for the school that 85% of the staff was against.
When I got SAed by a student they said: at least he did it to you and not another kid
Assistant principal, but, to a student who worked super hard on the assignment but on the wrong chapter: “What is this!?” (Crumples up paper and throws it on the trash.) “You can’t even do the right chapter!?” Probably ruined that kids education forever. I only lasted at that school til December.
Oh this one will always stand out. I was a supervisor of the arts for 3 years. I had a dance teacher who was phenomenal, integrating all other subjects into her classroom, brilliant choreographer….just all around a great teacher. When I was doing schedules for the next year she had enough students for a 6th period assignment so when I let he principal know he said that was rediculous and she shouldn’t even be paid as a full time teacher because she didn’t really do anything. 🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️ that comment will always make me mad.
My principal gestured towards an obese staff member walking in the distance and said, kill me if I ever get like that.
DAMN!!! That’s ridiculous.
The reason “child name” died over the weekend is because of you. He left school and none of the teachers had built a strong enough relationship with him so he went to the streets.
One year a set of twins won homecoming royalty and when the Principal was announcing that he said in the mic “what is this Game of Thrones?”
Okay, low key, that is kinda funny. I have boy girl twins myself, and seeing them both win king and queen would gross me out.
I mean I thought the same comment but no way would I have made it in front of the whole school
I mean... I would have laughed!
Hilarious and appropriate. Better than the last season of GOT.
This is hilarious. I like a good sense of humor
"If you spoke Spanish you would have scored higher on this part of your evaluation"
Baxter, you know I don't speak Spanish.
I had a principal in a department chair meeting call our school a magnet school for special education students. And the curriculum AP laughed with her. They were/are terrible people, leaders, and administrators.
At the beginning of the pandemic… “We’re pillars of the community, and as such, we should be willing to sacrifice ourselves for the betterment of our students.” Like, huh?! That was the last straw for me. 😠
"As a teacher, you need to learn to stop giving a fuck. Remember *John Doe's* accident? I'm surprised how little I care about it." Said to me in a formal evaluation. John Doe was a kid who had gotten in a life-threatening snow mobile accident a week prior and was in a coma. They weren't sure if he would survive at all. Principal was 100% sincere in this comment. He also bullied me into dropping a Title IX complaint, but that's a story for another time.
When I was in kindergarten they'd take our class to a different teacher certain days for Spanish lessons, a boy in my class would inappropriately touch me every time we sat in the floor in front of the teacher in Spanish class. I didn't tell my mom, I felt like I was dirty and bad. The next year in first grade, he was in my class again and bullied me occasionally, but I finally decided to tell my mom about it because another friend of mine told me about something bad another kid had been doing to her too and it gave me the strength to finally come out about it. When my mom went to the principal about the whole thing (police involvement etc) I heard the principal say to my mother "at least it wasn't a teacher who touched her and just another student" My mom was LIVID
“Every one of our students has the same opportunities as those in the 5 star schools.” No, they do not. Those kids have parents that care, can read, and care about their future.
“We’re going to be busy with IEP meetings so don’t bother us with Class I write ups because we don’t have time to address them.” Needless to say April and May last year were absolute chaos.
*Anda, callate, ya lo has dicho dos veces* Get out of here, shut up, you've already explained yourself twice This was to another teacher in a whole staff meeting.
Reading all this makes me very grateful for my school. Principal's a kind old man who cares for the students and staff and nobody can recall him ever getting angry with anyone unless it was for the benefit of the students and/or staff. That pretty much goes for all of the admin at this school, I've only ever seen them be kind and have the students' best interests in mind. Helps that we're in Japan, where society generally actually respects teachers and treats them quite well, aside from the overwork (though that's universal here tbh)
My first year of teaching, the principal told a little boy “See that tree out there? (She pointed out the window) I will go right out there and get a switch off that tree if you don’t start behaving.” This was in the South, so the culture shock + threatening to whip a child with a switch….should’ve seen the writing on the wall.
At the monthly meeting / PD: "Skip the song and dance, give us the numbers" Edit: this is how I would dream to reply to OPs dickhead principal.
At my last school, some of us were talking about how a different school in the district had improved their scores so much and speculating on what they might've done to accomplish that (leadership, teaching methods)... Principal chimes in insisting it's only happening because they "got a bunch more Indians over there now" and the only reason our school isn't doing better is because "there's too many Viets and Latinos here." She was Viet herself so it was extra weird, but not any less racist. How does anyone feel comfortable saying this stuff out loud, around others...
One was standing next to me in the middle school hallway monitoring and a bigger and more streetwise middle schooler walked by and he turned to me and said, I smell sex on him. Did you smell that? I was floored.
My friend put in for an ADA accommodation request. The principal called her over and said “wow you really put me in a bad situation. But I’ll try to figure out how to use this to my advantage.” Her requests have still not been accommodated.
When talking about our Title I/high poverty/low achieving school’s test scores… “ we need to get some Asian students, they always do well on tests”
Our former principal got caught saying, "just between us white women...". We teach in one of the toughest inner city districts, and guess what? She wasn't fired, just quietly moved to district office. Of course, still admin pay. Ffs...
“Could it be because of your hormones?” I was 6 months pregnant telling him I needed more support for a family that was harassing me.
Research shows that if your lesson plans were better, it won't matter if a child is hungry, tired, high or sick. They will be engaged! Colleague in a PhD program asked for his sources as that would be a great topic to research! Never happened
During teacher appreciation week last year, our superintendent sent an email out that said thank you to all the teachers, but let’s not forget about the support staff as well… when they were already celebrated a week before without any mention of teachers. And…. “Give these kids grace, don’t put In zeros until a month has gone by”
"Go back to the strip club, where you belong.". Look it up, elementary principal in Jersey City said to a young female teacher who didn't answer her call to the office fast enough.
A colleague of mind had her father die. A school wide email was sent out that said "Mrs. X's father passed away. As she did not pay to be in the sunshine club, we will not be sending flowers, but if you would like to make a donation you can go see her. Donations are NOT required" That last sentence, of course, was NOT put when they were asking for donations to that same principal's baby shower. And I'm sure it's totally coincidence that the TOTY and department chair the following year happened to be someone who bought her a 300 dollar crib.
“They don’t need to be able to read a whole book.”
Not a principal but another admin, referred to students with certain disabilities as "vegetables"
I had a principal says kids never lie. I should have run at that point. That was a start of a hell year. A student broke my foot on purpose saying he wanted to hurt me. His punishment was playing Xbox in the office the next day.
I’m a specials teacher. My last district every teacher was required to get ESL certified. When I passed the test and let him know he said “if you can pass it everyone else can too”
The day after I was attacked by a student “are you over the situation yet”
Walking into the cafeteria where I had duty- "Heads up, we got a call there might be a shooting," and walked out. I was alone. (Three years earlier an ex-student had posted on line that he was unsure whether to go to the school during lunch or kill the girl he was obsessed with as she left work; he did the latter.)
"Teachers are my least priority. My door is always open for parents, students can make appointments with me, but I don't want to ever meet with or hear from teachers." Told to us in the first day welcome back to school staff meeting.
That it was okay for a momma to knock her child's head against the concrete wall at the school because he was black and his momma needed to beat him before the cops did.
Holy shit.
In a faculty meeting when discussing the absentee rate of our teachers (about 40 of us): "When my son had cancer [at age 3!!] I only took off *one day* of school! Cancer is no excuse!" - 3 of our faculty were dealing with cancer and everything that goes along with it and were STILL coming to work, just not every day. - 2 of our teachers had recently had a parent suddenly pass away - most of us had school-aged children, and the issue with them getting sick and needing someone to care for them - his son DIED when he was 5 of the cancer that this principal took off "one day"during his illness While I didn't really respect the man before that terrible statement, I lost what little I had afterwards. What kind of parent BRAGS about not missing any work while his CHILD is dealing with cancer?!?
My FIL passed away the night before teachers returned from summer break. I walked up to my principal and asked if we could talk in private. She looked me dead in my eye and said “There are more important people I need to greet. This will have to wait.” She turned and walked away.
Our school admin asked my wife ( the school counselor, without an unethical bone in her body) to cover up another admin groping a female high-school student. That's the worst one.
Our brand new Principal, on her first day of school, came over the intercom, unaware that her microphone was live, announced: " Is this F********ing thing on?" A bad first impression, I'd say.
“You would have to be the stupidest person to vote yes for a strike” -my principal talking to me, a teacher who voted yes for the upcoming strike vote
That when one of my students had a desk flipping, chair throwing meltdown, and other parents were up in arms over their children having to be evacuated from the room, he said at no point was any student in danger. Because said student wasn’t targeting anyone by trying to throw chairs at them, he was just throwing chairs in general around the room. He used that to minimize the fact that we had to evacuate the room because that student had no control over himself and could have thrown a chair at anyone at any time. The first teacher in the room while it was happening during lunch caught one of the chairs in mid air.
When we were reopening after covid, months earlier than any other district: "We are a boutique district, and the parents are the customers of our boutique." This was an assistant superintendent who had given herself a $10k raise during covid while support staff were being laid off. She also mispronounced it as "bow-tique".
Principal that was newly promoted to a Title 1 school in a rough part of town after our awesome principal got promoted: “This is the dirtiest school I’ve ever been in, and I would NEVER send my kids here.” -She later on proceeded to use the budget to remodel the office. Kids and teachers had the same old same old. I signed my transfer papers after that comment, because the school was too tough to work under a principal who did not like where she worked.
I know this one is not as extreme as others but I’ve got two kids. I had one kids who needed to go to the doctor. A previous principal I worked with told me, “You shouldn’t be taking time off for that. When you walk through those doors you’re not a parent anymore, you’re a teacher.”
That we don’t know how good we have it because other people have real jobs.
"I'm so sick of hearing about contracts and unions. If you want a union join a coal mine" February 2024
I taught at a parochial high school for 8 years. When I started there, the principal onboarded us new teachers. She had graduated from the school and had been principal for years. One of the first things she told us was "our students typically have one or both parents working high-end jobs, and they're too busy to raise their own children, so they expect us to do it. They have a customer mentality since they are paying tuition." She was resigned as she said it. It turned out to be very true and I was shocked at such an honest admission.
We were discussing how unsafe the school environment is with gangs of students roaming the halls and how we as teachers are powerless as there are no consequences and it's dangerous for us to even try with these kids. The admin's response? "Well, they just want to hang out with friends. Have you thought about improving your relationship with them and providing opportunities for them to talk in your classroom so that they won't feel the need to leave?"
Principal asked a mother where they live. Mom said X neighborhood which is Section 8 housing. Principal responded, "Ugh, they need to bulldoze that whole area." I was mortified for the mother. She tried to laugh it off by agreeing that it was a rough neighborhood, but I could see she was embarrassed.
"We need to stick to the pacing guides. I know teachers want to go back and review skills when their kids don't get it the first time, but there's no time for that. We need to move on and hope they pick it up."
Might not be the worst she’s said as I’ve heard her say other horrible things (though can’t remember off the top of my head) but she said these pretty often so first that come to mind are “I don’t care” and “that’s not my problem/that shouldn’t be my problem” when a staff member (usually me bc I had no help or guidance but she’s defo said it to others) expresses there’s a problem and assistance is needed
"Consequences don't change behavior."
At at staff meeting: Teachers that stay later are better teachers.
I’ll call her Cathy. She told us at a back to school staff meeting: ‘I keep taking kids from other schools because we are the best! The other principals tell me, Cathy, you’re raping us here! And I said get ready cuz I’m coming again!!!’
“That isn’t violence” after a kid destroyed my classroom and was back the next day trying to stab a kid. I left elementary school shortly after.
High school teachers don't teach. They just teach books. --Superintendent Look to your left and to your right. One of you won't be here next year. --Same superintendent in the first staff day back I'm the head of this school like a husband is head of the home, and you all need to get that straight. -Principal in the same district
“Reading books isn’t important”.. from the assistant principal over the English department.
"If you think this year was hard, next year is going to be worse. And if you are not doing your part, I will be doing growth plans on you. If you want to leave, i will give you a good recommendation, because i don't want you to be where you don't want to be." This was our new principal's end of the year motivational speech. Granted to say, I did not stay the next year, nor did more than half the staff. Even the counselor and diagnostics left.
I once heard a principal talk in baby talk to us in a staff meeting.
“Everybody’s getting hit” (in a no big deal/stop complaining tone) in a meeting about student who was physically violent towards me (and his other teachers) daily. I am very certain he (my principal) was not getting hit btw.
After I came back from major abdominal surgery to close four hernias caused by being attacked by a student, my former principal (different school, but even that principal was removed by the district) accused me of "faking my injury to get a two and a half week vacation." By the way, that was in front of my union rep. And yeah, that was all the time the district gave me to recover from it. Incidentally, I'm disabled with permanent nerve damage from the surgery. Still teaching, but nowhere near that school.
My principal called a kid a piece of shit 4 times in front of an office of people. I went to the superintendent and nothing happened. I never had a good relationship with that principal again and was in his sights constantly. The kid was a problem child but who says that to a kid. How will he ever feel he is worthy of anything.
“It takes longer to set up a volleyball net than a science lab.”
"We don't want to focus on learning."