School's out for Summer!-AMA

[Bowser]

Are private schools an option? Maybe Catholic schools?

[Chiefspants]

Originally Posted by Bowser

Are private schools an option? Maybe Catholic schools?

In my experience charters are unfortunately far worse when it comes to parents running the show.

At my first school I taught at, we had an eighth grade student who put hand sanitizer into a teacher’s coffee and when he got caught (who knows how long he’d been doing it), we finally had him dead to rights after other students reported harassment, bullying, vandalism, etc.

It was explained to us by admin that his parents donated 15K a year and we just needed to “survive the semester” as his third grade brother would still be in the school for five more years (and the other student would be graduated). Talking to other teachers, this was pretty par for the course for charters/private schools in the area.

So yeah, that’s neat.

[Bowser]

Originally Posted by Chiefspants

In my experience charters are unfortunately far worse when it comes to parents running the show.

At my first school I taught at, we had an eighth grade student who put hand sanitizer into a teacher’s coffee and when he got caught (who knows how long he’d been doing it), we finally had him dead to rights after other students reported harassment, bullying, vandalism, etc.

It was explained to us by admin that his parents donated 15K a year and we just needed to “survive the semester” as his third grade brother would still be in the school for five more years (and the other student would be graduated). Talking to other teachers, this was pretty par for the course for charters/private schools in the area.

So yeah, that’s neat.

FFS. I shouldn't be shocked to hear that, but still...

[Chiefspants]

Originally Posted by Bowser

FFS. I shouldn't be shocked to hear that, but still...

Even as a teacher, situations like this are absolutely baffling to me. I felt more protection from my manager at my college dining hall than I do from parents as a teacher.

The reason why I left that school was even worse. We had a 6th grade girl who refused to sit in her seat and would carry a crayon and draw on classroom walls (she was gifted and loved to tell teachers how their classes were beneath her despite failing multiple classes). Similar situation where we were strongly pushed by admin to react to her “gifts” with “compassion”.

Well, one day this student decides to book it from a teacher’s room. This teacher had taught for 25 years in Los Angeles and was one of our most respected teachers in the building. The teacher immediately notifies our principal and asks me (it was my plan) if I could inform the secretary that this student had run off. I do just that, and it should be cut and dry, right?

Well, 2 hours later that secretary calls me during advisory and asks me to send that student to the office (her parents were there). I was like “uh, she’s missing, remember?”

We came to find out that the Principal wasn’t even in the building. Zero idea what they were doing (found out later they were rarely even in the building and they left for a new gig at the end of the year). The student ended up walking across a highway to an Outback Steakhouse and was chilling a mile and a half off our campus. How does the school respond?

By turning on the respected teacher, of course! The parents threaten to sue and the school immediately sides with the parent and informs the teacher of such. The teacher walked out of the job the next morning and they decided to drop the case due to that (the student later would brag she “got the teacher fired”.)

After seeing in such a shocking and irrefutably way that the school had zero loyalty to its staff, I started applying for new jobs the next day.