April came around. For those who are not in the know, April is the dreaded month of state tests. For a full two weeks, plus a bit if necessary, our little elementary school had to shut down all normal functions and devote nearly all its resources to testing. For me this meant, I would sit in a classroom, sometimes for nearly six hours, and monitor tests. It. was. AWFUL! No human is meant to sit for two hours plus at a time, not doing much more than coloring (so we didn't distract the student). I hated it and frankly I think there is some torture out there that I would tolerate better than monitoring state tests.
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Anywho, back to the good stuff. During all of the testing hubub one teacher finished surprisingly early. Within two and a half days of testing he was done. That included testing of his entire class and individual testing as well. If that didn't seem odd enough, he was caught on camera with test materials when he shouldn't have been carrying them by himself (again, they have monitors for EVERYTHING!). When my colleague and good friend pointed this out to my principal, she shrugged it off. That's when things began to get really, and I mean REALLY interesting.
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The weekend after the tests were done, I hung out with my usual group of awesome weekend friends which included my fellow co-worker. Maybe it was the stress of it all, mixed with fatigue and a drink or two, or perhaps it was just the right time, but, during this little gathering my friend spilled out story after story about the 'behind the scenes' stuff that had been going on at my school. I knew things were tense, but, I had no idea battle lines were being drawn and the staff was very fractured. Most people were too scared to speak up about the issues they were having with my principal, who was at the center of most of the problems.
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My friend decided she was tired of it and that she would report the many problems that had occurred, including disregarding cheating and mishandling of the state test. I told my friend I supported her 110% as she was doing the right thing after all. While my principal never lashed out to me, I knew that her mismanagement of our school was only going to get worse. I thought if I kept my head down things would be fine, but, in the meanwhile I would begin interviewing with a company that another good friend of mine worked for. She literally told me of this position that opened up and needed to be filled asap at the right time.
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As if knowing all of this stuff and interviewing for a new job wasn't stressful enough, my principal began to target me. My only guess is, she didn't like that I supported my friend and felt rather threatened. The first strike came in the form of a nasty email about how I needed to improve my attendance (I had been legitimately sick quite a bit this year- thank you stress). She also said other things to me that could easily be read into as having a double meaning. I felt awful and paranoid. My principal would watch my friend, aka the whistle blower, and I talk in the hallways. In fact, she was also seen going through security tapes to see who my friend was talking to! I was walking on eggshells, and I felt really trapped. What if I didn't get a new position? What if I had to be around my principal's toxic ways again next year because I needed the security of insurance?
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The list of fears went on, but, you get the idea. I was a huge mess, having difficulty sleeping at night, and I wasn't going to dance because of how exhausted and 'crazy' I felt. Nothing provided me relief, but, then my saving grace came. The job I had gone through three interviews for was offered to me! I was THRILLED! I'll go more into my new workplace a bit later, but, to say this company is amazing is an understatement. It is also located closer to home and they were cool with me training service dogs. Wins all around.
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The only downside was that I didn't quite have enough hours to qualify for insurance and there was a 90 day 'trying out' period, so to speak. I decided to take the last two days off of work to start this job, and at the end of the summer I would resign my position with TPS so that I could retain medical insurance until my hours were increased. That seemed fine and dandy with everyone... but, my principal of course. When I sent the email telling them how I got this job (which I had been open about seeking from the beginning) and that it could become permanent. Read, could! Did I receive hearty congrats? Nope. My principal flat out asked for my resignation. As if my nerves couldn't handle anymore, she throws that little bomb my way!
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I didn't respond to her, I instead reported the emails via my friend (who had a couple of people on her side within TPS). I thought if I just kept silent, and did my job well that all would be ok. I only had a couple of weeks to ride out, surely it couldn't get any worse. I was wrong. It got WORSE! I had bizarre schedule changes; for instance, I was subbing for people when I was usually the last one to sub due to how well I got along with the emotionally disturbed student I worked with. Okay, fine, I thought... still had a job to do and I was going to do it well. The Monday after my principal asked for my resignation, she announced to the entire staff, after threatening and dismissing my friend out of the meeting, that I was resigning from Lindbergh and wouldn't be back despite the fact I had made it clear I wasn't leaving just yet; I was waiting to make sure my new job was going to be permanent. Talk about having some nerve! What in the world was she thinking?
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The last straw came the next day I had to sub for the entire day for a third grade class. That was fine, the teacher is super sweet and she gave me a lot of good busy work to give her kiddos (who knew me). I was working on a worksheet with the class when my principal walked into the adjoining classroom (there is an open doorway between the two room) and then came into mine to hand me and another staff person our service pins. As she's handing it to me, she asks about the email she sent me and my letter for her. Are you kidding me? Like I can have an open and honest discussion about that in front of the children? Throughout the day, she walked into the adjoining room twice and I saw her looking in on me. Then, I caught her and another staff person peeking in on me, from the hallway, through the window on the door. That was it. I talked with Jon and we both agreed that enough was enough. He encouraged me to email my new company that afternoon and ask if they would go ahead and allow me to have insurance. Luckily they got back to me right away and said that was fine and they'd love to have me start earlier than planned to boot!
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In light of that, I gave myself one more day in that hell hole to say goodbye to who I could. It was gut wrenching, it really was, and beyond bittersweet. The kids were never the real problem and I hated leaving them, but, I knew I wouldn't be able to be happy in life if I stayed in that working environment. And besides, it wasn't as if I was being paid a whole lot to deal with what I had to day in and day out. Despite leaving the school building for the last time, in tears, I felt a sense of relief that I was finally getting away from all the drama and from being bullied by my principal.
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Sadly, the situation there is a long ways from being resolved. There is a lot of red tape to go through and interviews that were conducted with the entire staff later. Not to mention, there are wicked politics at play. My principal has some friends in high places. On an odd note, she ended up mailing in a false resignation letter to TPS for me, despite the fact I had not written one up yet. Wild, huh? My friend has had the worst of it, though. I could write another two or three paragraphs about what she went through, but, let's just leave it as things were bad, really bad. I can only hope and pray that the right thing will be done, justice will be served, and someone can lead the teachers there to unite and work together for the benefit of the students.
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I had gotten out of one bad work situation, there was just one more that had to be resolved. More to come!
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