Harassed by principal

Teachers: Have you ever been harrassed by an administrator/principal during your career ?

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Special2

Rookie
I have a principal that has put more and more on my plate to the point I am a nervous wreck each day before I walk in the building. I had been placed on a growth plan last year because my AP thought my teaching in the self contained BED program could have been better. She explained that it was to help me, not hurt me. Aggressive and violent students were the makeup of my class. She told me to set up centers and have the students rotate and that she felt it would help the students learn better. Put out "I can" statements on every activity and incorporate into my plans. I did. The students destroyed hundreds of dollars worth of materials and tore up my room at least 2-3 times per week, sometimes more. She brought regular ed. students with behaviors into my room like it was a timeout room and told me to continue teaching as she and an assistant tried to restrain this student kicking and screaming. I was move to another school and thought I would finally get away from her. Low and behold if she was not reassigned to my new school! :( She has found fault in every thing I do and now has the principal to back her. I am at my wits end.
Teaching has always been my heart and soul. All of my students have grown by 3-5 levels this school year. Even though some are still not on grade level, this is HUGE growth in half a year. She recently made me continue an referral meeting after the parent left. I accept that I had made some errors, but I set up a new meeting and rectified the issues. Now she wants to write me up with a terrible evaluation even though I fixed the problems. She was involved in making changes without parent knowledge and also the principal sat in on my last referral meeting and refused to have his name included on the paperwork. I need some feedback desperately!
 
I would suggest looking for a new position. It doesn't sound like anything you do is going to be good enough for your current admin, and if you're willing to teach in a self-contained BD room you should have many job options as those positions are typically very hard to fill. Our self-contained affective needs program has not had a "real" teacher this entire school year because they can't find anyone! Find a school where you're appreciated.
 
Just curious, did you fix the noted problems after they were brought to your attention? Not being able to see the problem on your own may explain the improvement plan.
 
vickilyn said:
Just curious, did you fix the noted problems after they were brought to your attention? Not being able to see the problem on your own may explain the improvement plan.
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The regular education teacher had the information from her progress monitoring that I did not have. She said she didn't want to make the changes during the meeting because she didn't want to embarrass me!
This was a working document and could have been changed while the parent was in attendance. Not after they left. Also the AP is our EC LEA rep. She should know better and gave me direct orders as to what she wanted me to change. She almost croaked when I told her I had contacted the parent and set up a new meeting to address the errors with the parent in attendance. Now she wants to give me a bad evaluation, even though she broke guidelines concerning due process for the parent. I was not going against what was right by law for the parents rights.
 
waterfall said:
I would suggest looking for a new position. It doesn't sound like anything you do is going to be good enough for your current admin, and if you're willing to teach in a self-contained BD room you should have many job options as those positions are typically very hard to fill. Our self-contained affective needs program has not had a "real" teacher this entire school year because they can't find anyone! Find a school where you're appreciated.
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You are exactly right. The principal and AP both continue to call the meeting an IEP meeting when it was actually a referral meeting. Also they have the wrong child's name in their information about the meeting.
 
waterfall said:
I would suggest looking for a new position. It doesn't sound like anything you do is going to be good enough for your current admin, and if you're willing to teach in a self-contained BD room you should have many job options as those positions are typically very hard to fill. Our self-contained affective needs program has not had a "real" teacher this entire school year because they can't find anyone! Find a school where you're appreciated.
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Thank you for the input. I have been about to pull my hair out trying to please these people. I do not even have a planning time on Mon, Wed and Friday's. Only a lunch break of 35 minutes. On Tues, and Thurs. I have a 30 minute planning time. I love my kids and most of my coworkers. I just can't take the administrative bull anymore.
 
Thank you for the input. I have been about to pull my hair out trying to please these people. I do not even have a planning time on Mon, Wed and Friday's. Only a lunch break of 35 minutes. On Tues, and Thurs. I have a 30 minute planning time. I love my kids and most of my coworkers. I just can't take the administrative bull anymore. I have found out that the EC teacher from the year before filed a formal complaint at the county office against this principal. In fact he has had 5 AP's in 5 years! I think our AP now is just trying to follow along with him to get a so called ,"feather in her cap." I am contacting the county office tomorrow to address these issues. I am the 4th EC teacher at this school ,in the past 6 years. Seems like the county office would be concerned about this constant change.
 
Something fishy is going on if the administration has to use your room as a time out! There is nothing magic about your room, and frankly, there is nothing magic about restraining a child in a time out, either. I get the overall feeling, from that situation and from the other incidents mentioned, that the philosophy at the school is mechanical, pound a few nails in with a hammer and it will fix all situations. There is no such thing as a magic potion to fix all ills.
 
Yeah, that sounds like a bad situation, but is it enough for you to want to quit? Since this administrator just moved schools, is there a chance she will move again?
 
Obadiah said:
Something fishy is going on if the administration has to use your room as a time out! There is nothing magic about your room, and frankly, there is nothing magic about restraining a child in a time out, either. I get the overall feeling, from that situation and from the other incidents mentioned, that the philosophy at the school is mechanical, pound a few nails in with a hammer and it will fix all situations. There is no such thing as a magic potion to fix all ills.
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My room was a self contained BED classroom. I think since my students could be aggressive and had to be restrained, they just assumed it could be used for ALL behavioral/ aggressive student time outs.
 
greendream said:
Yeah, that sounds like a bad situation, but is it enough for you to want to quit? Since this administrator just moved schools, is there a chance she will move again?
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Not sure if they will move her again next year. The principal is just as bad. Many teachers have stated to me that they come to school, go in their room and teach their students each day. They also said, "Basically we stay away from him, he stays away from us and he leaves us alone."
 
Sounds like another troubled district saddled with inept administration. Massive fiscal issues? Declining enrollment?

Yeah, get out and watch it burn from a safe, comfortable distance.
 
Well sometimes good things do happen in bad situations. My horrible principal was up for renewal this year. After teachers were asked to give anonymous evaluations on him, he was NOT RENEWED. In fact they did not even let him stay till the end of the year! He was asked the next day to clean out his office and leave the school! YEAH! (If you can't see me, I am doing the happy dance. :) ) Needless to say, the teachers were finally heard and County Administration did a fine day's work! Maybe because of other complaints filed, the survey(I wrote a scathing page),Karma or lots of prayers, something was done to stop a tyrannical, sociopathic power monger of a principal! . Anyway, just to let others know, fill out those anonymous evaluations from your county office. Tell the truth. Don't be afraid to stand up for what is right. This situation is not the typical outcome, but, if we as educators don't unite and stand up for our rights and the rights of our students, who will?!
 
Special2 said:
After teachers were asked to give anonymous evaluations on him, he was NOT RENEWED. In fact they did not even let him stay till the end of the year! He was asked the next day to clean out his office and leave the school!
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Hmmm. Really? That's highly unusual, bordering on unbelievable.
 
Unbelievable or not, It happened! This man had numerous written complaints lodged through human resources over the years. He had four this year and was getting another one which would have been his fifth just this year. I believe that they were finally seeing that he may continue until there was a lawsuit against the county if they continued to keep him in employment. I had reached that point and teachers were not going to take it anymore. Last year his assistant principal was one of the complaints made against him. If his own AP makes a grievance against him, the others were the icing on the cake. :) Bless the teachers at this school. They are free last!
 
I'm glad the school board/human resources/ superintendent or whoever was responsible for the dismissal listened to your staff. That's hard to find these days. I hope you finish out your year peacefully.
 
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