Good Morning, I’m having a problem at work and need to vent. I’m an inclusion teacher, and I share a small office with 2 other inclusion teachers. We keep are personal belongs in there. Food, purses, keys, paper work, IEPs, and computers are in the office. I feel that this should be an adult only zone. 1 of the teachers allows her students to walk in and out of our office unsupervised. During my plan period and lunch, students are walking into the office for all kids of random things such as pencils, tissue, headphones, candy, etc. I am in the middle of a phone call just to be interrupted by a student in need of walking into the office. I’ve had students write profanity on my wall. Cute ink pens end up broken on my desk. Her students have been caught numerous times stealing candy in the room. Yes, she knows that her students steal from her. Since the beginning of the school year, I’ve respectfully expressed to her that students should not be in the office without her supervision. My students only enter into the office when I am in there, and that is on rare occasions. Friday, I calmly talked to her about the situation, but then she yelled at me and the other teacher in the office! She ran to the assistant principal and said that we were bullying her about the students being in the office! The assistant principal gave her permission to continue to allow students to enter into the office! The assistant principal said that we should trust the students more! This teacher told me that she’s going to continue to allow student in there. We do not have a principal at this time. I feel that this situation is petty and could have been worked out amongst ourselves. Please advise me. I know this situation is petty but at the same time I feel disrespected.
Can you ask to be moved somewhere else? Lock your personal items in a cabinet? Lock the office door when you are on the phone or in a meeting?
If students are stealing items, then I am to assume that there are times that students are in there unsupervised. Allowing students to be in a room by themselves without supervision is just asking for trouble. At the school I work at the #1 rule is that students may never ever be in a room unsupervised. What if the child gets hurt? The school will get sued and lose. Not to mention that the child is hurt. I am not sure what you should do. Clearly the vice-principal is not on your side right now on this issue. Tread carefully with the vice-principal and use your words carefully. I wish you the best in this tough situation.
I agree about trying to lock up your stuff. The whole situation is totally ridiculous. Is that teacher going to replace your damaged items? Probably not. It blows my mind that administrators would side with this wacko who yells at people when called out for her behavior.
If IEPs and other sensitive paperwork are stored unlocked or active files out on someone's desk, I would push no students for FERPA reasons. No child should be able to access another child's files. Depending on what's in the IEP/504 papers, it's potentially a HIPPA violation too. The same goes for during meetings/calls. If identifiable info and details are being shared, as is the necessary norm during your kind of meetings/calls, no student aside from the student discussed should be in earshot. In the meantime, lock your stuff. Not going to keep someone from stealing the whole case, but there are lockable supply boxes you could lock when you leave the room. It's better than nothing if you don't have lockable desk drawers.
