Cant Keep Quiet!

Today was the last day of school for students in Orange County Florida’s public schools. This day couldn’t have come a moment too soon.

Even though this week was only two days long, and even though last week I had a ton of meetings (30+) but this week I had only 6, this was definitely a much worse week for me than last week.

In case this is your first time here, I work as a Staffing Specialist at an elementary school in Orange County. My duties include working with parents and teachers for students with special needs. My school has an Autistic unit which typically means working with parents quite a bit.

For the most part I don’t have any problems working with parents. Some are good, some are bad, some are so-so. Basically just like you will find in the rest of the world. The same goes for teachers: some are good, some are bad, some are so-so.

For some reason in the last two days I had what felt like a very large number of meetings with the bad variety of teachers and parents. When I actually sit down and think of the number I realize that the good teachers and parents vastly out number the bad in my meetings.

The bad, though, were absolutely horrible.

There was the parent on Monday that accused me a manipulating a group people at a meeting on Friday to make them agree with what I wanted. The fact that I had to leave the meeting for a good period of time to deal with an emergency and that I spoke very little in the meeting didn’t mean anything to her. There was the special education teacher that had spoken to this parent and lied to her by telling the parent that I had told the teacher what to say in the earlier meeting. What I had actually done was meet with the teacher to assist her in writing the Individual Education Plan for this child because she’s only been working with students since January and needed help. By the way, this teacher has lied to me before. She’s not very smart about her lies, either, because it is too easy to verify what she is saying most of the time.

Today there were the two teachers who bitched and moaned about having to have a meeting on the last day of school for a student they share. They couldn’t figure out why the parent waited until the very end of the year to ask for a meeting. I had to bite my tongue to keep from telling them that if they had completed a referral on this student as they had agreed to do way back in October we wouldn’t have needed the meeting now. We’d had a meeting on this student back in October and the teachers said they would complete a referral so we could get him tested. They then walked out of the meeting and promptly refused to complete the referral. It was their own damn fault that we had to have a meeting today. I have no sympathy for them.

If I were to make a list of things I will miss about my current school (well my school for a few more days) and what I won’t miss in the slightest, I’m not sure which would be longer. That’s a shame. At the beginning of this school year I could tell you without a doubt that the list of things I’d miss would be much longer. As the year went on, however, that list has dwindled as people and things have been shifted to the list of things I won’t miss.

I blame the administration. My principal is a bully and he has no respect at all for students with special needs. He also doesn’t respect their teachers. He flat out told me one time that only one of the special education teachers could teach. Considering that he gave a glowing evaluation to the teacher that lies and is out “sick” nearly as often as she is at work, and he gave another glowing evaluation to a teacher whose students have made very little growth and all failed the FCAT but gave a poor evaluation to a teacher whose students have made a lot of growth and all passed the FCAT, I find his opinion to be suspect at best.

I’ve spent this school year watching this man’s bullying behavior and lack of respect for people start to color the way some of the teachers treat their students and their colleagues. The two teachers that bitched and moaned about having a meeting today are among those who I once would have listed as “I will miss” but are now listed as “Good riddance.”

This year has been a very bad year for me. I’ve had to work with a man whose office was only 5 feet from mine but who did not respect my opinion or my experience. Hell, he hardly ever talked to me. The last time he “talked” at me not to me and threatened to write a reprimand letter and put it in my personnel file. What was my crime? I would not agree to do something he wanted me to do without verification that what he was asking me to do was not illegal. Basically, I was doing my job and he was asking me to do something illegal. Like most bullies, when I didn’t back down he did.

I’ve watched an Assistant Principal that I used to respect and that I used to think would make a good principal turn into a person that is little more than a cipher. An empty shell of a personality that takes on the attributes of the principal she works with both good and bad. I can think of several times when she knew that the principal was in the wrong but not a single one where she stood up to the man.

As I’ve already said, I’ve watched teachers that I once respected turn cynical and mean. Or they have become depressed by the lack of administrative support in the face of difficult situations with students or parents.

As one of the people that has worked at this school for 15 years said, we’re watching a community die before our very eyes.

I’m glad I’m getting out now. I no longer feel that this school provides a healthy environment for the mental well being of its employees.