This is really harrassment

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This is really harrassment
By Jennifer

Teachers fight problems such as you describe every day. It's a shame, with all of the teacher shortages, that we are treated this way.

My mother worked in a situation such as you describe. She was a tenured teacher
who decided to file a lawsuit for harrassment. She won her case in court. I don't recommend, this, though. She spent years with a lawyer, and untold stress, trying to prove this case. I think school districts know that you won't sue. It's too much trouble for the individual.
In my own case, I once worked in a school with a principal who critized me for everything. I worked every day

at the school until 5 or 6 in the evening, got to school at least a half-hour before I was supposed to. I really worked my butt off trying to teach and motivate the kids. I also contacted my parents frequently and documented every correspondence with them. By the end of the year, I had a copy paper box full of correspondence signed by parents, and I had a phone log that was very long and descriptive. This was to document the problems I had with my class, which was full of discipline problems, which, by the way, the principal blamed me for. Teachers can't be held responsible for problems of this nature if they have done EVERYTHING in their power to solve the problems.

My principal just plain didn't like me. He sent evaluators into my room to write up all kinds of petty stuff. When a student asked to go to the bathroom, one evaluator wrote that on my evaluation report with a negative comment. I hand sharpened a student's pencil because I didn't have a working pencil sharpener, and she commented negatively about that on her report. She also wrote that my students did not use the charts on the wall. Another negative remark. (How would she know this over a period of time? She didn't even work at my school. She was a curriculum coordinator from another school!) He sent in a staff member (not a teacher) from my school to critique my teaching and class. At the end of the class, she stood up and told me IN FRONT OF MY STUDENTS what I was doing wrong, in her opinion. It was totally unprofessional and ridiculous. I showed the remarks on my evaluations to a principal in another school (one I have known for many years), and he thought it was ridiculous. Most of the teachers in my school were also aware of the problem children I had.

What I really hated was that I worked right beside another teacher, who did far less work than I did, but the principal loved her, so he left her alone. She never did lesson plans. There were some other things she didn't do, and shouldn't have done, but I won't go into detail about them here. She might recognize who I am, and I am writing in with an anonymous name so that I am not recognized by anyone.

I am sorry you are having so much trouble with this principal. You need to go to a different school where you will be appreciated more. I am in a different school this year and I love my principal. Life is so much more pleasant now. You need to know that not all principals are as you describe.