BULLYGATE
Truth: Bullying teachers to quit enables school principals to avoid litigation of unprovoked firing.
The last word from my February 10 podcast regarding bullying in the public schools: Don’t be afraid to stand up against those bullies, whether they be kids or adults.
TRUTH: Adult bullies exist. You find them in corporate America, civic organizations, on the interstate highway and of course, schools. According to Harvard Business Review: While the organizational costs of incivility and toxicity are well documented, bullying at work is still a problem. An estimated 48.6 million Americans, or about 30% of the workforce, are bullied at work.
TRUTH: Bullying teachers into resigning their position is the new “Watergate” in American education. Sadly, adult bullying in today’s schools is unabated and continues to persecute those who chose the field of teaching. This is the new norm and well-accepted means to shove teachers out of their jobs. Education should be about subject matter, collaboration and celebrating positive outcomes. If there was ever a place which should remain void of adult bullies, it should be the hallowed halls of America’s schools. Unfortunately and increasingly antagonists thrive in those not so hallowed halls.
Who are these bullies? Parents, colleagues and principals (and sometimes students) are allowed to vocalize carte blanche, unfounded accusations throughout the school year. Teachers would rather quit in order to avoid the menacing, potentially career-ending attacks. It’s simple. Avoid litigation of firing tenured, successful teachers or those teachers who do not comply with today’s cultural norms by replacing the act of firing with year-long, unsubstantiated claims of unprofessional conduct.
Perhaps the reader/listener feels rather smug about the demise of our teachers. After all, these 21st century educators belong to unions, crowd our children's brains with gender fluidity and are card-carrying members of Marxist ideology. Not so fast.
According to American Education News Source: The National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers lost more than 59,000 working members combined during the 2021-22 school year, according to U.S. Department of Labor disclosure reports. That decline comes after an 82,000-member loss the previous year. This from Forbes: Remember, one in five AFT members and one in three NEA members voted for Donald Trump. Union leadership itself, when trying to exercise some political clout, has reason to promote the idea that the unions are a monolithic whole, a unified army ready to be unleashed.
In full transparency, I joined both the Nebraska and Colorado Teachers’ Associations with one goal in mind: I needed an advocate to fight for me when (not if) administrators and parents attacked my integrity. Over my 46 year career, I enlisted those associations on at least a half dozen occasions when administrators failed to protect me from unfounded student/parent aggression.
There are states (Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, South Dakota, Virginia) now restricting what may be taught in the area of gender fluidity (usafacts.org).
And this from Econlib: Overall, Marxism is a tiny minority faith. Just 3% of professors accept the label.
Teachers’ unions losing members, educators wary of woke teaching and embracing a Marxism ideology demonstrate the reticence of the teaching community in becoming classroom activists. So what possible narrative can explain forcing teachers to resign without due process? There are underlying, very dark reasons:
According to Not Waiting For Superman: But the underlying reason behind the majority of cases of workplace bullying in schools, is that managers or administrators have decided they want a staff member to tender their resignation and move on.
Often this is because they want to cut staff salaries and employ a newly qualified (or unqualified) alternative.
Sometimes experienced staff members are simply too influential and get in the way of leaders’ change agenda.
And here it is: The attitude of many educational leaders is that it's faster and easier to drive staff to write a resignation letter, than to support their training needs or follow school processes and procedures.
BULLYGATE IS REAL!
Just a few days ago in a nearby district, a teacher was escorted out of his building with no reason given. He was placed on administrative paid leave and not privy to outside resources to inquire the cause of his removal, since no union/association exist in this district. After eight days, this teacher was called to a meeting of administrators, none of whom he knew. The cause for his removal? There were five students who did not like the way he taught American History. Let that sink in. We are now in a culture where students can oust a teacher because they disagree with his methods of teaching. And we wonder why there is a teaching shortage?!
If you haven’t read any of my previous blogs or heard my podcasts, I experienced Bullygate firsthand. This from my book, Rescue the Teacher, Save the Child!:
I am a Teacher: That is to say I was a teacher until I was summarily dismissed, fired, forced to retire on April 25, 2017. I am not sure which term fits my demise best.
On April 24, 2017, it would be fair to say I was comfortable in my position and worked relentlessly to sustain that feeling.
April 25, 2017, I walked with confidence toward the administrative offices for my End of the Year (EOY) evaluation. While this year contained its usual ups and downs, why would this EOY be any different?
I am unable to bury the words I heard that day. “You will not be the choral director here next year. If you do choose to return, you will be placed where you cannot be a part of any negative student interaction.” My breath stopped. Swallowing hard, I tried to make sense of those words and started to ask questions. The voice raised in decibels, as if scolding a naughty child. “Did you not hear me? You are not going to be teaching here next year!”
On April 26, 2017, cowering at home, I felt light headed with heart palpitations. A pit formed in my stomach like none other experienced before. I felt hurt, confused and betrayed. I prayed, but not the prayers of praise and thanksgiving. No prayer passed my lips thanking God for the privilege of being a teacher. All I could mutter was, “Why me, God? Really?”April 25, 2017 was my day which will live in infamy. As dramatic as it may sound, this best describes the deepest hurt I ever experienced as a 46 year veteran teacher.
EVEN MORE TRUTH: Through research, I later found the district which employed me was completely immersed in plots to remove seasoned teachers. These administrators were so arrogant they actually gave it a name: Exile Isle. As you read this next excerpt from my book, ask yourself if you or educators you know are experiencing Exile Isle right now!
EXILE ISLE
At a meeting convened to gain information about why our district was using intimidation to drive out teachers I discovered the following: All of us teachers, mostly over the age of 40, experienced bullying behavior from our administrators. The effort exerted by those admin teams forced all of us into leaving our positions. In most situations, the offending administrator was male. How could these career professional women receive evaluations riddled with false accusations, experience harassment and derogatory comments? How could our colleagues and community not demand justice? How could years of evaluations with the highest scores of 4 be altered in the last year of their employment to 1’s and 2’s? Modus Operandi (MO): a particular way or method of doing something, especially one that is characteristic or well-established. Make no mistake. An unambiguous MO intertwined itself throughout all of the narratives. Administrators set forth to rid themselves of older, female teachers in a very unsettling procedure.
Exile Isle is a term used to compel teachers into resigning or retiring, thus avoiding the firing process. When teachers quit of their own volition, no recourse exists to litigate damages against the district. My ordeal substantiated the implementation of Exile Isle as the end game designed for me. Tenure, with excellent evaluations, should have insured my sustainability in my position. The Exile Isle procedure appeared multifaceted and scripted by administrators. The following is exactly how I experienced being kicked off the island and is currently used in schools across the US:
Early in the fall term, veiled verbal and emailed accusations cast a shadow on my integrity.
The administrator sided with any complaining parents, making no efforts to fact find.
Emails sent on Mondays, with vague agendas, requested meetings the following Friday with an administrator.
Meetings always scheduled in the middle of the day so returning to classes, after receiving a verbal rough up, presented its usual challenges.
Three to four confrontational meetings per semester, behind closed doors without witnesses, proved debilitating.
Answers to questions raised, regarding supposed classroom scenarios, never garnered even a nod of affirmation from the administrator.
Each additional meeting, administrators became more direct with printed out, unfounded accusations. The questions from previous meetings, already asked and answered, reappeared.
The tone of the meetings began to take on a demeaning nature by midyear. “This meeting is for you to listen and for me to talk” stated by one administrator.
No rational answer would satisfy the administrator’s growing distrust.
At the EOY evaluation, teachers could return but in a lesser position. Thus they were not fired, only diminished.
Before I leave you with the impression that only teachers are bullied, it can happen to administrators too. This from the Colorado Springs Gazette on February 15 (a few days ago): One-third of Pine Creek High School staff and two-thirds of students were absent Friday in response to the removal of Principal Tracie Cormaney two weeks ago.
Morale throughout the school has been low in recent weeks, school counselor Kelley Stewart said, while the decision and lack of explanation has reportedly taken a mental toll on faculty who admire Cormaney’s leadership. The school is also struggling with staffing shortages and other ongoing challenges.
Following mounting pressure from school staff to the district's Board of Education and Superintendent Jinger Haberer, an all-staff meeting was held Thursday morning with assistant superintendents Cameron Smart and Jim Smith to discuss Cormaney’s absence.
“They said, ‘We’ve seen your emails. We hear you,’ and that’s all they said. And our teachers just berated them with questions because they’re just so upset at this,” Principal Secretary Pam Krzeczowski said. “And they had no answers.”
D-20 administrators sent an email to Pine Creek parents and guardians Thursday night informing them of the planned walkout and that operations may be impacted during the school day. Due to the uncertainty leading up to the school day, students were given the option for an excused absence.
BULLYGATE SOLUTIONS
The forcing of America’s teachers, by administrators, to leave their jobs is a real epidemic. I experienced it, witnessed it happening with colleagues, researched it, wrote about it and currently continue to see the existence of BULLYGATE. Can it be stopped? Yes. Watch for my next blog/podcast: SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS: THE BULLIES WHO WREAK HAVIC ON OUR TEACHERS.
Please feel free to share this blog. If you know teachers who have been or are currently bullied, please encourage them to share: rescuetheteacher@yahoo.com. If you are a teacher who has been bullied, please send me your story: rescuetheteacher@yahoo.com. Venting helps! Your experience will be kept in strictest confidence.