School Stories That Involve Administration

 I already told the story of how I was chastised for not tutoring a student who was not on my list to tutor, and others, involving administration.  Allow me to move on with other stories in the same vein.

1.  I was attending an interview for a teaching position in an elementary building in the south suburbs of Chicago.  (Back in the early 70s.)  The principal who was interviewing me was a long and lanky guy, reminiscent of Abraham Lincoln but without the beard.  Late in the interview, he took me on a building tour.  In one room, he led me into a storage closet, and suddenly, he got personal.  He looked in my eyes and put his hand on my shoulder.  It was, at best, creepy.  I felt very uncomfortable and found a way to duck out of that storeroom.  I never mentioned it to a soul because, after all, I could have been wrong about his intentions?  Yeah...no.  I got that job but that particular administrator either retired or was fired before I ever set foot in the classroom.  Thank God!

2.  Once, I volunteered to do Homebound Instruction for a young man who had been in my class before his disability hit.  His disability?  He had gone to Florida on spring break, got into some sort of cocaine called "ice", and had a psychotic episode.  He wasn't emotionally fit to return to school, and his doctors wondered if he would ever be mentally "right" again.  He hadn't exactly been a stellar student even before the vacation trip.

The principal told me that, under no circumstances, was I allowed to cut this kid a break.  He had to do whatever I assigned or would be cut off from Homebound Instruction.  I took it to heart.  Sometime into my experiences with this student at home, I came to understand that he just wasn't doing anything, so I wrote a memo to the principal to report what was going on.  At the very top of the memo subject line was "confidential"...and then I cut loose, thinking what I was writing was confidential between professionals.  I was wrong.

Sometime after that, in one of my visits with the student, he mentioned having the memo.  Surely not!  He said the principal had shared it with him...not only shared the contents, but GAVE him a printed copy!  So much for confidentiality!  I confessed to the student that I had, indeed, written that and asked if I could keep the copy.  He gave it to me.  Interestingly, neither the kid nor his parents seemed angry with me, but you'd better bet I was angry with the principal!  He had violated a sacred professional trust and totally embarrassed me.  I never confronted him with it, but I should have.  He was known to lie to save his own rear, so I had no hope that he would admit to betraying me.  I never trusted him again.  Lesson learned: never put something in writing that can be used against you, unless it is required.  

I'm sure I will think of other stories.  Wish I had a way to organize things things by topic rather than simply as a recall them.