Upheaval

Thank you all for all the kind, helpful, and encouraging comments on my last post. Physically I feel much better today. I have no shortness of breath, no allergy symptoms, and the general feeling of malaise has lifted. Whew. 

I went back to work yesterday, apprehensive about what the day might bring in terms of the two women I'd had the problems with. Well, I could have saved myself that worry. One of them wasn't there at all, and the other left early. I never even saw her. The rest of the staff were so kind, stopping by my desk to ask if I was feeling better and telling me I'd been missed while I was out. A few students even came to me and said they had missed me and was glad to see me! Then I cried a little when the lead teacher of the Special Ed department presented me with a lovely card from the SPED teachers for Administrative Professionals week. They wrote such nice things to me in it. Knowing I'm appreciated by most of my coworkers is a real comfort when dealing with the few bad apples. Then at lunchtime, a mother showed up and presented me with these

also as a token of appreciation for Administrative Professionals week. How wonderful is that? I was sincerely touched. So everything was going just peachy for awhle.

 Around lunchtime it became apparent that something big was brewing behind the scenes at the school. People were creeping around and acting weird, like they were waiting for something to blow up. And that's exactly what happened.

The principal pretty much got fired and yesterday was his last day. I say he "pretty much" got fired because they offered him a demotion to a classroom teacher at another school, effective immediately, if he wanted to remain employed by the district. He wasn't given a choice. It was a move designed to humiliate him, and of course he turned it down. They refused to even let him finish this year out, and we only have four weeks of school left! Just booted him right out the door! When he called a staff meeting to announce what had happened, the room went silent with shock. Then there were tears and anger and disbelief. For all his faults as a principal, he's a decent and kind man, and we can't imagine why they feel it's necessary to get rid of him in such an ugly fashion.

One of the last things he did before leaving yesterday was send a letter of grievance to  the school board about the situation. He's alleging a hostile work environment, harassment, and civil rights violations from the higher ups. We know all the details of this letter, because the last thing he did yesterday afternoon before they shut down his email account was send it out to the whole staff! The whole situation is just bonkers.

So that's how our Friday afternoon ended. We have no idea who's going to be at the school on Monday morning running it, or if the assistant principals will have to run things for a while, or what's going to happen, or even what to say to the students and parents when they ask about it! 

These next four weeks are going to be interesting. At best.