Okay I’m sorry, but I need to rant. This may be triggering so TW: Mild Swearing, Caps, Mention of Covid
Here we go…
So today in my block 2 class, which is my second class of the day for anyone that didn’t use the term ‘blocks’ in school, someone pulled out a little sandwich bag with goldfish to eat while they worked before their 3rd block which was lifting. The teacher saw them and went over and took it out of their hands. She then proceeded to lecture them about not being allowed to eat in her class, which was never said, and that it’s in the updated policy ever since Covid started. This teacher eats all the time during class and when the student mentioned it she said “what I do and what you do are two completely different things”. She then took him out to the hall to yell at him for ‘back talking’ and not following safety guidelines. UHM EXCUSE ME!! This teacher will take off her mask for half the damn class. She lectured the whole class about the Covid safety policies and all that, but she doesn’t follow them herself. If she’s going to be so hard on us about it then she should follow them just as strictly herself. Like holy shit. The whole class, including me, stuck up for the kid that she decided to target this towards in the first place. Oh and when she went to give their goldfish bag back she sanitized the outside ALONG WITH THE INSIDE. Isn’t that not safe to put on food? Like we shouldn’t be consuming that shit. She then sent an email out to teachers, while projecting it on the board, saying “Due to a mutiny that happened in my block 2 class, I want to put out a survey. Do you let your students eat in the classroom?” and added some other stuff that I don’t really remember. The fact that she called it a mutiny pissed off the entire class. It wasn’t a rebellion. It was us sticking up for each other and calling her out on her bullshit.
I’m beyond frustrated and honestly don’t really know what to do at this point. All of us in that class are pissed because she keeps telling us about not being allowed to do all this shit, but then she goes and does it. I don’t really think this is the time and/or place for a “do as I say not as I do” type of thing. I’m over her shit. I’m over the class. I just want to be away from her BUT I’m stuck with her for the rest of the year because I also have one of her classes next marking period/term.
Thank you for reading my gigantic rant. That is all.
Take her bummy self to the principal. If you get a few classmates, including the one she picked on, and tell them about her, action should be taken. If your too shy for that start at the student council. This type of behavior should not be condoned especially at school. But for sure report her. If you don’t know where to start I’ll be more than happy to help you. Don’t forget using your voice to help improve the environment around you will always be a new and exciting step in your life. You may get backlash from this but that’s expected. So don’t worry about what others say. What your doing is right, and although she may not lose her job I do hope they at least keep an eye on her.
Brutal to feel powerless in the face of obvious hyprocrisy.
It’s like damn – why would you sanitize the kid’s goldfish? That’s just COLD.
It’s like – YOU’RE THE ADULT, why are you acting like some passive aggressive child?
Feels like this whole situation is already insufferable – why would you intentionally go and make it worse?
It’s really hard to be in a position where you see so much injustice but are powerless to affect it. Like your voice doesn’t matter. Like when you speak someone twists it into something that it’s not and then weaponizes it against you. And you’re stuck looking like the bad guy…what the heck?!
It’s hard to be in a position like that and find some kind of silverlining or positivity. But I have seen you in many situations face things that are worse and come out stronger, fighting the thoughts inside of yourself to get to a healthier interpretation. And I believe you will fight through this one too. Sometimes it just takes a rant to get the negativity out so you can see more clearly and reassess. I believe in you friend and appreciate that you didn’t let the anger eat away at you but got it onto paper and shared it with the community so you could express yourself in a healthy way. Excited to see how you will rise through this.
Your teacher is in a position of authority. With that authority is a responsibility to be a good steward to her pupils. What she did was a straight up abuse of power, and like @NateTriesAgain said, super passive-aggressive and petty.
The fact that she sent out a “survey” and called it a “mutiny” actually did your class a favor. She showed her ass to the whole faculty. Now if a legit complaint comes up, she’ll have a really hard time denying or dismissing it when she put out such a petty email to all the other teachers. It will be hard for her to say with any credibility that she “just doing her job and enforcing the rules.” “Just” would be telling him to put the goldfish away. Yelling at him for insubordination in that scenario and literally poisoning his food are beyond unprofessional.
Her poor behavior in class is a separate issue. It may be worth bringing up to the admins, but it won’t help your case here. Here, your case is that she used her authority to bully the shit out of a kid for eating goldfish. You have a classroom full of witnesses whose stories will all match up, and you have an email to the faculty that shows she 1. acknowledged that the incident took place and 2. was super petty about it. The chances of her getting fired are slim, teaching jobs are pretty safe, but the chances of her getting some other disciplinary action are pretty high. You may never hear about or know what it is, but I just about guarantee she’ll be disciplined by the admins, and you may get an apology from the principal acknowledging that she was out of line. The school will want to handle this internally, because if a classroom’s worth of parents hears about this, they will rain hell on that school, and that is the last thing the administration wants.