After resigning from my teaching position last month, I felt very much the same way I did when I frantically packed a bag of essentials and escaped my abusive marriage. At both of these times, I was immersed in a dense fog which made things right in front of me strategically unclear. I was unsure that leaving was the right decision, and I was fearful that I would be unable to find my way on my own. In my mind, it was entirely possible that the problem actually was me and not the toxic behavior I had been subjected to on a daily basis. In both scenarios, I was codependent and in love. When you’re in an abusive relationship of any kind, whether it’s with a person or a job, it’s easy to fall victim to the endless gaslighting you experience and accept a multitude of untruths as reality......They are told to wait for yet another month or two to be paid for the required summer training they completed and to risk themselves and their young, unvaccinated children to return to the building during a pandemic. They become burnt out and beaten down by unsustainable expectations and lack of support.
It is then that an exodus seems imminent.
Union representatives call for their members to organize and take action. It’s brought to public attention that educational staff are being taken advantage of, lied to, disrespected, and hurt. Speeches are made at Board of Education meetings. Educators take to the streets and to social media...
...Somehow, the final straw wasn’t when I was given all five of my teaching periods in a row, leaving me without a bathroom break for nearly five straight hours.
- It wasn’t when the light bulb on my Promethean board burnt out and wasn’t replaced for at least four months, resulting in my students, many of whom had special ed accommodations, going without visual aids for a good portion of the school year.
- It wasn’t when I was advised to put my personal values aside and pass students on to the next grade or graduation even if they had not demonstrated mastery of basic skills.
- It wasn’t when I was blamed for those students’ failure by being told year after year that it was my responsibility and my responsibility alone to get them to pass.
- It wasn’t when I had to constantly beg for more than 3 years for an air conditioner and space heater to be placed in my classroom so that I would stop fainting from the heat and developing painful sores from the cold...
- It wasn’t even when my ADA accommodations were denied and I was told to return to the classroom despite my doctor’s letter stating the very high risk of my becoming permanently disabled if exposed to the COVID-19 virus...
..This was the case when the school system failed to offer their majority-female staff paid maternity leave; in order to assist its impacted members, the union worked to develop a system in which teachers could “donate” their unused sick days to fellow staff members in need. It was the case when I fainted from overheating in my classroom for the fourth or fifth time and a close friend took it upon herself to track down a window AC unit to install. Similarly, when ADA accommodations were denied to countless teachers during the pandemic, empathetic colleagues stepped in to cover their classes so that at-risk teachers could remain safely virtual. And when the county failed to secure COVID-19 vaccinations for their staff prior to forcing a return to the buildings, many teachers joined a large network of “vaccine hunting” volunteers who stayed up late into the night and woke before sunrise to obsessively refresh pharmacy and massvax web pages in order to score appointments for unvaccinated staff...
...If they leave mid-year for any reason, they risk having their teaching license revoked. When they call HR for help, they have their future job prospects and livelihood threatened...
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