Friday, January 18, 2008

Que Será Será

Today I had my conference with Mr. Z. about the Randy Dandy incident. My UFT representative was present.

I was very upset when I received a letter saying that I could be brought up on charges as a result of my reaction to an incident involving a student.

Basically, Randy let a prophylactic fall to the floor during class. It contained a liquid that did not look like water. It was similar to the bodily fluid that prophylactics are manufactured to contain.

As I mentioned in my blog entry of Dec.20 , I called security and the cusodian. Security officers showed up immediately and took Randy out of the classroom. The custodian showed up and mopped up. I asked him if he thought the liquid was water. He shook his head and said, “That’s not water.” I didn’t think so either.

This happened the last period of the day on a Friday. After I had dismissed the class, I went down to the office and called Randy’s home phone number. Randy’s mother picked up and I told her about the prophylactic. I said that it might have contained water, but then again, it might have contained something else. I told her that we had a best case/worse case scenario, and that I was leaving it up to her and her husband to talk to Randy and figure out what had happened. I suggested that she and her husband come in to the school and meet with a guidance counselor and then with me the following week.

The mother got upset, but not with Randy. She came into school and talked to my supervisor. She didn’t want her husband informed about the incident under any circumstances, and she didn’t want Randy in my class anymore.

Now Randy is in another class, and I am being investigated.

Hindsight. I shouldn’t have suggested to the mother that the liquid in the profilactic was not water.

Why did I say that? ….

…..because it wasn’t water. I can’t say without a doubt what kind of liquid it was, but I can say without a doubt that it wasn’t water.

My first thought was, “This child needs help.” Would anyone in the school help him? No, they would just shrug it off, and pretend it didn’t happen. The people who could really help Randy Dandy were his parents.

But then I found out that this is the kind of behavior that children might engage in when they are being abused. So maybe Randy’s parents weren’t the ones to go to for help.

I started this blog, because I knew that I was being targeted, and I wanted to document the process. Unfortunately, I may have given the administration an excuse to send me to the Rubber Room. They didn’t even have to frame me like they did with Adila (See "If a President Can Lie, So Can a Principal" 11/11/07.

Do I believe I deserve to lose my job over this? No. But I do believe that I deserve a better job—and life--than the one I have. So I’ll see how it plays out and accept that whatever happens will be for the best.

5 comments:

JUSTICE not "just us" said...

Rule( I forget the number)
Sensitive issues involving sex, sex abuse, sex talk, masturbation etc. etc. etc. are best left for the Guidiance staff to deal with. You did right in documenting and reporting it but you gave the adminstration a possible weapon to use against you when you contacted that mother and told her in detail what her son had done.

We live in a horrible society where children are exposed to harcore pornography on a daily basis. I have a little girl that tells me she wants to be a porn star on a daily basis. I have reported it to the adminstration and guidance and that is all I am going to do. I met this little girl's father and my instinct tells me to stay as far as I can from this "family"!

Horrible way to live but that's the way it is. You will not be sent to the rubber room on this but you have an enemy in that parent and you din't need that!

Moriah Untamed said...

Yup. Stupid me.

JUSTICE not "just us" said...

I don't think you are stupid. I know sutpid in my school as I see it everyday.

You are going to have to shift away from being a great teacher to being one that survives--if that is what you want--just to survive. If you want to be a great teacher you know you are going to have to go somewhere else.

I KNOW THE DOE AND IT IS ALL ABOUT SURVIVAL.

Chaz said...

The DOE has a perverted idea of right and wrong. You did nothing wrong but your administrators panic when a parent complains. This is the unions fault for allowing the DOE to get away with this time and again.

The DOE's continued disrespect for teachers are the real problem.

Chaz said...
This comment has been removed by the author.