Once a bully, always a bully

The suits in our building are either completely ineffective or they are bullies.

Somehow that seems to be an appropriate way of talking to teachers.

It doesn't work with me. I won't fight you, but I figure I can get another job so I am not trapped here. I tend to get quiet when being yelled at - mostly because I am filtering the dialogue in my head. (Can we say burning bridges? I would really rather not. At least until I am ready to nuke them and you.)

I have had no expectation since I started working here that I am their fair-haired darling. I tolerate them - they tolerate me. Most of the time.

When one AP undermined my authority by tearing up a write up and telling the student that the write up was invalid, I called the parent. (In this case, the parent was on my side and I knew it. Had the parent not been on my side, I would have found some way to explain to the child that if she didn't follow my rules, I will follow them to the letter with her, and she will lose in the long run).

The Hulk has yelled at me before - I am sure he will again. One of these days I will quietly tell him to get someone from the district in the room if he wants to continue the conversation. Most of the time I let him spew and think about what a lousy manager he is. He has even threatened future evaluations which is described as bullying behavior elsewhere.

But I don't cry. It isn't something I do.

A student last week (when I was saying they need to watch their language) said he could get me mad enough that I would cuss. And I told him no, he couldn't. That's when I get very creative in doing write ups. They are still true, but it is all in the way you say it.

There are teachers who cry, or who lose it in other ways. One embarrassed the Hulk in a meeting several months ago - I believe she had not done the assignment we were to present, so instead she rambled on and on about how this is the first year she was not attacked by the administration.

I knew he wouldn't forget. And apparently he did his usual routine with her last week. Because she cries and emotes, he kept going.

I wonder when she will return to school.

In the meantime, I have been assigned the chore of providing her kids with work for some unknown number of days.

It would be easier to just fold in front of the bully.

I am thinking his days are numbered, though.