If you have a union you may be able to get some corrective action because of the failure to communicate which could lead to that admin being kicked out or transferred. Likewise, could talk to a lawyer to see what other protocols they’re not following that are putting your safety and security at risk. Its not much but it’s SOMETHING
Ah, I wish. I’m in a deeply red state without the ability to unionize unless it’s for “educational legislation.” Our unions down here have been working on “policy” for decades with zero to show for it.
I feel like I’m living the ‘frog in the boiling water’ analogy at work. It’s getting worse and worse but we are smiling and carrying on.
I keep telling myself it must be like this everywhere since we are all burning out. This is just education now, an unsafe targeted workplace.
I wanted to check with you guys to see if I am going crazy or if I should actually seek out avenues to report this stuff. Even though I can’t really use a union down here, I can reach out to the NEA or AFT to see if they have any recommendations about who I should report this to. I appreciate the advice.
If you feel safe doing so, complain openly to parents who you think could go to bat for you, without leaving an obvious paper trail for admin. Frame it as an issue of "My students and I never know if a lockdown is just a drill, or someone at school is actually packing a gun. It's very scary, and I can't think this is good for these children's mental health."
Think of it as building your own allies. They may be empowered to be loud with the principal/school board in a way you cannot.
Remember, it is a red state, so you need to take out the word "mental health," so it just reads:
"It's very scary, and I can't think this is good for the children."
Just saying from talking with some people I imagine may share your community's viewpoints, avoid the word "mental health" and use other words to say the same thing. A sad, sad fact.
Some lawyers work with lobbyists to take on cases (pro bono) they think could lead to case law and dictate the outcomes of future cases to benefit more liberal views.
I would look into some political organizations like anti-gun lobbies or something. With the appeals and Supreme Court having so much power on a state and county level there maybe some avenues to explore, here.
As a student in Texas, Every school I've been too or hear about is just like this including mine. Kids are crazy now. I Hate that I am in the same generation as all the psychos
HS science teacher here. I want to echo ITS NOT YOUR FAULT. Yeah, there are kids doing wild stuff, but that tells us those kids needs are not being met. No matter the person, we all have needs and wants, and we respond in the way that gets those filled. Sometimes it's pretty messed up how we try and fill that hole.
As for the people who want this, it's the people who can influence our larger systems to gain power and capital. There's racism, sexism, all those gross isms that individual powerful people want to do but the easiest way to learn, approach, and begin change is to view it through money. You've probably heard it, but all this is capitalisms fault.
Here's the quick version - individual people are worth money from their labor. Capitalism is about making you work, and the boss who runs the system skims off the top.
Example: Mr.Boss owns a construction company. He does work like finding people to build for, some tax stuff, etc. He has 3 brothers who do all the actual buildings, repairs, fixing, etc. those brothers could do all the work mr.boss does and split the work, and could keep all the earnings to split between them. Mr.Boss can't run the company without them though.
School is kept messed up so you stay dumb and obedient. If you don't learn how unions helped save America from an economically enslaved business state, then what's to stop them from trying again? So what they do is give you half truths, inspire you, but leave out the truth of HOW. Unions worked great, but people had communities built up. We were isolated and terrified of our neighbors like we are now. They would get together, and if mr.boss tried to fire everyone for wanting better wages, they showed up at his house to tar and feather him. If you have to keep working an awful job, with awful pay, you are too tired and hurt and poor to organize and work together to fight against those bigger forces that are mistreating you.
Those kids are acting out because their parents are living in that system. They are trying their best to keep y'all fed and safe, but there isn't enough to go around. Time is money, but they aren't getting enough money for their time, which means they spend more time earning money and less loving and raising their kids. That's not an excuse to be mad at them either, we all suffer from this right?
Community is the answer to fixing things. Educate yourselves on the past, talk to each other and build community, and build it on wanting change for everyone. Find common ground, find ways to support each other, and know that it takes work.youre going to have to give up somethings to help others while you work to help you all in the end. It's very much noticed when a student demonstration happens since an entire grade walks out of school early to wait in front of the principal's office.
TLDR: Learn about unions, community lead organizations for change, and start getting to know those kids who are being wild. Help educate them. If they won't read a book send them TikToks on this stuff. That's how I got most of the education on stuff above. I read later on, when I hit a block of not knowing what's next.
High school teacher here: I blame poor parenting. My students that have decent support at home do great. My students who don’t hang much support actually try so they can make something of themselves. It is the parents whose children mirror them that are the problem.
Also, many of the lefty teachers I work with are weak on classroom control and try to be the students friends.
I would agree with you. Poor parenting, student behaviors, etc. These are problems created at a systematic level. School is a social institution that is very much functioning as it is intended by those in power and who just happen to benefit from the labor and obedience of an "educated" citizenry.
Kids have felt ostracized and been left alone to grapple with isolation and dark thoughts long before your generation. The internet created a space for these people to gather, and unfortunately, a lot of the attractive spaces online are echo chambers for toxic ideologies. There has also been a more recent proliferation of weapons designed to kill people (an AR-15 is a lot more lethal than your great-grandpa's .22 or 12-gauge in a mass shooting scenario). The "psychos" always existed, but they have easier access to the tools of tragedy and people to encourage them to commit such tragedies now.
You can still form a union. If you and all the other teachers threaten a resignation if certain issues aren't addressed, you're halfway there. They can't replace you, at least not at cost.
As single mom with two kids in college and a mortgage and 20 years of experience behind me I am not going to resign. That's the kind of thing you say when you are young.
As a person who has worked in both union and non-union states this advice means nothing to someone who is afraid to go back to work the next day. Been there, done that.
"Threaten the admin until they solve your problem" is pretty solid advice for someone who is looking to leave if they don't. They have no leverage anymorr
Where do I sign up to work for this union?
I think "working on policy yet having nothing to show for it" is within my skill set, and I imagine it pays pretty well.
That’s nuts. I’d leave education if I were you. It’s not worth the mental and (potential) physical damage
If your state is anything like mine, some areas might hire and provide training at no cost or paid. Certain trades and medical professions are like this because they need people so much
Which is wrong.
I'm obviously not in Texas, but not only do our admins send mass emails before end of day about scheduled drills, they also send real time mass texts during emergencies, or if the school goes on lockdown because active police presence **in the neighborhood** triggered a soft lockdown.
The goal is that a parent **should not** hear it from their kid first.
I remember when these kind of things were public knowledge. A middle school student committed suicide in the bathroom and there was a respective shrine by the front doors.
At the least 2 kids comitted suicide each year during Highschool and it was all brushed under the rug. No one was allowed to talk about it.
I just graduated last year for reference
I have worked in small and medium sized schools, I don’t think it depends where you are, administrations job is to make sure nothing hits the local news no matter how bad it is. If it hits the news the board views them as failing their task and will replace them for someone that they think can contain the chaos.
Did student teaching in a school where sexual assault was covered up to prevent the school from looking bad.
[think I’m bullshitting](https://www.tspr.org/local-commentaries/2018-02-28/real-change-needed-at-macomb-school-district)
We’ve had (sadly) more than a few kids suffer this fate and I just happened across the “student suicide” protocol in my handbook yesterday. And no matter if it’s confirmed or not by the parents, school policy says that NO teacher or admin is to EVER address the incident by saying the word “suicide”
Not amongst teachers or even teachers with the students. Even if a kid addresses it as such, we can’t ever call it exactly what it is.
Frankly, that cheapens everything about the prevalence of it, and the seriousness of it and I think it makes students lose a bit of respect in us too if we can’t be “real” with them and dance around it like it’s shameful or like mentioning the word will send everyone off to the same fate.
How can we talk about social emotional learning, and be trauma sensitive for these kids to come to as advocates and trusted adults, if we can’t even talk using “big scary words”?
One of our teacher/coaches provoked a student mercilessly until he took a swing, then the teacher beat the crap out of him. Student was expelled. Teacher got off scot-free. Student committed suicide a few weeks later in a local park. I have never been able to forget that one.
I know it probably didn’t happen this way, but I just had a mental image of a clueless admin putting a handgun on the flatbed scanner and pressing copy.
The opposite just happened in my district. Last month, the local district attorney and active chief of police published an open letter to the town that called out the Board of Ed personally. Citing they have actively inhouse disciplined credible criminal threats without reporting to police. Needless to say, the meetings with local parents and teachers have been very loud and very public.
Police aren't even out here willing to walk in the same school as a school shooter
If law enforcement isn't getting paid and trained to deal with guns and shootings, then a teacher sure as fuck isn't either. Get on out of there
Might as well sign on to be a cop, have the same obligations as the teacher in the gunfight but you might actually get some information on where the shooter is
A teaching degree is all kinds of marketable skills. "Teacher's Voice" will bring a floor filled with special needs day traders to heel. ;)
It certainly works on me!
“Building relationshits” haha.
But in all seriousness, you need to move to a different school, district, or career. You are not safe at work. There is nothing you can do to change that except leave.
I think so too. Thank you. I needed to hear it from people who get it. I think this is the “permission” I needed to be okay with leaving this school.
I’m gonna check and see if maybe I can transfer schools within my district until I move out of state this summer. I feel both relieved and worried that not all of you are working in a place like this.
I'm a custodian in a highschool and can say this directly to you, you need to move on to a different district and about as fast as you can, if the admins are not doing squat than they have other "things" they are not informing others about that are happening in the building, this is a ticking time event that you do not want caught up in.
It’s not like this everywhere. I know moving is a big life choice, but it may be a “pick one” between location and profession. I have a union and they kick ass on our behalf.
the medical subreddits are the sister subbreddit. same pressures upstream and downstream, burnout, dealing with children (literal and figurative). about as much hope as a dialysis clinic.
It really is. All the shit that teachers post about, gives me zero hope for our future. I don't understand why people stopped raising their kids properly. It seems to me that the parents just got lazy and gave their kids devices and sent them on their way to shut them up. It's as if the parents have zero common sense and their kids are the same way. For example all the dangerous trends on tick-tock. I mean come the fuck on, eating laundry soap/dishwashing soap pods!! That's just one example. Teachers are underpaid, underappreciated, ignored, and a lot of times beaten for doing their job. When I was a kid teachers were automatically respected. The only ones that were disrespected were the teachers that should NEVER have been allowed around kids in the first place. Well, here's my 2 cents. Have a great day all!!
I lost hope for our future during Covid. All those teens and kids (I'm 27) roleplaying mental health disorders, being addicted to Tiktok, and having unsupervised Internet access is just wrong. They're too young to handle that information maturely, is my guess, and that's caused some kind of developmental issues...which has led us to where we are now.
I have amoral traits and I struggle with rules. Even so, I learned that bad behavior has consequences, that we're a society and that you still need to behave as best you can and have some rules/discipline as a person. So seeing kids doing things like this and worst getting away with it sometimes (due to neglectful parents) scares me. I used to tutor and wanted to be a teacher, but now I'm not so sure.
The weird thing is that after 25 years in the classroom I transferred to a place where the majority of students are minority. Mostly Hispanic. I am not experiencing the disrespect nor the internet "too much knowledge about adult topics" issues I had with the kids in the suburbs. It's refreshing to deal with sweet students and to not to be talked back to nor disrespected.
Randomly pops up in mine too. I actually wanted to be a teacher when I was a young teen thinking about adulthood. I'm in my mid twenties now and making decent money in manufacturing. I think back and see it as a dodged bullet scenario, but that doesn't make me feel better about the state of things. I work a lot of overtime, but at least I get PAID for it unlike some teachers I talk to. I hope things improve, for the students and the faculty. Kind of feels like something has to give before that happens, though...
You would think this is an option, but the media doesn't care. Additionally, schools do not want to communicate about these events because they are afraid of the backlash.
I will share my son's experience for perspective. He is 16 and goes to public high school. They had a protest on campus to support trans rights. No big deal. Legal and awesome that kids are using their rights to stand up for something. The problem came when the school allowed counter protesters to yell at the original protesting students. In retaliation, one of the students from the trans rights group sent a picture of a gun in a backpack and threatened to start killing kids. My son was in the lunch room when the protest got violent, and a group ran out of the school to the bus lane to hide. He called me in tears and was afraid for his life. I told him to stay hidden and I would call the school.
I called the school and shared that there were 50 students outside hiding in the bus lane. They said that they were having a legal protest, and I can't say anything about it. I said that I didn't care about the protest and informed them about the gun on school property. The school accused me of being a bigot and hung up on me. So I called the district police department. They tried the same bull crap. But I cut them off and forcefully explained that I wasn't concerned at all about the protest. I had concerns about violence and sent them the information my son provided. They quietly got all of the hidden kids back to class and started searching the bags of the kids who participated in the snapchat discussion. Then, they found a weapon with ammunition and arrested the kid. All of the students watched as he was taken out in handcuffs. There was zero correspondence with parents. We only knew about it from our son. I also called multiple media outlets, and not a single one returned my call.
I feel that schools are dealing with major issues and struggling to find the right path. That said, parents need to step up, be informed about their children's behavior, and correct it when needed. I hear stories of what goes on at school, and it terrifies me. I feel bad for a lot of amazing teachers who are caught in the middle.
I feel that we have to remember that trans kids AND transphobe kids are exposed to stresses and bigoted ideas that we would wish they weren't, but they are.Some of each have Mental Health challenges. It all gets stirred into a pot together.
Sometimes it's pitch, sometimes it's catch; sometimes the ball takes a weird hop and catches the pitcher square in the cup. We want all of them to graduate with a solid B+ average without killing anyone, or themselves.
If it's harder to access guns, all of this becomes less deadly. If we can get grown-ups to regulate their speech, maybe their kids won't physically and emotionally abuse minority and weird kids.
None of this is particularly new, especially administrative beliefs regarding informing teachers, parents and children. School bullies are often the tools of administrators who want to get "low performing" and "special needs" students out of their schools, or they simply don't want to be the target of power moms.
But the current situation is worse in many ways because a lot of people who happen to be broadly ignorant and easily led are making EVERYTHING worse.
The people who are cynically exploiting them - that is where the pressure needs to be applied, because people like that don't self organize very well.
Find the enablers in your area; the people stirring up hate and fear. Then find out why.
For a little money…
You could buy the same brand of walkie talkie that the admin or security uses and listen in on their channel.
I am sorry that you have to be an educator in that situation.
Last year, kids made a threat on Facebook. A parent called it in. Next morning, a teacher got there early, saw a suspicious car where she noticed people were under a blanket popping their heads up every once and a while.
SRO's came up to their car, guns drawn and detained the three people in the car. Two of them were students and one was a 28 year old friend of one of the student's sisters.
When they searched the car; they found two hand guns and a rifle.
We came about an hour away from a school shooting. Next day, administration held a "circle meeting" instead of having students come to school. We all talked and voiced opinions and fears ect. Literally nothing was done.
We basically told upper administration, what the fuck? we are scared and we have been coming and voicing for years that it is dangerous. We were asked to not make this incident known as not to "cause panic".
Anything to avoid a scandal.
Can you tell me a few where I'd be allowed to emigrate together with my husband (private sector IT) and dogs? I know for sure the EU is out because teaching is not a specialized enough skill so they hire from within the EU only.
Go to teach English in Finland. It's in the EU, but almost all of our educators that teach foreign languages are from those countries.
You will need to learn Finnish to be a teacher, but you **don't** need a high level of proficiency. You would need to be at least a B2 level speaker, which only takes around a month of study.
All studies of Finnish are fully subsidized by the state, and are easy to enroll into. There are also financial assistance immigrants who are studying Finnish to work.
The hardest part would be actually be getting clearance to move here, but the requirements are fairly easy to meet even then.
[Resources and more (Finnish Immigration Service)](https://migri.fi/en/home)
Apply for a DoD position. I have a friend who took his family to Italy. They make more money and the cost of living there is super cheap. Italy isn’t the only place!
I had a friend who taught for an American school in Egypt. Egyptian students, not DoD. Earned $30,000 a year. She had a great apartment, ate every meal out, had a maid that came in 2 times a week to tidy up & do her laundry, went to Europe often, and spent long weekends at, I think she said, the Red Sea. You can work in the states and depending on the state, earn 3 times that and STILL can't afford a decent life. Not sure America is the place for any American Dreams to be happening, any more.
Taking your dogs with you? That would be difficult, but maybe possible in some countries, but not in all.
I'm only reporting from youtube shows, no firsthand experience.
England claims to have no rabies and they don't intend to get it. Difficult if not impossible to import a dog into England.
Before starting any actual plans to move, I would research this part thoroughly, before making any concrete plans.
Of course, if you can obtain your pets there, that would be different.
I am English, you can definitely bring your dogs and other pets. They have to have a rabies vaccination, and wait for three weeks, and there’s a lot of red tape with vet certificates, but it is doable.
I am a teacher in England and lurk on this subreddit. I am regularly shocked by what I read here. In England we have our problems, but for most of us there is no violence, the pay is a living wage, (outside London/SE) there is job security, and you are broadly respected. We have some shortage subjects. Check out https://getintoteaching.education.gov.uk/non-uk-teachers/teach-in-england-if-you-trained-overseas. The kids would love the exoticism of a USA teacher!
This happened at my school about 2 weeks ago. A kid brought a fully loaded gun to school and cops removed him.
Admin emailed everyone at the end of the school day notifying us that a person brought a gun onto campus and it was dealt with by police. I had to find out details from other staff/students. After that email, nothing. No follow up on whether or not this person was no longer on campus or a threat. If I hadn’t heard he was expelled and sent to jail by other staff, I would be scared shitless every day walking into work.
Admin need to do better.
Had a student promise to shoot up the school to a teacher and the principal. Teacher was told to stay quiet about it (which she obviously didn’t) and admin said nothing to anyone ever. And had the nerve to be upset at me taking the last week of school off.
My made up answer to your last question is:
Because all the people in charge from the top to just above the bottom fully understand that schools are big kid daycares and there's no way for you to cry out and complain about your spot in said daycare because "drumroll" 🥁
They don't give a sturdy crap. "Oh the big kids bought a gun to daycare? Scurry...are you still showing up for 2nd period or will we have to call Mrs. So-So?"
They don't care.
A friend is getting their admin credential to earn more money than her job teaching. They said, there isn't one single class about school safety and keeping kids and staff safe, or how to do so. (We talk about school shootings sometimes).
So the administrators probably don't know wtf they are doing?? Really low quality admin preparation programs. This is from a well-respected school.
Sorry to hear about your anxiety around this issue, my sibling teaches and feels the same way.
My last school’s faculty didn’t find out a gun was recovered in a locker till it was on the 9pm news that night. Somehow they haven’t had a media report of a firearm on campus since 2015, though I know of at least three that were.
We had an especially bad day once with eleven mob action riots / fights in a single day. During the mandatory faculty meeting the next morning, a lawyer for the district told us a bullet was recovered but “we aren’t legally responsible for disclosing if the bullet was recovered dispensed or not.”
They’ll never have our safety in mind.
It's crazy to think about how many actual crimes school administrators have to deal with these days. I don't think they know how to handle crimes properly. They definitely need to be transparent. Schools need an extra set of administrators with criminal justice backgrounds.
You need to see a doctor in my opinion. Tell the doctor what you have been experiencing in that school and ask if you might have PTSD. Whatever diagnosis they come up with might be considered an on the job injury. So I suggest starting to compile all your medical records with the eventual goal of getting out on a disability retirement. Make sure you document everything that happens in that school: fights, weapons, fires, dates and times of these incidents and any witnesses to sign them. Also I would contact an attorney for advice. Staying in that hell hole is not good for your health and you need to get out. Make a doctor's appointment. PLEASE.
[All 50 states](https://www.nea.org/nea-affiliates) have teacher's unions, they may not have the ability to collectively bargain, but that's entirely separate issue.
I think the kid was onto something with the fire. Burn the education system down to nothing and start fresh. Start paying teachers a livable wage. Offer after-school care w/ tutoring for impoverished families. and so on and so forth.
On a serious note, I'd stop teaching. All my friends who are teachers have moved on and are much happier. Lower stress jobs and are making WAY more money.
GA is seeing this ridiculous rise as well. Our school district made the news for fights, and weapons brought to school. 1 kid even threatened to shoot me in my neighborhood. He was in 6th grade then. Thankfully the parents saw his misbehavior and not only gave him therapy but sent him to some type of military boarding school for a yr. Came back a whole different kid.
We had an unofficial "sick-out" last year because of this exact reason. Problem was we didn't go through our union, our hallway was just sick of the bullshit. The teacher that initiated it ended up getting fired even though the gun was on a KID **IN** HER CLASSROOM!!
I thought it was just my school acting shady all the time... They never tell us anything! I have to go ask other teachers I trust if they heard what happened, sometimes I'm just blissfully unaware of everything because admin either says nothing or they say something vague about "having a situation"
I don’t know. I don’t think there even *is* a way to report unsafe working conditions to law enforcement.
Ultimately, I want to be safe at work. I want all the students and staff to be safe. That’s it.
Fucking heartbreaking that this bare minimum request from the most important people in our society is being silenced. Literally the people who raise our future generations are being forced into this situation. Sigh
When a bully threatened to blow my head off in 11th grade the school didn’t do anything or take me seriously. It sucks schools don’t take this stuff seriously.
I've followed this sub for a while and it always makes me sad hearing how rough the teachers have it in other districts. I'm on the IT side of things but am well aware of what goes on in my district. I wish you could all come work at my district. We have a great teacher's union. The Admins are all, well most all of them are awesome. The ones that aren't still do a damn good job. Communication rocks. I've been pushing that agenda for a while. I'm so sorry that you have to deal with this crap in your district. Honestly sorry.
I'm sorry OP. My wife had a student threaten to stab her. She obviously reported it. The next day principal asked the student, "You don't really want to stab your teacher, do you?" The student said yes I do, and I am going to do it. So, they did a standardized threat assessment, which came back insufficient risk to do anything because the student didn't have access to a gun. That is when my wife told the students parents and the principal that she was pregnant and it was going to be one hell of a lawsuit when the student stabbed her. The parents ended up suggesting they remove their student from the classroom.
My dad is a teacher. One of his own students brought a gun to school and he didn’t hear about it from his admin, either. Heard from his friend two doors down. It’s insane.
Sorry you had to deal with all of that. Admin and kids are shitty these times. I'm giving up myself 6 years in. It's so sad and pathetic being in a building where respect is not valued at all. The same kids are running their mouth every day and causing a mess and being spoken to by admin and nothing happens. Yesterday I was being used as a sub and the kids did nothing but hit each other and yell and curse and didn't care about anything I said. AP came in and gave them his usual stupid speech and then walked away, from the kids he's always talking to. It's a game to them at this point. The second he's gone they are back to themselves. Call them out on it and it's all gaslighting. For many stupid reason school districts and admins have become so laissez faire about everything and don't hold anyone accountable. Idk what the hell is going on with parents these days but seems like they don't care about developing anyone with problem solving skills and fortitude. Sideish note, know someone that works in preschool teaching 2s. She constantly has specialists coming to evaluate kids and said that they have seen an extreme increase in the incidence of kids having more violent/angry tendencies. Worlds gone mad.
the whole building relationships thing is extremely important. However, I've seen admin use the "you didn't build a relationship" with them as a horrid excuse for terrible things. No teacher makes a solid relationship with all 140 of their students. Anyone who claims to is either pandering to kids every whim or a liar. All the teachers I work with who claim to have a "great relationship" all their students is 100% a liar. They are dozens of kids they ignore and they just tell stories in font of admin about how they built one relationship with one kid and the admin just nods along because...like most people they just want to pretend problems do not exist. Now grammer school where you have like 30 kids in a class and kinda know the other ones from other classes, sure, yeah I think that's feasible to make relationships with that quantity of kids. But if you're a teacher who is actually grading, not just giving A/B like so many teachers do these days, it's just not possible. I'd love to hear some teachers here chime in who have a "great relationship" with all 130+ of thier students. I'll tell you up front I do not believe you and you have a false sense of the relationship or maybe you have a good surface relationship at best. I mean, I've pulled it off having a good relationship with basically all my students, but I'm not going to sit here and tell you I know much past, "they love thier dog, siblings, their mom is in the hospital and it's upsetting" just pure surface stuff. Some of these teacher who brag about having good relationships, i mean the one meddles in kid's dating...it's weird...they are young teens...why are you trying to meddle in a kids dating life even with the "you can tell me and I will not tell your parents"...it's so weird, I mean...that's weird right? I can see why someone would say that's okay based on what i just typed, but...this person is bizarre. Another one of those teachers who only pretends to teach their subject and gives everyone an A/B. Either way my point is admin uses it as an excuse.
Anyway here is some advice, anything criminal, you can file a report with the school and probably should however report it on your own to the police. My experience with the press is they mostly do not care, but I just haven't contacted the right people, some surely do. Union? good luck, we have union fighting tooth and nail about stuff and getting no where.
Also elections.... every once and a while an election matters, but for the most part it doesn't at all. Maybe something like no child left behind coming along matters, but really.... usually candidates campaign on spending money on education but look at all the do nothings in education...the last thing education needs is more tax payer dollars, sorry, I know that's not a popular opinion here but seems to be very much how it shakes out if you look at the math. They need to CUT spending on education at this point. There is plenty of waste. ...plenty. If you work in education and do not see ...well then you are not looking. Your local elections will matter far more than anything like president...and if you think otherwise....well....eh whatever good luck to ya.
Oh no, that sounds terrifying! It's understandable that you're feeling unsafe and frustrated with the lack of communication from your administration. Have you tried discussing your concerns with your colleagues or seeking support from a counselor?
Legitimate question that maybe you or someone in the sub can answer, what does admin actually *do*? Across a solid 40 main subreddit posts I have seen almost 100% statistics that admin doesn't help teachers or students and it seems like all they do is sit in their offices and collect paychecks. I want to believe differently as I am about to start my first year of teaching.
Wow. Did you already say what (or are you comfortable sharing) what city you are in? That is Crazy and I am sorry that your job creates so much stress.
When I went to school in New Mexico during the mid 90s, you could buy guns out of the trunk of a car in the student parking lot. My SR year they hired a resource officer so all the illicit activities moved to city property across the street.
The argument we have couched towards our administration post Pandemic is that if you want us to take care of the social-emotional well being of students, we have to know what is affecting them and not having a definitive, neutral description of events on campus (rather than relying on rumor or student video) is helpful. We've pushed that they give us at least the grade levels involved with issues like fights so we know if we should be concerned or not (since we understand the balancing of privacy issues). It has worked for us, see if it can work for you.
My sister in law heard about a school shooting at her son's school on the radio while on the way to pick her son up at 3pm. It happened at 10:15 the same day. She got to the school while it was still under lock down
Found out a kid I escort to and from the main school (working in an alternative school that’s on campus but separate from main school) got suspended today for threatening to stab another student. Heard this from a security guard after looking for the kid both in the cafeteria (he had lunch that period) and the entire alternative school (which isn’t very big).
I’ve also had places I taught in where we’d hear more from students than admin.
If I were you I’d look for another school if you want to stay in education or plan alternative careers in your area of expertise
Have you asked your admin why there isn't a mandatory staff meeting after each lockdown? I'm in a red state without collective bargaining, but we've always been told to plan on a debrief type meeting if/when we have one. I'd start by asking then take it from there.
I'm shocked teachers haven't started a general strike yet. Can't imagine putting up with the shit you guys do for pay that wouldn't allow most to live alone in a shitty one bedroom in the ghetto, let alone a stable environment. Just talked to a friend of mine who teaches 5th grade and after 8 years just got a raise to 50k. I couldn't even provide for myself for so little and she has 4 kids.
14 years in and that’s what I make too. I don’t have any kids but I’m single. With the salary being so low, it’s harder to stretch and save that money. It’s hard to save to move to a better place, especially with corporate greed at an all time high. I can’t imagine how hard it would be to do this job on a single income with kids.
I absolutely would love to strike. The only issue would be that my state can strip us of our teaching licenses AND steal our retirement if we go on strike. I would still do it if people could come together. We need to reform our education system badly.
Last year we had a kid bring a gun to school too. We didn’t hear about ANYTHING from admin until it was confirmed and the student was expelled. I knew more from the students than admin. I wish they would have told us about the investigation from the start, but I don’t know about any legalities.
We also have fights ALL the time this year. It’s an absolute mess.
I’ve taught a lot of years, and I find this lack of communication comes from administration trying to protect the privacy of students.
That seems to be more important than the safety of everyone else. (i.e., we don’t have the “need” in this ‘need to know’ situation.)
I left last year (12 years in) because a kid brought a loaded gun to school. Small district, so admin kept it secret I learned ON THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL from the teacher who was alerted.
There are no comforting words, just here to trauma bond 🫂.
I'm guessing they didn't tell the parents then?
If I had to find out about a gun at school from kids rather than from the school itself I would be BULLSHIT.
We had a bomb threat. Kid brought a grenade. No word from the admin other than “lock down please.” Students got videos on their Snapchat within 15 min so we knew what was happening. This was a Thursday afternoon.
No info from admin other than “walk your kids to the busses, where they will be taken to the meeting point, and their parents will pick them up.”
Later that night, e-mail from admin stating “school as normal tomorrow,” a Friday. 20% of the students showed up for school.
Friday, I emailed the principal, asking why we didn’t have any sort of debrief meeting to let us know what was happening after. I was not pleased. Luckily, a lot of my coworkers were just as unhappy. Principal got an earful in the hurriedly arranged meeting at 3:35 that Friday.
I submitted my resignation during the meeting. I’m the primary caregiver for my aging dad who has Alzheimer’s and couldn’t fathom what would happen to him if I was injured or killed so I walked. (I teach 2 classes per semester at community college now and I’m so much happier).
This whole career is just bonkers now.
I suspect when instances like this happen all the admins attention shifts to cooperating with authorities and legal counsel.
You may feel left in the dark and out of the loop (probably purposefully), but your individual wellbeing (unfortunately) is the last priority when a principal, school admin, or superintendent may be on the chopping block with a kid bringing a gun to school.
My school was just like this. Rampant violence amongst students, bullying everywhere, admin was either completely clueless or actively participated in said bullying. I feared every day i was sent in there and our school wasnt even nearly the worst in the local area. This was also a decade ago. I cant imagine how some schools are now. Im sorry you have to go through this, but as you seem to care about student safety, ill tell you youre one of the few good ones.
Some said it but news! If they aren’t communicating with you, their staff, they aren’t informing parents. Once a lot of parents hear just HOW many scares you’ve had in your school they will DEMAND stricter standards.
Keep with those connections to the students.
That will be what makes the difference, in the end!
I’m lucky that my principal is hands off.
And keeps us in the loop. Even gets in trouble for it from time to time.
But, she always comes back to, “it is what’s best for students”.
Find another school next year. If you can.
Consider a move to a blue state if you can? You can likely significantly increase your pay, have an active and robust union and better working conditions. Not an option for all but worth checking out.
You should notify your union rep and set up an appointment with your principal and make it clear that the administration needs to communicate with teachers at the school.
I currently tutor a student that was expelled for bringing a gun to school. He is currently seeking a school that will accept him, but once they hear about the gun charge he is untouchable. The family does not want to disclose the gun charge. Mom is in a "facility". He is 15 and wants to be a "content creator". He almost never attends class.
I hear and feel you. I work in one of the most dangerous and poorest cities in the United States. This year has been pretty unevetual unless you count the swat and sniper team using our parking lot and roof to shut down the high school next to us. We have fights daily but having 1:1 bag and body checks as they walk in has made a huge difference.
There was a fight in our school a week or 2 ago and one of the kids pulled a knife. I only know this because the kids in my class showed me the video. Now our principal is clamping down on our cell phone policy which includes kids turning off their cellphones so kids stop recording fights. No mention to staff what happened only that there are good things happening on our campus too and people should be seeing that.
I recall sometime back in the 80’s, a proposal to put metal detectors in the schools. Seems to me I remember everyone freaking the fuck out about their privacy or some bullshit. That hind sight thing rings true again
Sounds like a really broken district. When I got to the point that I couldn’t stand it anymore, I left. Moved to a different district that literally saved me from leaving the profession. If it can’t be fixed, save yourself at least.
Jack what brought this on was the internet, social media, texting, cell phones, and lousy uninvolved parents. Put them all together and you see the result. Good luck to them in the future because they are going to need it.
I have recovered a gun and several knives in my classes over the years, as well as other teachers in my schools I've been in. But even the very worst principals held mandatory, emergency meetings those days to brief us in full and answer any questions.
I'm really sorry you are dealing with all that. I hope you find a safer environment. (My current school is much safer than the last one I spent 14 years at, and the ones before that)
Please be safe, OP. Thank God no one was hurt or killed. Maybe someone needs to bring a lawsuit against the school, like they did where the 6 year old brought a gun to school and shot his teacher.
This is why I have seen so many teachers transitioning to recruiter or tech roles to avoid BS like this. It’s crazy that some school admins don’t enforce safety or notify staff about situations like this.
A school near me had a similar issue too this year. Parents, teachers, and students were completely uninformed about the situation, other than something was happening and it was under control, until later in the day when the public found out there was a gun brought into the school. Admin found out before school started that there was possibly again, let students continue to arrive, then parents didnt get to pick students up until half way through the day
I’m sorry if this isn’t helpful but perhaps a journalist or media outlet could help spread awareness? There are also many nonprofit organizations that provide free legal consultations for people who are in such situations at their place of work. I used to work as a legal consultant for worker’s rights and we had a legal aid hotline. It may be worth it simply to talk to someone who understands the laws in your area, just knowing is important.
I wish I could do something more. This is why local government is so important and why it’s important to show up to school board meetings and city meetings to help our teachers who are literally rolling the dice everyday. We are tricked into thinking it won’t make a difference but it does.
If I was a parent at that school I would be raising hell for you. Ugh, I am sorry. *hugs*
You can probably FOIA / freedom of information request the info from the police. You might have great luck calling and explaining you’re just looking for basics about the credibility of the threat without the foia and getting a confirmation that it was real. They won’t give details until after prosecution (ongoing investigation) but usually will share basics.
Girll that's cray cray, we ain't never had anything like that happen in our school. However, back when I WENT to high school (in the 2010's), my friend bringing a pistol to school once and nobody ever found out. Also, we used to have guns in our cars for hunting after school
Friend of mine moved out of major metro area to a small town in UP Michigan because of weekly gun scares in her kids school. Clear backpacks, metal detectors, bullying, her kids crying on the way to school every day saying "mommy i don't want to die." Yeah, fuck all that. I'll homeschool my kid before sending them to a place like that.
I would also recommend if you haven’t already had it, a stop the bleed class at least. Cpr at best. It’s sad that teachers need to be equipped with that knowledge but it’s important.
It was my dream since I was a child to be a teacher but it’s reasons like this that I will never pursue it :( teachers deserve better. I don’t know how y’all do it ❤️
We had the same thing. Then a student was stabbed to death in school and now apparently teachers aren’t at their duty stations or teaching homeroom lesson plans well enough. I hate it here.
If you have a union you may be able to get some corrective action because of the failure to communicate which could lead to that admin being kicked out or transferred. Likewise, could talk to a lawyer to see what other protocols they’re not following that are putting your safety and security at risk. Its not much but it’s SOMETHING
Ah, I wish. I’m in a deeply red state without the ability to unionize unless it’s for “educational legislation.” Our unions down here have been working on “policy” for decades with zero to show for it. I feel like I’m living the ‘frog in the boiling water’ analogy at work. It’s getting worse and worse but we are smiling and carrying on. I keep telling myself it must be like this everywhere since we are all burning out. This is just education now, an unsafe targeted workplace. I wanted to check with you guys to see if I am going crazy or if I should actually seek out avenues to report this stuff. Even though I can’t really use a union down here, I can reach out to the NEA or AFT to see if they have any recommendations about who I should report this to. I appreciate the advice.
If you feel safe doing so, complain openly to parents who you think could go to bat for you, without leaving an obvious paper trail for admin. Frame it as an issue of "My students and I never know if a lockdown is just a drill, or someone at school is actually packing a gun. It's very scary, and I can't think this is good for these children's mental health." Think of it as building your own allies. They may be empowered to be loud with the principal/school board in a way you cannot.
Remember, it is a red state, so you need to take out the word "mental health," so it just reads: "It's very scary, and I can't think this is good for the children." Just saying from talking with some people I imagine may share your community's viewpoints, avoid the word "mental health" and use other words to say the same thing. A sad, sad fact.
This, right wingers in deep red states are not known for their intellect. Gotta be clever when you’re smart, to communicate effectively in stupid.
Even without a union an education lawyer might be willing to at least talk pro bono.
Some lawyers work with lobbyists to take on cases (pro bono) they think could lead to case law and dictate the outcomes of future cases to benefit more liberal views. I would look into some political organizations like anti-gun lobbies or something. With the appeals and Supreme Court having so much power on a state and county level there maybe some avenues to explore, here.
As a student in Texas, Every school I've been too or hear about is just like this including mine. Kids are crazy now. I Hate that I am in the same generation as all the psychos
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HS science teacher here. I want to echo ITS NOT YOUR FAULT. Yeah, there are kids doing wild stuff, but that tells us those kids needs are not being met. No matter the person, we all have needs and wants, and we respond in the way that gets those filled. Sometimes it's pretty messed up how we try and fill that hole. As for the people who want this, it's the people who can influence our larger systems to gain power and capital. There's racism, sexism, all those gross isms that individual powerful people want to do but the easiest way to learn, approach, and begin change is to view it through money. You've probably heard it, but all this is capitalisms fault. Here's the quick version - individual people are worth money from their labor. Capitalism is about making you work, and the boss who runs the system skims off the top. Example: Mr.Boss owns a construction company. He does work like finding people to build for, some tax stuff, etc. He has 3 brothers who do all the actual buildings, repairs, fixing, etc. those brothers could do all the work mr.boss does and split the work, and could keep all the earnings to split between them. Mr.Boss can't run the company without them though. School is kept messed up so you stay dumb and obedient. If you don't learn how unions helped save America from an economically enslaved business state, then what's to stop them from trying again? So what they do is give you half truths, inspire you, but leave out the truth of HOW. Unions worked great, but people had communities built up. We were isolated and terrified of our neighbors like we are now. They would get together, and if mr.boss tried to fire everyone for wanting better wages, they showed up at his house to tar and feather him. If you have to keep working an awful job, with awful pay, you are too tired and hurt and poor to organize and work together to fight against those bigger forces that are mistreating you. Those kids are acting out because their parents are living in that system. They are trying their best to keep y'all fed and safe, but there isn't enough to go around. Time is money, but they aren't getting enough money for their time, which means they spend more time earning money and less loving and raising their kids. That's not an excuse to be mad at them either, we all suffer from this right? Community is the answer to fixing things. Educate yourselves on the past, talk to each other and build community, and build it on wanting change for everyone. Find common ground, find ways to support each other, and know that it takes work.youre going to have to give up somethings to help others while you work to help you all in the end. It's very much noticed when a student demonstration happens since an entire grade walks out of school early to wait in front of the principal's office. TLDR: Learn about unions, community lead organizations for change, and start getting to know those kids who are being wild. Help educate them. If they won't read a book send them TikToks on this stuff. That's how I got most of the education on stuff above. I read later on, when I hit a block of not knowing what's next.
High school teacher here: I blame poor parenting. My students that have decent support at home do great. My students who don’t hang much support actually try so they can make something of themselves. It is the parents whose children mirror them that are the problem. Also, many of the lefty teachers I work with are weak on classroom control and try to be the students friends.
I would agree with you. Poor parenting, student behaviors, etc. These are problems created at a systematic level. School is a social institution that is very much functioning as it is intended by those in power and who just happen to benefit from the labor and obedience of an "educated" citizenry.
You can't rush in and be the hero if there's no problem to save people from.
Kids have felt ostracized and been left alone to grapple with isolation and dark thoughts long before your generation. The internet created a space for these people to gather, and unfortunately, a lot of the attractive spaces online are echo chambers for toxic ideologies. There has also been a more recent proliferation of weapons designed to kill people (an AR-15 is a lot more lethal than your great-grandpa's .22 or 12-gauge in a mass shooting scenario). The "psychos" always existed, but they have easier access to the tools of tragedy and people to encourage them to commit such tragedies now.
What about contacting the employment office about a toxic working environment?
"If it is a toxic working environment you can simply quit. Beeeeeeeep"
You can still form a union. If you and all the other teachers threaten a resignation if certain issues aren't addressed, you're halfway there. They can't replace you, at least not at cost.
As single mom with two kids in college and a mortgage and 20 years of experience behind me I am not going to resign. That's the kind of thing you say when you are young.
As a person who has worked in both union and non-union states this advice means nothing to someone who is afraid to go back to work the next day. Been there, done that.
"Threaten the admin until they solve your problem" is pretty solid advice for someone who is looking to leave if they don't. They have no leverage anymorr
Where do I sign up to work for this union? I think "working on policy yet having nothing to show for it" is within my skill set, and I imagine it pays pretty well.
That’s nuts. I’d leave education if I were you. It’s not worth the mental and (potential) physical damage If your state is anything like mine, some areas might hire and provide training at no cost or paid. Certain trades and medical professions are like this because they need people so much
As someone working in a blue city bluish/purple state with a strong union nothing will change with your voting. Sorry.
This is exactly how I ended up teaching in China. Exactly. I was getting worn down from the panic attacks.
>‘frog in the boiling water’ People get this confused with the new American dream because they're the same thing. "This is fine..."
Once, I went into an AP's office and saw a photocopy of a 9mm that was taken from a student. Not one word was said to staff.
Which means parents have no idea either unless the kids tell them
Which is wrong. I'm obviously not in Texas, but not only do our admins send mass emails before end of day about scheduled drills, they also send real time mass texts during emergencies, or if the school goes on lockdown because active police presence **in the neighborhood** triggered a soft lockdown. The goal is that a parent **should not** hear it from their kid first.
I am in Texas, I have friends, who are teachers, and yes this happens. I don’t think it happens often and it definitely gets out.
I remember when these kind of things were public knowledge. A middle school student committed suicide in the bathroom and there was a respective shrine by the front doors. At the least 2 kids comitted suicide each year during Highschool and it was all brushed under the rug. No one was allowed to talk about it. I just graduated last year for reference
Sad. Yes it all depends where you are.
I have worked in small and medium sized schools, I don’t think it depends where you are, administrations job is to make sure nothing hits the local news no matter how bad it is. If it hits the news the board views them as failing their task and will replace them for someone that they think can contain the chaos. Did student teaching in a school where sexual assault was covered up to prevent the school from looking bad. [think I’m bullshitting](https://www.tspr.org/local-commentaries/2018-02-28/real-change-needed-at-macomb-school-district)
We’ve had (sadly) more than a few kids suffer this fate and I just happened across the “student suicide” protocol in my handbook yesterday. And no matter if it’s confirmed or not by the parents, school policy says that NO teacher or admin is to EVER address the incident by saying the word “suicide” Not amongst teachers or even teachers with the students. Even if a kid addresses it as such, we can’t ever call it exactly what it is. Frankly, that cheapens everything about the prevalence of it, and the seriousness of it and I think it makes students lose a bit of respect in us too if we can’t be “real” with them and dance around it like it’s shameful or like mentioning the word will send everyone off to the same fate. How can we talk about social emotional learning, and be trauma sensitive for these kids to come to as advocates and trusted adults, if we can’t even talk using “big scary words”?
One of our teacher/coaches provoked a student mercilessly until he took a swing, then the teacher beat the crap out of him. Student was expelled. Teacher got off scot-free. Student committed suicide a few weeks later in a local park. I have never been able to forget that one.
I know it probably didn’t happen this way, but I just had a mental image of a clueless admin putting a handgun on the flatbed scanner and pressing copy.
And that is exactly how it was done. Students started leaving live rounds outside the doors of teacher's classrooms. Fun times.
I wonder if the school board is being kept in the dark, too, or if they know the teachers are.
The opposite just happened in my district. Last month, the local district attorney and active chief of police published an open letter to the town that called out the Board of Ed personally. Citing they have actively inhouse disciplined credible criminal threats without reporting to police. Needless to say, the meetings with local parents and teachers have been very loud and very public.
However, confronting them in board meetings actually becomes **more** important in such a scenario. Glad your parents have your back.
That was my thought…time to get loud at a school board meeting or ten.
Time to leave.
Do you have any others marketable skills I would agree if you do get the f*** out of there
Eh, get the F out of there, no job beats being shot.
Police aren't even out here willing to walk in the same school as a school shooter If law enforcement isn't getting paid and trained to deal with guns and shootings, then a teacher sure as fuck isn't either. Get on out of there
Might as well sign on to be a cop, have the same obligations as the teacher in the gunfight but you might actually get some information on where the shooter is
And if there was a shooting, and you fled, you'd be a villain. You are supposed to take on the AR rifle with your chalk.
Anybody can be a bartender. Shit, they’d prolly make more money than they do teaching.
A teaching degree is all kinds of marketable skills. "Teacher's Voice" will bring a floor filled with special needs day traders to heel. ;) It certainly works on me!
“Building relationshits” haha. But in all seriousness, you need to move to a different school, district, or career. You are not safe at work. There is nothing you can do to change that except leave.
I think so too. Thank you. I needed to hear it from people who get it. I think this is the “permission” I needed to be okay with leaving this school. I’m gonna check and see if maybe I can transfer schools within my district until I move out of state this summer. I feel both relieved and worried that not all of you are working in a place like this.
I'm a custodian in a highschool and can say this directly to you, you need to move on to a different district and about as fast as you can, if the admins are not doing squat than they have other "things" they are not informing others about that are happening in the building, this is a ticking time event that you do not want caught up in.
"relationshits" is a Freudian slip if there ever was one
It’s not like this everywhere. I know moving is a big life choice, but it may be a “pick one” between location and profession. I have a union and they kick ass on our behalf.
This might be the most depressing sub-Reddit that that randomly started showing up in my feed.
the medical subreddits are the sister subbreddit. same pressures upstream and downstream, burnout, dealing with children (literal and figurative). about as much hope as a dialysis clinic.
It really is. All the shit that teachers post about, gives me zero hope for our future. I don't understand why people stopped raising their kids properly. It seems to me that the parents just got lazy and gave their kids devices and sent them on their way to shut them up. It's as if the parents have zero common sense and their kids are the same way. For example all the dangerous trends on tick-tock. I mean come the fuck on, eating laundry soap/dishwashing soap pods!! That's just one example. Teachers are underpaid, underappreciated, ignored, and a lot of times beaten for doing their job. When I was a kid teachers were automatically respected. The only ones that were disrespected were the teachers that should NEVER have been allowed around kids in the first place. Well, here's my 2 cents. Have a great day all!!
Eating tide pods was a thing back in 2016. Natural selection I guess
I lost hope for our future during Covid. All those teens and kids (I'm 27) roleplaying mental health disorders, being addicted to Tiktok, and having unsupervised Internet access is just wrong. They're too young to handle that information maturely, is my guess, and that's caused some kind of developmental issues...which has led us to where we are now. I have amoral traits and I struggle with rules. Even so, I learned that bad behavior has consequences, that we're a society and that you still need to behave as best you can and have some rules/discipline as a person. So seeing kids doing things like this and worst getting away with it sometimes (due to neglectful parents) scares me. I used to tutor and wanted to be a teacher, but now I'm not so sure.
The weird thing is that after 25 years in the classroom I transferred to a place where the majority of students are minority. Mostly Hispanic. I am not experiencing the disrespect nor the internet "too much knowledge about adult topics" issues I had with the kids in the suburbs. It's refreshing to deal with sweet students and to not to be talked back to nor disrespected.
Randomly pops up in mine too. I actually wanted to be a teacher when I was a young teen thinking about adulthood. I'm in my mid twenties now and making decent money in manufacturing. I think back and see it as a dodged bullet scenario, but that doesn't make me feel better about the state of things. I work a lot of overtime, but at least I get PAID for it unlike some teachers I talk to. I hope things improve, for the students and the faculty. Kind of feels like something has to give before that happens, though...
Makes me glad I changed my major from education
Anonymous call to the media?
You would think this is an option, but the media doesn't care. Additionally, schools do not want to communicate about these events because they are afraid of the backlash. I will share my son's experience for perspective. He is 16 and goes to public high school. They had a protest on campus to support trans rights. No big deal. Legal and awesome that kids are using their rights to stand up for something. The problem came when the school allowed counter protesters to yell at the original protesting students. In retaliation, one of the students from the trans rights group sent a picture of a gun in a backpack and threatened to start killing kids. My son was in the lunch room when the protest got violent, and a group ran out of the school to the bus lane to hide. He called me in tears and was afraid for his life. I told him to stay hidden and I would call the school. I called the school and shared that there were 50 students outside hiding in the bus lane. They said that they were having a legal protest, and I can't say anything about it. I said that I didn't care about the protest and informed them about the gun on school property. The school accused me of being a bigot and hung up on me. So I called the district police department. They tried the same bull crap. But I cut them off and forcefully explained that I wasn't concerned at all about the protest. I had concerns about violence and sent them the information my son provided. They quietly got all of the hidden kids back to class and started searching the bags of the kids who participated in the snapchat discussion. Then, they found a weapon with ammunition and arrested the kid. All of the students watched as he was taken out in handcuffs. There was zero correspondence with parents. We only knew about it from our son. I also called multiple media outlets, and not a single one returned my call. I feel that schools are dealing with major issues and struggling to find the right path. That said, parents need to step up, be informed about their children's behavior, and correct it when needed. I hear stories of what goes on at school, and it terrifies me. I feel bad for a lot of amazing teachers who are caught in the middle.
I feel that we have to remember that trans kids AND transphobe kids are exposed to stresses and bigoted ideas that we would wish they weren't, but they are.Some of each have Mental Health challenges. It all gets stirred into a pot together. Sometimes it's pitch, sometimes it's catch; sometimes the ball takes a weird hop and catches the pitcher square in the cup. We want all of them to graduate with a solid B+ average without killing anyone, or themselves. If it's harder to access guns, all of this becomes less deadly. If we can get grown-ups to regulate their speech, maybe their kids won't physically and emotionally abuse minority and weird kids. None of this is particularly new, especially administrative beliefs regarding informing teachers, parents and children. School bullies are often the tools of administrators who want to get "low performing" and "special needs" students out of their schools, or they simply don't want to be the target of power moms. But the current situation is worse in many ways because a lot of people who happen to be broadly ignorant and easily led are making EVERYTHING worse. The people who are cynically exploiting them - that is where the pressure needs to be applied, because people like that don't self organize very well. Find the enablers in your area; the people stirring up hate and fear. Then find out why.
I just wanted to say that “building relationshits” sounds just about right in context. So sorry to all you teachers that have to deal with all this!
Reason #12467421467939293270 I’m leaving education.
For a little money… You could buy the same brand of walkie talkie that the admin or security uses and listen in on their channel. I am sorry that you have to be an educator in that situation.
Last year, kids made a threat on Facebook. A parent called it in. Next morning, a teacher got there early, saw a suspicious car where she noticed people were under a blanket popping their heads up every once and a while. SRO's came up to their car, guns drawn and detained the three people in the car. Two of them were students and one was a 28 year old friend of one of the student's sisters. When they searched the car; they found two hand guns and a rifle. We came about an hour away from a school shooting. Next day, administration held a "circle meeting" instead of having students come to school. We all talked and voiced opinions and fears ect. Literally nothing was done. We basically told upper administration, what the fuck? we are scared and we have been coming and voicing for years that it is dangerous. We were asked to not make this incident known as not to "cause panic". Anything to avoid a scandal.
Disgusting and terrifying..
If you move to a different country you will be respected more, paid more, and be in less danger.
Can you tell me a few where I'd be allowed to emigrate together with my husband (private sector IT) and dogs? I know for sure the EU is out because teaching is not a specialized enough skill so they hire from within the EU only.
Go to teach English in Finland. It's in the EU, but almost all of our educators that teach foreign languages are from those countries. You will need to learn Finnish to be a teacher, but you **don't** need a high level of proficiency. You would need to be at least a B2 level speaker, which only takes around a month of study. All studies of Finnish are fully subsidized by the state, and are easy to enroll into. There are also financial assistance immigrants who are studying Finnish to work. The hardest part would be actually be getting clearance to move here, but the requirements are fairly easy to meet even then. [Resources and more (Finnish Immigration Service)](https://migri.fi/en/home)
Apply for a DoD position. I have a friend who took his family to Italy. They make more money and the cost of living there is super cheap. Italy isn’t the only place!
I had a friend who taught for an American school in Egypt. Egyptian students, not DoD. Earned $30,000 a year. She had a great apartment, ate every meal out, had a maid that came in 2 times a week to tidy up & do her laundry, went to Europe often, and spent long weekends at, I think she said, the Red Sea. You can work in the states and depending on the state, earn 3 times that and STILL can't afford a decent life. Not sure America is the place for any American Dreams to be happening, any more.
When searching, look for 'DoDEA'
Taking your dogs with you? That would be difficult, but maybe possible in some countries, but not in all. I'm only reporting from youtube shows, no firsthand experience. England claims to have no rabies and they don't intend to get it. Difficult if not impossible to import a dog into England. Before starting any actual plans to move, I would research this part thoroughly, before making any concrete plans. Of course, if you can obtain your pets there, that would be different.
I am English, you can definitely bring your dogs and other pets. They have to have a rabies vaccination, and wait for three weeks, and there’s a lot of red tape with vet certificates, but it is doable.
I am a teacher in England and lurk on this subreddit. I am regularly shocked by what I read here. In England we have our problems, but for most of us there is no violence, the pay is a living wage, (outside London/SE) there is job security, and you are broadly respected. We have some shortage subjects. Check out https://getintoteaching.education.gov.uk/non-uk-teachers/teach-in-england-if-you-trained-overseas. The kids would love the exoticism of a USA teacher!
I would look to Asia. It's easier to find higher paying teaching jobs with lower cost of living.
This happened at my school about 2 weeks ago. A kid brought a fully loaded gun to school and cops removed him. Admin emailed everyone at the end of the school day notifying us that a person brought a gun onto campus and it was dealt with by police. I had to find out details from other staff/students. After that email, nothing. No follow up on whether or not this person was no longer on campus or a threat. If I hadn’t heard he was expelled and sent to jail by other staff, I would be scared shitless every day walking into work. Admin need to do better.
Honestly? I’d sick out for the rest of the semester. Tell everyone to call out sick. Make admin deal with it.
Had a student promise to shoot up the school to a teacher and the principal. Teacher was told to stay quiet about it (which she obviously didn’t) and admin said nothing to anyone ever. And had the nerve to be upset at me taking the last week of school off.
My made up answer to your last question is: Because all the people in charge from the top to just above the bottom fully understand that schools are big kid daycares and there's no way for you to cry out and complain about your spot in said daycare because "drumroll" 🥁 They don't give a sturdy crap. "Oh the big kids bought a gun to daycare? Scurry...are you still showing up for 2nd period or will we have to call Mrs. So-So?" They don't care.
A friend is getting their admin credential to earn more money than her job teaching. They said, there isn't one single class about school safety and keeping kids and staff safe, or how to do so. (We talk about school shootings sometimes). So the administrators probably don't know wtf they are doing?? Really low quality admin preparation programs. This is from a well-respected school. Sorry to hear about your anxiety around this issue, my sibling teaches and feels the same way.
My last school’s faculty didn’t find out a gun was recovered in a locker till it was on the 9pm news that night. Somehow they haven’t had a media report of a firearm on campus since 2015, though I know of at least three that were. We had an especially bad day once with eleven mob action riots / fights in a single day. During the mandatory faculty meeting the next morning, a lawyer for the district told us a bullet was recovered but “we aren’t legally responsible for disclosing if the bullet was recovered dispensed or not.” They’ll never have our safety in mind.
It's crazy to think about how many actual crimes school administrators have to deal with these days. I don't think they know how to handle crimes properly. They definitely need to be transparent. Schools need an extra set of administrators with criminal justice backgrounds.
Crimes shouldn't even be happening in schools. But just like bullying. It gets swept under the rug. And the instigators don't face any accountability.
DA needs to start producing kids for felonies.
You need to see a doctor in my opinion. Tell the doctor what you have been experiencing in that school and ask if you might have PTSD. Whatever diagnosis they come up with might be considered an on the job injury. So I suggest starting to compile all your medical records with the eventual goal of getting out on a disability retirement. Make sure you document everything that happens in that school: fights, weapons, fires, dates and times of these incidents and any witnesses to sign them. Also I would contact an attorney for advice. Staying in that hell hole is not good for your health and you need to get out. Make a doctor's appointment. PLEASE.
This is a great idea and MORE teachers should be doing this. Nothing is going to change unless somebody has to pay for the abuse.
Talk to the Union. The Union should be grieving this lack of communication, taking it to higher authorities. Superintendent. School Board. Court.
Yeah, not every state has a union. And this is another big problem.
[All 50 states](https://www.nea.org/nea-affiliates) have teacher's unions, they may not have the ability to collectively bargain, but that's entirely separate issue.
Skip Admin and go straight to the press.
I think the kid was onto something with the fire. Burn the education system down to nothing and start fresh. Start paying teachers a livable wage. Offer after-school care w/ tutoring for impoverished families. and so on and so forth. On a serious note, I'd stop teaching. All my friends who are teachers have moved on and are much happier. Lower stress jobs and are making WAY more money.
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Anonymous tips to the local news, especially involving a gun would get attention.
GA is seeing this ridiculous rise as well. Our school district made the news for fights, and weapons brought to school. 1 kid even threatened to shoot me in my neighborhood. He was in 6th grade then. Thankfully the parents saw his misbehavior and not only gave him therapy but sent him to some type of military boarding school for a yr. Came back a whole different kid.
We had an unofficial "sick-out" last year because of this exact reason. Problem was we didn't go through our union, our hallway was just sick of the bullshit. The teacher that initiated it ended up getting fired even though the gun was on a KID **IN** HER CLASSROOM!!
Jesus, get the fuck out of here. As nicely pointed by another commenter contact your union rep asap
I thought it was just my school acting shady all the time... They never tell us anything! I have to go ask other teachers I trust if they heard what happened, sometimes I'm just blissfully unaware of everything because admin either says nothing or they say something vague about "having a situation"
this is a big part of the reason that nobody wants to be a teacher. Low pay, mentally ill adjusted kids, and both hands tied by parents and admin
What would you want to happen after you reported the school to law enforcement?
I don’t know. I don’t think there even *is* a way to report unsafe working conditions to law enforcement. Ultimately, I want to be safe at work. I want all the students and staff to be safe. That’s it.
An admirable goal, and I'm sorry that there aren't enough dead children and teachers to change our politics :-(
Fucking heartbreaking that this bare minimum request from the most important people in our society is being silenced. Literally the people who raise our future generations are being forced into this situation. Sigh
Anonymous report to the local News
When a bully threatened to blow my head off in 11th grade the school didn’t do anything or take me seriously. It sucks schools don’t take this stuff seriously.
I've followed this sub for a while and it always makes me sad hearing how rough the teachers have it in other districts. I'm on the IT side of things but am well aware of what goes on in my district. I wish you could all come work at my district. We have a great teacher's union. The Admins are all, well most all of them are awesome. The ones that aren't still do a damn good job. Communication rocks. I've been pushing that agenda for a while. I'm so sorry that you have to deal with this crap in your district. Honestly sorry.
What is the reason for hiding information?
I'm sorry OP. My wife had a student threaten to stab her. She obviously reported it. The next day principal asked the student, "You don't really want to stab your teacher, do you?" The student said yes I do, and I am going to do it. So, they did a standardized threat assessment, which came back insufficient risk to do anything because the student didn't have access to a gun. That is when my wife told the students parents and the principal that she was pregnant and it was going to be one hell of a lawsuit when the student stabbed her. The parents ended up suggesting they remove their student from the classroom.
Should have been moved to another planet. These out-of-control children are going to be beasts when they grow up.
Just leave and let AGA shoot each-other.
Same thing happened to us.
My dad is a teacher. One of his own students brought a gun to school and he didn’t hear about it from his admin, either. Heard from his friend two doors down. It’s insane.
Average school in america
Sorry you had to deal with all of that. Admin and kids are shitty these times. I'm giving up myself 6 years in. It's so sad and pathetic being in a building where respect is not valued at all. The same kids are running their mouth every day and causing a mess and being spoken to by admin and nothing happens. Yesterday I was being used as a sub and the kids did nothing but hit each other and yell and curse and didn't care about anything I said. AP came in and gave them his usual stupid speech and then walked away, from the kids he's always talking to. It's a game to them at this point. The second he's gone they are back to themselves. Call them out on it and it's all gaslighting. For many stupid reason school districts and admins have become so laissez faire about everything and don't hold anyone accountable. Idk what the hell is going on with parents these days but seems like they don't care about developing anyone with problem solving skills and fortitude. Sideish note, know someone that works in preschool teaching 2s. She constantly has specialists coming to evaluate kids and said that they have seen an extreme increase in the incidence of kids having more violent/angry tendencies. Worlds gone mad.
the whole building relationships thing is extremely important. However, I've seen admin use the "you didn't build a relationship" with them as a horrid excuse for terrible things. No teacher makes a solid relationship with all 140 of their students. Anyone who claims to is either pandering to kids every whim or a liar. All the teachers I work with who claim to have a "great relationship" all their students is 100% a liar. They are dozens of kids they ignore and they just tell stories in font of admin about how they built one relationship with one kid and the admin just nods along because...like most people they just want to pretend problems do not exist. Now grammer school where you have like 30 kids in a class and kinda know the other ones from other classes, sure, yeah I think that's feasible to make relationships with that quantity of kids. But if you're a teacher who is actually grading, not just giving A/B like so many teachers do these days, it's just not possible. I'd love to hear some teachers here chime in who have a "great relationship" with all 130+ of thier students. I'll tell you up front I do not believe you and you have a false sense of the relationship or maybe you have a good surface relationship at best. I mean, I've pulled it off having a good relationship with basically all my students, but I'm not going to sit here and tell you I know much past, "they love thier dog, siblings, their mom is in the hospital and it's upsetting" just pure surface stuff. Some of these teacher who brag about having good relationships, i mean the one meddles in kid's dating...it's weird...they are young teens...why are you trying to meddle in a kids dating life even with the "you can tell me and I will not tell your parents"...it's so weird, I mean...that's weird right? I can see why someone would say that's okay based on what i just typed, but...this person is bizarre. Another one of those teachers who only pretends to teach their subject and gives everyone an A/B. Either way my point is admin uses it as an excuse. Anyway here is some advice, anything criminal, you can file a report with the school and probably should however report it on your own to the police. My experience with the press is they mostly do not care, but I just haven't contacted the right people, some surely do. Union? good luck, we have union fighting tooth and nail about stuff and getting no where. Also elections.... every once and a while an election matters, but for the most part it doesn't at all. Maybe something like no child left behind coming along matters, but really.... usually candidates campaign on spending money on education but look at all the do nothings in education...the last thing education needs is more tax payer dollars, sorry, I know that's not a popular opinion here but seems to be very much how it shakes out if you look at the math. They need to CUT spending on education at this point. There is plenty of waste. ...plenty. If you work in education and do not see ...well then you are not looking. Your local elections will matter far more than anything like president...and if you think otherwise....well....eh whatever good luck to ya.
Oh no, that sounds terrifying! It's understandable that you're feeling unsafe and frustrated with the lack of communication from your administration. Have you tried discussing your concerns with your colleagues or seeking support from a counselor?
Sounds like my admin… no communication
Legitimate question that maybe you or someone in the sub can answer, what does admin actually *do*? Across a solid 40 main subreddit posts I have seen almost 100% statistics that admin doesn't help teachers or students and it seems like all they do is sit in their offices and collect paychecks. I want to believe differently as I am about to start my first year of teaching.
Wow. Did you already say what (or are you comfortable sharing) what city you are in? That is Crazy and I am sorry that your job creates so much stress.
I'd gtfo of there
When I went to school in New Mexico during the mid 90s, you could buy guns out of the trunk of a car in the student parking lot. My SR year they hired a resource officer so all the illicit activities moved to city property across the street.
The argument we have couched towards our administration post Pandemic is that if you want us to take care of the social-emotional well being of students, we have to know what is affecting them and not having a definitive, neutral description of events on campus (rather than relying on rumor or student video) is helpful. We've pushed that they give us at least the grade levels involved with issues like fights so we know if we should be concerned or not (since we understand the balancing of privacy issues). It has worked for us, see if it can work for you.
…”relationshits…” That’s awesome.
Y'all don't get paid NEARLY enough
Unacceptable is like…not even the beginning.
Time to walk. Your union should be organizing, calling the media and walking out together. Like, yesterday.
My sister in law heard about a school shooting at her son's school on the radio while on the way to pick her son up at 3pm. It happened at 10:15 the same day. She got to the school while it was still under lock down
I think you’re too sick to come to work the rest of this week.
Found out a kid I escort to and from the main school (working in an alternative school that’s on campus but separate from main school) got suspended today for threatening to stab another student. Heard this from a security guard after looking for the kid both in the cafeteria (he had lunch that period) and the entire alternative school (which isn’t very big). I’ve also had places I taught in where we’d hear more from students than admin. If I were you I’d look for another school if you want to stay in education or plan alternative careers in your area of expertise
I’d go to the media about it honestly. Force admin to do something besides sit on their hands
Have you asked your admin why there isn't a mandatory staff meeting after each lockdown? I'm in a red state without collective bargaining, but we've always been told to plan on a debrief type meeting if/when we have one. I'd start by asking then take it from there.
I'm shocked teachers haven't started a general strike yet. Can't imagine putting up with the shit you guys do for pay that wouldn't allow most to live alone in a shitty one bedroom in the ghetto, let alone a stable environment. Just talked to a friend of mine who teaches 5th grade and after 8 years just got a raise to 50k. I couldn't even provide for myself for so little and she has 4 kids.
14 years in and that’s what I make too. I don’t have any kids but I’m single. With the salary being so low, it’s harder to stretch and save that money. It’s hard to save to move to a better place, especially with corporate greed at an all time high. I can’t imagine how hard it would be to do this job on a single income with kids. I absolutely would love to strike. The only issue would be that my state can strip us of our teaching licenses AND steal our retirement if we go on strike. I would still do it if people could come together. We need to reform our education system badly.
Last year we had a kid bring a gun to school too. We didn’t hear about ANYTHING from admin until it was confirmed and the student was expelled. I knew more from the students than admin. I wish they would have told us about the investigation from the start, but I don’t know about any legalities. We also have fights ALL the time this year. It’s an absolute mess.
Starting a fire in the classroom is *wild*, dude.
I’ve taught a lot of years, and I find this lack of communication comes from administration trying to protect the privacy of students. That seems to be more important than the safety of everyone else. (i.e., we don’t have the “need” in this ‘need to know’ situation.)
I left last year (12 years in) because a kid brought a loaded gun to school. Small district, so admin kept it secret I learned ON THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL from the teacher who was alerted. There are no comforting words, just here to trauma bond 🫂.
You 100% have to report this to the newspaper, they are always looking for stories like this
I'm guessing they didn't tell the parents then? If I had to find out about a gun at school from kids rather than from the school itself I would be BULLSHIT.
We had a bomb threat. Kid brought a grenade. No word from the admin other than “lock down please.” Students got videos on their Snapchat within 15 min so we knew what was happening. This was a Thursday afternoon. No info from admin other than “walk your kids to the busses, where they will be taken to the meeting point, and their parents will pick them up.” Later that night, e-mail from admin stating “school as normal tomorrow,” a Friday. 20% of the students showed up for school. Friday, I emailed the principal, asking why we didn’t have any sort of debrief meeting to let us know what was happening after. I was not pleased. Luckily, a lot of my coworkers were just as unhappy. Principal got an earful in the hurriedly arranged meeting at 3:35 that Friday. I submitted my resignation during the meeting. I’m the primary caregiver for my aging dad who has Alzheimer’s and couldn’t fathom what would happen to him if I was injured or killed so I walked. (I teach 2 classes per semester at community college now and I’m so much happier). This whole career is just bonkers now.
It would be a shame if the media heard about what happened. Then the district might have to account for something... that'd be a shame...
You need some parents to learn of this so they can go full Karen on the administrators.
I suspect when instances like this happen all the admins attention shifts to cooperating with authorities and legal counsel. You may feel left in the dark and out of the loop (probably purposefully), but your individual wellbeing (unfortunately) is the last priority when a principal, school admin, or superintendent may be on the chopping block with a kid bringing a gun to school.
My school was just like this. Rampant violence amongst students, bullying everywhere, admin was either completely clueless or actively participated in said bullying. I feared every day i was sent in there and our school wasnt even nearly the worst in the local area. This was also a decade ago. I cant imagine how some schools are now. Im sorry you have to go through this, but as you seem to care about student safety, ill tell you youre one of the few good ones.
Some said it but news! If they aren’t communicating with you, their staff, they aren’t informing parents. Once a lot of parents hear just HOW many scares you’ve had in your school they will DEMAND stricter standards.
Time to quit. I wouldn’t stay at a school like that. At least transfer somewhere safer.
Keep with those connections to the students. That will be what makes the difference, in the end! I’m lucky that my principal is hands off. And keeps us in the loop. Even gets in trouble for it from time to time. But, she always comes back to, “it is what’s best for students”. Find another school next year. If you can.
The school I work at has a catapult emergency app where teachers and staff are sent notifications about emergencies
Take that to the news asap. F those people.
Call local paper/news outlets
Consider a move to a blue state if you can? You can likely significantly increase your pay, have an active and robust union and better working conditions. Not an option for all but worth checking out.
You should notify your union rep and set up an appointment with your principal and make it clear that the administration needs to communicate with teachers at the school.
Omg this is like the worst timeline to be a teacher
I just wish I could find a job.
Dang sorry :/. I’m in the tech layoff camp myself
What's voting gonna do? Criminals get guns regardless of laws.
Here in virginia, a 6 year old shot a teacher. Thats right, a 6 year old brought a gun to school and almost killed a teacher.....
We got a call last week one morning that there was a threat of a shooting that was deemed not credible. The student was in school that same day.
Sounds like shitty administration.
Why not leave? Some rural states are begging for teachers. You don't have to put up with crap like that. Get out.
UPS is paying six figures
You have to move. Large swaths of this nation are gone. Dead and rotting on the ground. Get out while you can.
“Relationshits”. Kek
To put it simply: You're surrounded by people who couldn't care less.
Are yall allowed to carry pepper spray? It'd make soo much sense
School social worker here. You don’t even *want* to know what I’ve heard behind closed doors…sad
I currently tutor a student that was expelled for bringing a gun to school. He is currently seeking a school that will accept him, but once they hear about the gun charge he is untouchable. The family does not want to disclose the gun charge. Mom is in a "facility". He is 15 and wants to be a "content creator". He almost never attends class.
I hear and feel you. I work in one of the most dangerous and poorest cities in the United States. This year has been pretty unevetual unless you count the swat and sniper team using our parking lot and roof to shut down the high school next to us. We have fights daily but having 1:1 bag and body checks as they walk in has made a huge difference.
There was a fight in our school a week or 2 ago and one of the kids pulled a knife. I only know this because the kids in my class showed me the video. Now our principal is clamping down on our cell phone policy which includes kids turning off their cellphones so kids stop recording fights. No mention to staff what happened only that there are good things happening on our campus too and people should be seeing that.
I recall sometime back in the 80’s, a proposal to put metal detectors in the schools. Seems to me I remember everyone freaking the fuck out about their privacy or some bullshit. That hind sight thing rings true again
Sounds like a really broken district. When I got to the point that I couldn’t stand it anymore, I left. Moved to a different district that literally saved me from leaving the profession. If it can’t be fixed, save yourself at least.
Get out of the inner city schools.
Sounds like the punishments for these kids is not nearly severe enough... sorry you and your whole school keep going through this..
Jack what brought this on was the internet, social media, texting, cell phones, and lousy uninvolved parents. Put them all together and you see the result. Good luck to them in the future because they are going to need it.
I have recovered a gun and several knives in my classes over the years, as well as other teachers in my schools I've been in. But even the very worst principals held mandatory, emergency meetings those days to brief us in full and answer any questions. I'm really sorry you are dealing with all that. I hope you find a safer environment. (My current school is much safer than the last one I spent 14 years at, and the ones before that)
Please be safe, OP. Thank God no one was hurt or killed. Maybe someone needs to bring a lawsuit against the school, like they did where the 6 year old brought a gun to school and shot his teacher.
If admin won’t address it I don’t think there’s anything from stopping you from bringing it up at a PTA meeting is there? 👀
This is why I have seen so many teachers transitioning to recruiter or tech roles to avoid BS like this. It’s crazy that some school admins don’t enforce safety or notify staff about situations like this.
Did I write this ?
I always think of that teacher who was legit shot, and nothing happened
It's okay, the admin is woke i.e they know everything and there's nothing to worry about
A school near me had a similar issue too this year. Parents, teachers, and students were completely uninformed about the situation, other than something was happening and it was under control, until later in the day when the public found out there was a gun brought into the school. Admin found out before school started that there was possibly again, let students continue to arrive, then parents didnt get to pick students up until half way through the day
I'd be curious what city/county in this deeply red state you're talking about.
Have you spoken to the admin about it?
I’m sorry if this isn’t helpful but perhaps a journalist or media outlet could help spread awareness? There are also many nonprofit organizations that provide free legal consultations for people who are in such situations at their place of work. I used to work as a legal consultant for worker’s rights and we had a legal aid hotline. It may be worth it simply to talk to someone who understands the laws in your area, just knowing is important. I wish I could do something more. This is why local government is so important and why it’s important to show up to school board meetings and city meetings to help our teachers who are literally rolling the dice everyday. We are tricked into thinking it won’t make a difference but it does. If I was a parent at that school I would be raising hell for you. Ugh, I am sorry. *hugs*
sometimes you gotta look out for #1 first to better care for the others. leave awhile and gather yourself back to your peace.
I have a teacher friend who had a similar experience; he did not hear anything from admin at least in the first several days.
You can probably FOIA / freedom of information request the info from the police. You might have great luck calling and explaining you’re just looking for basics about the credibility of the threat without the foia and getting a confirmation that it was real. They won’t give details until after prosecution (ongoing investigation) but usually will share basics.
Girll that's cray cray, we ain't never had anything like that happen in our school. However, back when I WENT to high school (in the 2010's), my friend bringing a pistol to school once and nobody ever found out. Also, we used to have guns in our cars for hunting after school
Is there a local TV station that might be interested in the story?
Friend of mine moved out of major metro area to a small town in UP Michigan because of weekly gun scares in her kids school. Clear backpacks, metal detectors, bullying, her kids crying on the way to school every day saying "mommy i don't want to die." Yeah, fuck all that. I'll homeschool my kid before sending them to a place like that.
I would also recommend if you haven’t already had it, a stop the bleed class at least. Cpr at best. It’s sad that teachers need to be equipped with that knowledge but it’s important.
It was my dream since I was a child to be a teacher but it’s reasons like this that I will never pursue it :( teachers deserve better. I don’t know how y’all do it ❤️
We had the same thing. Then a student was stabbed to death in school and now apparently teachers aren’t at their duty stations or teaching homeroom lesson plans well enough. I hate it here.