You Look Down But Far From Out
In the interest of keeping this brief: I lost.
Before I explain that further, I just wanted to thank everyone and anyone who listened to the initial podcast and offered me advice or support. It really, really meant a lot to me. Thank you.
Okay, so I did what I thought was most risky, but also had the greatest chance of getting Cathy fired. I called a parent behind the headmaster’s back.
I talked to one of the parents I trusted and told her about what happened. If the headmaster ever found out, I would be immediately fired. She would be extremely embarrassed — it would be a huge loss of face — and she’d feel completely betrayed. But I thought it was my best shot.
Anyway, the parent told me that her daughter, and other children, had complained about Cathy, and other parents knew she wasn’t a good teacher.
Until my phone call, they thought she was just a mean person. I explained that it was much worse than that: she is a violent, terrible person.
We talked for almost twenty minutes, and the parent was very sympathetic and understanding and sounded very concerned. But she didn’t want to call and demand that Cathy be fired. She told me she would pass along the info to the other parents (without my name) and maybe they would decide to do something. But, she said, probably the best thing to do was just wait and see what happened over the next few weeks.
Yeah. Part of me is hopeful that the rest of the parents will decide to take action. But most of me just feels frustrated and defeated. If I can’t even get foreigner parents to take a hard stance on this, what can I do? It’s depressing.
After we talked, the parent sent me an email saying that it might be better that Cathy didn’t get fired. Now she’ll be watched closer and won’t just transfer to another school and do the same things. It just sounded like she was trying to justify her inaction to herself. I didn’t bother replying.
So Cathy is back in the classroom. And the general climate in the school is pretty cold right now.
It’s not all bad. I heard from one assistant that not all of the other teachers are angry about what I did. Some of them know Cathy is terrible but felt like they couldn’t speak out against her. The pressure to protect other teachers is too strong. But they are glad that I did something.
Still, it’s not a victory. It’s a not-fully-crushing defeat. But I guess I’ll have to take it…
Cathy is still here. But so am I.
G-Day Plus 1
Here is a quick update on what went down Monday:
I spoke to the headmaster in the morning about the events on Graduation Day. She seemed genuinely upset. Now, the headmaster has a reputation for being a bit of an actress. She can put on a nice little show to look enthusiastic or shocked or excited or touched or whatever, especially in front of parents and foreigners. So I was a little skeptical at first, but by the end of the conversation I believed she was actually very upset.
Of course, she might just be upset because of the position it puts the school in, but I’m fine with that, as long as she does what I want. And what I want is for her to drop the ban hammer on Cathy. I want her fired and I want every other teacher to know why.
I didn’t make any threats or suggestions during the conversation. Bill, Charlotte, and Casey commented that I should make the it’s-in-the-school’s-best-interest-to-fire-Cathy case, rather than any kind of ultimatums. I think that was sound advice. But for the first conversation I wanted to play it very slow and gauge the headmaster’s response.
When the conversation ended, the headmaster thanked me for telling her and said she was going to speak with the other teachers who were in the room. In fact, she asked a lot about the other teachers and what they did in reaction to Cathy’s behavior. Maybe she just wants to know how they reacted so that she can corroborate my story. But I got the distinct sense that she was angry with them.
Now, I understand being angry at the other teachers. I’m a little angry with them. I wish they would’ve stood up next to me instead of retreating in shock (or pretending nothing happened.) But really, punishing them or being angry at them seems like such a secondary concern. Cathy is the one who needs the attention here, not my assistant and the other teacher. Cathy needs to have her shit kicked out of the goddamn door immediately. Then there will be time for being angry at the others.
In the afternoon the headmaster left the school for a doctor’s appointment, so I went to my assistant to get the scoop on what happened. The headmaster still hadn’t spoken with my assistant or the other teachers in my class and she still hadn’t spoken with Cathy.
What she did do, was tell one of the other administrators to reprimand Cathy during a meeting. And apparently this was the same administrator that I told on Friday. And she did the same thing on Friday: reprimand Cathy in a meeting.
So for two meetings in a row, Cathy has been singled out and bitched at in front of the rest of the teachers in the school.
This is not what I want.
In fact, I was pretty angry to hear this. The only thing it does is humiliate Cathy in front of the other teachers. There is a part of me that says “well at least that’s something.” But it really isn’t. It does nothing to stop the problem. And it just makes the other teachers feel sympathy for her.
My assistant confirmed it; the other teachers felt bad for Cathy. My assistant even said “Maybe if I was helping her organize the children this never would have happened and she wouldn’t be in trouble.” No. Stop.
Oh, and of course the administrator announced who it was that reported what Cathy did.
Poor Cathy. She was stressed out and was getting no help and just made one mistake. But the foreigner has to run around reporting her and making a big deal out of it.
As of right now, this problem is the exact opposite of solved.
Does anyone feel for the little girl? No. Not enough to actually protect her.
Is Cathy viewed as the bad guy? Nope. Anderson is the trouble maker here.
Are the kids any better off? Maybe, but criticizing and shaming abusive people doesn’t tend to make them less abusive. Cathy will just try harder not to get caught, which will make it even harder to protect the children.
What am I planning to do? I haven’t decided yet. The headmaster is here all day today so I’m hoping she does something (even if it’s just talking to those involved) that will help me decide. I won’t threaten to quit or tell parents. Not yet.
I’m probably going to try making the case that she should be fired.
I also have another option. I could skip dealing with the administrators entirely and just go straight to a parent. If a parent called in and said something like “my daughter told me one of your teachers pushed a little girl on Friday…” it would probably help to get Cathy fired more than anything I can do.
That’s a dangerous game though. If the parent told the headmaster she was calling because of me, I would probably be fired too.
I need to be careful with whatever I decide. And I’ll keep everyone updated.
And before I finish this post, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who commented. It really meant a lot to have your support and to read your advice. This would be infinitely harder if there weren’t people here and at home who had my back. Thank you.
CP4: Graduation Day
The fourth Chinarchy audio post. This episode I talk about a teacher who mistreats children and her actions on Graduation Day. Also, I discuss the frustrations of trying to do the right thing in such a bad environment.
iTunes
RSS
Note: It’s a bit rambly, just so you know going in.
