I stood up for myself.

Just be careful.... I stood up for myself once too. We had a shooting 5 years ago in San Bernardino and my school didn’t lock down until the black SUV was shot up. We were at lunch and I watched police race around town. We didn’t know what was going on. My dad texted me and I did my own lockdown until the PA announcement.

Fast forward to a few months later when my boss tried to tell me that I had an unsafe classroom because a student, a known cutter and boy who cries wolf, was saying he was going to kill himself. I sent him to the counselor, and I assumed it was handled. He never got to the counselor.

Anyway...learned a lesson when I was denied my step increase and put on an assistance plan for 5 years. I had been teaching at that school for 10 years. My union was crickets and ignored me.

Even after the principal transferred to another school, I was stigmatized as the troublemaker and couldn’t leave based on my evaluations - all unsatisfactory after the incident, yet meets prior - even though I filed a rebuttal and raised test scores 17%. Well. Finally, I worked my way out of it and got a new position at a school where I am again appreciated and all is well with the world.

Just be careful.

/r/Teachers Thread