Yesterday, I posted about the increasing incidences of fights on my campus. In that post, I mentioned that we have four campus supervisors. I happen to get along quite well with our campus supervisors, which is important on my campus because woe be the teacher who is not liked by them. However, tomorrow I'm going to have to lodge a complaint against one of them.
The reason?
Today, towards the end of the lunch, I caught 4 to 5 students on the roof of one of the portables. I stepped inside of my classroom, called the office to let them know, then stepped back outside to yell at the students to get off the roof. As they are making their way off the roof, I stop a couple of them to find out just what the heck they were doing in a place they clearly did not belong.
They had been instructed by a campus supervisor to get a ball that had gone on the roof. I'm not making this up! Their story was later confirmed after I talked to a couple of other people on our campus.
Yes, another fight broke out in the lower field after school. However, I didn't bother to try to call for back-up because three of the four had left during fifth period. Two of our campus supervisors left because they are baseball coaches. I don't know why the other one left. However, I think it might behoove my principal to not let this happen again.
What do I know . . . I'm just a teacher.
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3 comments:
I will preface my comment with the fact that I am a student teacher.
Nonetheless, I feel the situation needs comment. First, you should speak to an administrator that you feel you can trust and tell them what happened, what you concerns are, and ask them what they think you should do. Although, you could file a complaint I do not know whether they will consider the students as creditable sources, especially if the administrator denies that he/she told the students to go onto the roof of the portable to get the ball. From their perspective (the administrator), the easiest thing to do is to deny any involvement in the incident. But, if this is not an isolated event, they will eventually be held accountable, since they are essentially using their authority to endanger the health and bodily harm of students for a ball. If it is necessary to get the ball why don’t they go up there and get it or alternatively get a paid-staff member to retrieve the ball not a student. Nonetheless, I think it is worthwhile to submit a complaint; you have a legal obligation as an educator under Texas law. See standard 3.2 of the Codes of Ethics and Standard Practices for Texas Educators at the link below.
http://info.sos.state.tx.us/pls/pub/readtac$ext.TacPage?sl=R&app=9&p_dir=&p_rloc=&p_tloc=&p_ploc=&pg=1&p_tac=&ti=19&pt=7&ch=247&rl=2
The question is: what is the best way to go about this process? In order to determine this, try to seek advice from other administrators or other officials at higher levels such as the school district. When inquiring about whether or not to file a complaint, you do not have to describe the details of the situation. You could say something like, “I have reason to believe that an administrator at my school is endangering the physical health of students. As a result, I would like to know whether the word of students’ will be considered creditable against that of the administrator, should they attempt to deny involvement in the situation.” I hope this helps. If you have other adults (employees, staff, teachers, etc.) that heard the adminstrator/supervisor tell the students to go and get the ball off the roof, then I would submit a complaint- end of story.
Additionally, it sounds like the Administrators/Baseball Coaches have a conflict of interest. That is to say, administrators probably shouldn’t be allowed to be baseball coaches, since it obviously prevents them from performing their administrative duties. This point might need to be brought to the attention of the principal of your school or better yet the superintendent of your school district. Schools should not be understaffed administratively due to baseball games.
It sounds like you are in rough environment. Have you considered any alternatives to your current situation?
Matthew
Wow
You have campus supervisors. Luxury!
Supervision duty falls on our teacher shoulders.
But by the sound of your tale of woe, we might be better of without them.
I feel your pain!
Although I teach at a fabulous school now, I spent several years at a school where the administrators fell into three categories--1)their comfortable office chair was far more pleasant than interacting with students,2)their technique was to try to be friends with students and "let them off this once", which of course ended up being every time something went wrong and the kid swaggered around saying, "I have Ms. Blank in my pocket", and 3)they were firm, fair, and effective.
Every administrator that fell into category #3 left for greener pastures within a year.
Hope things get better for you : )
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