I was 35 when I first challenged a principal to look at the changes happening in the school that were indicative of something being majorly wrong. He accused me that my observations were ‘being personal’. It involved his behaviour and that of his friend on the staff. His friend had been at the school for several years and his behaviour changed with the arrival of the new principal, a long time friend of his. This was displayed in a culture favouring bullying tactics and the perpetrators began to roam the school in and out of class time. Substance abuse was rife and this was evident when I was coaching a team, ones who thought they could hassle me into giving them a place, despite their having missed practice. These same students were ones who were singled out for rides, by themselves, with the teacher in question.
The principal said he would ‘bring in the inspectors’. I went back to him to tell him that I was happy to meet inspectors and provided him with a list of my previous principals and my permission to contact them. He did that. One in particular contacted me to inform me that I needed to watch my back as this man would ‘get me’ somehow. My past principal told me that he had informed my present principal that I was not a stirrer and that, if I was drawing attention to something going on, it would pay for him to listen.
Yes, he did get me in a bizare and contrived way that came out of left field. His behaviour towards me in front of my class was one which would best have been addressed in follow up disciplinary action towards him. By this stage his behaviour towards the staff had many of them afraid following a situation where publicly their words had been twisted or responsibility for comments had been positioned as if from them. When the event happened, other staff who could have made a difference were afraid for their own situations to stand up. 23 years later some of those who were still alive claimed to have been surprised at the ‘truth’ that later emerged.
I left fulltime teaching at the end of that year. In hindsight I could have fought a battle with the help of my union.
Several years later that same teacher won the role of principal where my younger son was at school. I deliberated over what to do, saying to myself that I had no actual proof of his abuse of children, and analysed whether my response was personal or professional. He appeared to behave himself for the first 2 years and then his behaviour when handling cases of intimidation reverted to what I had witnessed before. A discussion with a parent who knew nothing of my work history raised the alarm bells. I had a supposedly off-the-record discussion with the Board Chair solely about the issue the parent felt unable to bring to the Board’s attention because of the Principal’s place on the Board. I suggested that they approach her to draw out her concerns. Today the term ‘being culturally responsive’ would have been appropriate here.
The call I received from my past colleague, the now Principal of my son’s school, surprised me little. ‘I thought we’d got over this personal stuff,’ he shouted down the phone. I knew that day I needed to move my son away from his friends to another school. The week before the change of school he wailed at me that I was ruining his life. A week into being at the new school he shared this about his new principal with delight. ‘Mr D, he talks to the good boys like me the same way he talks to the bad boys.’
There was a time at the previous school when I had arrived to collect my son and he was nowhere to be seen. He then emerged from the PE shed followed by the principal in question. I practiced being poker faced and took great care in how I asked my son what he’d been doing in the shed. I also know from his face that nothing untoward had happened, which was confirmed. As an adult he is adamant that the change of school was the best thing that happened for him at that time. I have also asked him if he was a victim. His answer was, ’Nah. He never would have touched me. He knew what you would have done to him.’
You see, it was 23 years later that I was working at a school in Auckland. At lunchtime I noted that I had missed several calls from my younger son. When we connected he was quick to tell me that the front page of the daily paper was running a story on a principal who had been ‘kiddy fiddling’ (my son’s words). From my mouth I immediately gave the name. Now my son was giving me the number to call for the police as he was adamant that I needed to call them and tell them anything that I could. He was telling me that my children knew how much from that time had yet to be resolved for me. I could not see it. They could. He phoned me every few days to ask if I had called the police and if I had remembered anything else. By this stage Facebook was running red hot.
The police called me back several times. I passed on names of the Board Chair who had fronted a complaint to the principal where I had been all those years previously. Parents’ complaints about the teacher had been collated and presented to him. Apparently he had refused to read it at the time. The young men who gave evidence were in their late 30’s and 40’s. The younger ones, when found, said they wanted it to stay in the past. Thanks to those who did take the stand, my colleague found himself being sentenced to over 4 years at Her Majesty’s pleasure. On the Teachers’ Registration Council list, his registration shows as ‘Cancelled’.
When my son and his friends queried it being only four years, I asked them to think about what each day would be like for him.
Sadly there had been people in authority positions who considered the way to manage was by intimidation, and that those who talk loudest and longest come out on top. It is poor management practice that can be changed. In order to change such modeling within the teaching sector, the behavioural examples from within the controlling bodies, such as governmental agencies, need to be the quality of the desired model. This will happen when we challenge what is happening, identify an improved way of behaving and follow it up with exercises to make the change permanent.
It can be done.
Challenge – Choose – Change
