Trigger warning for some pretty heavy topics, but I HAVE to vent this somewhere. I am no longer in education, but I want to provide those curious with a glimpse into what it's like to be a part of the most predatory, toxic employment system I have ever worked in in my life. For context, I have a B.S. and got halfway to an M. Ed. in order to get my teaching certification in my state and was awarded Teacher of the Year. I taught mostly middle grades at a few different places, but none of them were particularly low-income/on the “rough” side of town.
In only a few years in the system, I…
- Started at $32k salary and ended at $38k (standard $1k increase each year until you max out at $50k. You cannot make more than that with the new pay structure in my state). My take home was less than $2000 a MONTH my last year. We were also all contract employees who could be terminated anytime (or non-renewed at the end of each year) and were not allowed to unionize (as it is illegal in my state).
- Had a parent use my personal information to find my address, then come to my apartment to scream at me from the parking lot and threaten to fight me.
- Taught in a stairwell for 4 months because there were no rooms left. Yes, a literal stairwell. I had a class of 20+ that would sit on the stairs and I would teach from a whiteboard on wheels at the base of the stairs.
- Had to pay $150 each day of school I missed (regardless of the reason) to pay for my substitute. Half the time, we couldn't even find a sub, so what happened to my money!?
- Was stabbed with scissors, pushed down the stairs, and choked against a wall, with no consequences for any of the students involved. In fact, it was my fault for challenging students I knew would react poorly and for the way I approached them and made them feel threatened. Multiple coworkers I know were injured badly enough in various scuffles that they were unable to work and were taken away in ambulances, yet denied workers' comp.
- Had a 5th grader attempt to unalive himself in my classroom with a pair of scissors (not just for attention – a pretty genuine attempt).
- Survived an intruder who came through our unlocked, unmanned front doors to attack a student. Our classroom doors did not lock and opened outward, and we did not have working phones in our classrooms. I had to use all my strength to wrestle him through the door handle to keep my students safe. The principal made it sound like an unavoidable accident, despite us having raised concerns about the state of the building for months.
- Shared my space with roaches and mice at each school I worked at.
- Had to defend my fellow teachers from accusations made by students, going as far as to file blatantly false police reports. Another teacher was suspended without pay during the investigation, only for it to be proven to be completely unfounded. The student eventually admitted he made it all up, but he never faced any consequences.
- Coached afterschool for hours each week with no additional stipend. We also did not get lunch breaks and were forced to eat in the cafeteria alongside students.
- Regularly had students loot my belongings, picking locked desk drawers to get to my purse or expensive electronics or even eat food out of my lunchbox. They took almost anything that wasn't nailed down. We also had to buy everything for our rooms, including pencil sharpeners and paper!
- Struggled to pay for the copies I needed to teach my kids. We were never given textbooks, but to use the copier, it cost a penny a page (so for my 118 total students, that was $1.18 to make a single-sided worksheet), and we were given a small amount each month (so anytime I had to print a test, it was ended up coming out of my pocket).
- Had a student conduct a “dress-rehearsal” with a duffel bag and bulletproof vest to test our security response, only for us to be told we were “overreacting” when we demanded he be removed from class. He also found where we lived, called our home phones, and took pictures of us through our windows. “Nothing could be done” because he was a minor and it wasn't during school hours. We were always told we were not permitted to press charges or sue students or their families (even though we absolutely could have).
- Was forced to attend school even after threats had been made. We were told, “Just stay away from the windows” and ate lunch in our classrooms. When a student threatened another student via Snapchat with a knife and said he was going to do it during recess, we asked our AP for help and guidance, and his response was, “Keep your eyes open and move fast.”
- Dealt with students playing obscene sounds/showing child pr0n/making overtly inappropriate comments and physical contact toward students and teachers during class (students asked me things like, “Do you have an OnlyFans?” and “Ooh, what does that mouth do?” while I was taking a drink from my water bottle). Students also frequently recorded teachers on their laptops, then edited what we “said” and would show it to parents/admin to try to get us fired.
- Had to break up fights, address hate crimes, and stop drug deals. Also, during the “devious licks” TikTok challenge, kids took everything from the bathrooms – even the urinals!
- Regularly had parents tell me (to my face and through email) that I was a waste of space, a terrible person, and to unalive myself. A few favorites include, “You are a waste of space and you could do us all a favor and go jump off a bridge,” “Now that I’ve met you, I see why my child hates you,” and “Oh, you're sorry? I’ll come up there and make you sorry.”
- Struggled to help students through serious trauma like self-harm, being homeless/in group homes, living in a shed, dealing with the death of a parent, being diagnosed with cancer, etc. since there just were not enough mental health staff and resources to help them.
- Sought help from administrators, only to regularly be told that I was the problem; kids wouldn't act out if I was more interesting, kids wouldn't make comments about my body if I didn't wear those clothes (being jeans and a school-issued T-shirt?), kids wouldn't threaten me if I would just stop them from doing what they wanted and giving out consequences. At the end of the day, I just wasn't working hard enough and it wasn't their job to do mine for me.
Reading all this back now, I see that it's so crazy that I can honestly understand you might struggle to believe this unless you are/have been a teacher. This is only SOME of the things I endured while working 60+ hours a week dealing with some of the least appreciative and most disrespectful people I have ever encountered (and I'm not talking about the kids!). It was like an abusive relationship; I knew I should leave, but I stayed in it for the kids. But now that I'm out, I can see clearly that this is NOT how professionals deserve to be treated. This is not every school and not every teacher's experience, but it's becoming more and more commonplace. Teachers have been sounding the alarm for YEARS but are regularly ignored or written off. We can't keep doing this – something's got to give.
TL;DR: Teachers (and students) deserve so much better.