I am a teacher and I have been teaching in the same district my whole career. Because of this I have a ton of sick days saved up. My wife and I were expecting our first child at the end of April last school year. My wife got 12 weeks through her work and with summer coming up, I felt it was best to use my FMLA leave at the start of the following (this) school year. Well my Superintendent had a sit down meeting with me to “discuss” this. I didn't even think he could do this as FMLA is a federal law and undisputed. Anyways, within 3 minutes into the meeting he told me this was bullshit, and how I was hamstringing the district, as there was no way they would find someone to cover the first 6 weeks of school. He told me that he saw me as a leader before this, and now I am just another employee. After telling me many more times how spending time with my first child is bullshit, he told me if I ever applied elsewhere he would make sure to tell them how I abandoned the district on such short notice. (We are legally required to tell them over 4 months before our leave starts which I told him 6 months in advance). He called me a union clone and that I just follow the disgruntled old employees. He then said he was going to leave me out of the master schedule and if I get all the shit classes to teach, its my problem. Or he said he would purposely make class sizes 35+ and then blame me because its my fault and the other teachers need to pick up my slack.
I walked into the principals office (who was at the meeting) and told him if he fucks me over I will quit and not return. He said he's on my side and my schedule upon my return is how I wanted it, so at least he is my ally.
Some of my coworkers are saying I should sue the shit out of him, but at the end of the day I know he will retaliate because he is an asshole. Thoughts?