Bit of context first. I’m a manager of a before and after school child care program in my local public school district. The company that I work for is privately owned, and sort of rents out the space in the schools. I’ve just passed my 7th year working here (started when I was 15) and I’ve always really liked it, mainly because the school that I’ve been working at is the school that I went to as a kid, and it’s within close walking distance. Working at that specific school is one of the main reasons that I’ve worked here for so long.
When I became the manager, it was literally something that was just forced upon me, because there was no one else to fill that role. I’ve have always been really good at saving, so I’ve never asked for a raise before, I’ve spent my own money buying toys and supplies for the site that the higher ups either didn’t want to get or didn’t know what to get. I’ve been shortened on support staff for my site for the second straight year, as they do not want to pay a competing starting wage with other nearby businesses. But, whatever, working with children (k-5) takes a lot out of you, but you do it for them. I’ve always really liked my job, but the past couple of days are making me change my mind.
So there I was, opening, under staffed, with two staff out on vacation, one not showing, and two others coming nearly 30 minutes after school gets out because they’re both high schoolers, and have to commute, drop off siblings and whatever. Shortly after school gets out I usually take the kids to the playground, it’s one of the largest playgrounds in the district, despite being one of the smallest schools. So I’m practically solo monitoring 45 kids, because one staff has to stand at the entrance to the playground, and then a hill and the equipment get in the way. Than I hear a lot of yelling that one of the first grade girls is crying.
When I get over there the first grader is under some stairs crying, and I start my questioning. The first grader in question, has some mobility disability, required a walker to get around and had multiple surgeries over the summer to help. Turns out that a new kid in the program this year, a third grade boy, had pushed her down, kept pushing her down, pinned her to the ground and grabbed her neck. When I asked the third grader why he did this he said “I don’t know”, when I asked if asked if there was a reason why he did this he said “no”. In response I had him apologize to the first grader, and walk three laps around the blacktop, and of course I wrote up a behavior report for him to give to his parents. All pretty normal, until I get a text from my boss if I could come in to the company office to talk.
Apparently the mom of the third grader had called my boss and the principal of the school and had a multi hour conversation about how I was being biased and unfair to her kid. She demanded that I be removed from the site, and my boss, for some reason, immediately caved and said that I can pick the school that I want to comanage. So, I’m essentially being demoted, told I have to spend a lot more on commuting, be moved with no advanced warning, and cause the site that I have spent so much effort on have no manager, for the horrible crime of doing my job.
TLDR.
Karen thinks that pushing disabled kids is ok, punishing kids that push disabled kids is biased, and she should be in charge of staffing an understaffed business. Boss totally agrees, and chooses to punish me instead.