Stumbling Through Work
Working in education is to stumble through your everyday! We love what we do, but staff, families, policies, regulations and sometimes even the children make us quit everyday then come back the next day. Just remember, you are not in this alone.
Stumbling Through Work
Handling Crisis and Boosting Preschool Enrollments
This week on Stumbling Through Work, we confront the unsettling realities of child care center vandalism. Hear the details of a shocking incident that left a preschool in disarray,
Switching gears from crisis management to proactive planning, I’ll share practical strategies to enhance your preschool, afterschool, and enrichment programs for the upcoming academic year. Whether it’s converting summer camp participants into year-long enrollments or tackling logistical nightmares like busing and drop-ins, I’ve got you covered. Learn the importance of hosting an open house right before the school year and how it can significantly boost your enrollments.
Hear about a chaotic incident on the playground that highlights the necessity of professional behavior among staff and effective administrative intervention.
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Welcome to Stumbling Through Work where educators figure shit out. I'm your host, jarek Huff, and I'm here to explore and share the complexities of our work and let you know you are not alone. Before we start, though, please follow this podcast and share episodes with others. You can find me on my website, wwwjerekhuffcom, where you can find links to my social media and where I share information and tips for educators. Now let's jump into today's episode. Hey team, welcome to another episode of Stumbling Through Work where educators figure shit out. I am bringing you a story from Baltimore, maryland, today, and it goes.
Speaker 1:A preschool in Baltimore County is picking up the pieces after it was vandalized last week and because of what happened, it is unsafe for kids to go in right now. Quote. It's been hard to deliver the news to our families, to our teachers. Unquote, said the owner. Hours after the school's Friday fun event on Saturday around 3 30 in the morning, the owner says a group of intruders broke in through a window. Quote. They drank our juice boxes, they ate our cupcakes, they rode around on our tricycles and then they found the fire extinguisher An extinguisher which they sprayed in parts of the building. At first it sounds like simple juvenile mischief, but there were unhealthy chemicals sprayed by the discharged fire extinguisher through the HVAC. Every room in the building was impacted. Quote sat down in the lobby, my pants were covered in dust and they did not discharge anywhere close to the lobby. Unquote. The school is suffering thousands in damage and lost business income.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I'm not gonna lie. When I first read this I giggled because I'm ignorant. I thought it was very funny. It was the way they wrote it. Let's just go back to revisit. They drank our juice boxes, they ate our cupcakes and they rode around on our tricycles. That enough seeing somebody's big ass riding on a tricycle. When we do it as teachers, it's funny. But the thought of seeing somebody doing that inside the school which I'm hoping, they brought the tricycles inside the school to store them at night, so you know no one steals them. Ironically, jess was a little comedic to me, but it was the. They drank our juice boxes.
Speaker 1:Now, why did we need to know that part of the story? Why did we need to know they drunk the juice boxes and why they ate your cupcakes? That were left out because I'm sure them cupcakes would have been stale by the time y'all made it back unless they were like ho-hos and individually wrapped packages, but you left that over the weekend so I'm pretty sure they would have been still anyway. But here's the thing as I read this, this happened Friday night, saturday morning. I give a great Saturday morning, 3.30 in the morning. Why are your antennas just getting there on Sunday morning? Where were you at for an entire day? I mean, this is your business. Where were you?
Speaker 1:Now, this is how I feel, because you brought up these juice boxes. You brought up these flat juice boxes that say 100 juice, but we know they're not. You're not in this for the right reason. See it, even your little quote. Um, let me go back to it.
Speaker 1:It's hard to deliver the news to our families, to our teachers. It't hard. They know we live in a terrible world. They know we live in a world where people are just doing random shit. Oh, it's so hard Girl. No, you full of shit. Let's just call it is what it is. That's how I feel.
Speaker 1:This whole article, first off, out of everything going on in Baltimore, this story makes publication. This story makes publication. This was a sad story, but I will say that the fire extinguisher did take it to a whole other level. That's when it got a little more serious for me, because fire extinguishers and everything they release are definitely not good for children, so I can't imagine that that is frustrating. Trying to get all that stuff cleaned up is almost like having to start all over again Having to remove everything out the building, having to sanitize, having to disinfect on top of just cleaning, restaging, reorganizing. I know that's a mess, so I for sure know that it's very frustrating. But she full of shit, though at the same time, girl, you just trying to milk, you are milking the news. It is what it is.
Speaker 1:And I mean for me, I have experienced several break-ins. At this point in my career I can say I have experienced, I want to say, four break-ins at this point, I think four break-ins. At this point, I think four break-ins three attempted break-ins that I know of that I've seen on video, and one straight vandal which actually happened in the last several months where someone ran their car through my lobby. I've been through some shit y'all, but when someone does break in it is very unnerving, it is very uncomfortable because it feels like someone's rifling through your stuff. So I mean I totally get that part of the story, even though I'm saying the woman's full of shit, which I still think she is. I think she's milking it.
Speaker 1:But on a level I do understand what that is like for someone to go through your personal stuff, to rifle through your drawers. One time I had and I know it was children they opened all of our drawers and put baby powder in the drawers, which was ridiculous, something that you know a juvenile would do. But it just felt very unnerving of someone just going through your stuff and it just was really uncomfortable. Even the attempted break-ins that, like I said, I seen on camera so I know that they did happen. It is very unsettling and my thing is what are you in here trying to steal? I mean, unless you're a place that carries cash, we don't carry cash. For this reason, for safety reasons, everything is done through money order or credit debit situations. But what are you really trying to do in a child care facility? I mean, unless you you know you're fertile and you have multiple kids, there's really nothing in there for you to take. I mean, maybe you really want some good curriculum and you say I'm going to go break into this child care facility to get some curriculum to teach my nine kids at home. I just I never understood why people break in. I guess they think it's really easy.
Speaker 1:So we once had it's not funny. We had a break in at one of our schools and what made it odd was they threw a crowbar into the front door, which of course obviously set the alarm off. They went in, stole the clocking computer where the family's just clocking in. So it was a little touchscreen, it really wasn't like $100. And then they ran through the back and realized it wasn't anything in there and then proceeded to leave the building. But here is the funny part Before they walked out the building my director had left. She was in that classroom before she left and left a bottle of water that she was drinking Y'all. Why did the man go and steal her water at the door? Oh my God, that was so funny, that was so random.
Speaker 1:I remember watching the video and I was like wait a minute, what just happened? That man took her drink water. She drunk some of it. Her back washed water and he took that. I guess he was pissed because there was nothing in there. It was like you got this little cheap clocking computer and I guess he got pissed. So he said I'm going to fix y'all ass and I'm going to go get this bottle of water. And he ran out the building and jumped over the fence and left.
Speaker 1:Now, what made this even funnier was when I showed the director the video, her initial reply was Damn. And I remember leaving that water. And I was thirsty and knew I was coming back to get that water. When I got in the next day, oh, I was like girl somebody's somewhere drinking your backwash at this point it was. It was crazy. Um, I mean, I know, you know a lot of us have experienced some crazy things.
Speaker 1:I did have the experience with someone recently driving into our school. It was a friday night. This was maybe about two months ago, two, about two, three months ago. It was friday night. I'm sitting on the couch just a little bit after eight. I just finished eating and then our school is still open at this time and the manager calls me in a panic. She's like there's a truck. I'm like huh, huh. I'm like what? I'm like what is happening, slow down, and she's like there's a truck in the playground. Now, it was not in the playground, it was actually still in the lobby, but it was so much going on.
Speaker 1:So I get to the school. I figured at this point because I mentioned it. I have to tell you all the story at this point because I mentioned it. I have to tell you all the story. So I get to the school and there is a truck sitting in my lobby. Now I don't mean like oops, they ran into it, I mean completely in the lobby next to the check-in computer. You know the second one, we had to buy from the first one because this was the same school Sitting next to the check-in computer. You know the second one, we had to buy from the first one because this was the same school, um, sitting next to the check-in computer, and it was, you know, on my way there I was talking to everyone. There were still children in the building, but everyone was fine. No one was in that vicinity at the time. So thankfully that wasn't a thing, but it was y'all. It was a truck sitting in my lobby and when I got there, of course the police were there. I was there. I got there maybe about 8 30 that evening and I left the next morning at 5 30 in the morning.
Speaker 1:It was a crazy night. Um, police were there, um, forensics was there, because on the video. The guy backed into there intentionally, I don't know why. I don't know how we pissed him off. I guess he didn't get that discount. He intentionally ran in and then jumped out from a stolen truck by the way, jumped out the window and ran off and had someone meeting him in the parking lot to jump in the car and go.
Speaker 1:It was crazy. It doesn't make any sense and if I even try to explain it another way, it's still not going to make sense. But forensics was there, sheriff Department came. It was a lot of drama that night. Building City Inspector came out. It was not fun. There's a lot of things that you don't think that would happen happen there. Um, interviews all night long, it was. It was. It was an interesting, crazy, very long night.
Speaker 1:I just remember the sun coming up. I'm like, oh my gosh, I get to leave. But while I was there and they were, you know, getting the truck out of my lobby, which we thought the front was going to collapse in, of the building, which was very scary, and we had like move out the building because they thought, you know, it's going to cave in which it did not. I got some cleaning done in that school while I was there and I was going through a lot of their stuff and when they came back the next day, when they came back, this was on a Friday. When they came back on Monday, I had a list of things that needed to get done. I know that was probably the least, the smallest problem that we were having, but I was like shit, I'm here so I might as well do something. But I just figured I would tell you all that story since I had brought it up.
Speaker 1:But I do feel for you know this lady person for her school being vandalized with the fire extinguisher. But come on the juice boxes and the stale cupcakes. Girl, you were trying to get sympathy. I know exactly what you were doing and you know, through all of my break-ins, knowing I have never been on the news I don't think anyone's ever cared news, I don't think anyone's ever cared. So she gets on the news because someone drunk her stale uh, juice boxes, them flat juice boxes, cupcakes, and they rode on her creaky tricycles like jigsaw once has ever said you know what yall have been through a lot over here. Let me put y'all on the news. I guess that's the way the cookie crumbles. But if you know someone that's been through the similar situation, let them know they are not alone. Send this episode to them and, on that note, we'll be right back.
Speaker 1:We all want our schools or programs to be the best and, although every school is different, all successful programs have the same fundamentals. Best Practices for High-Quality Preschool, afterschool and Enrichment Programs by Jarek Huff share standards to foster a high-quality program. These tips will help you put your best service forward, focusing on your children, families and communities. Best Practices for High Quality Preschool, afterschool and Enrichment Programs by Jarek Huff is available on Amazon and Amazon Kindle. Welcome back.
Speaker 1:It is that time of the calendar year to start preparing for the upcoming academic year. I felt like I just said a lot of years, but the new school year is coming up. It's about a month away, so I figured that I would share some of my best practices and tips things that I have learned throughout my tenure and share them all with you. I hope that my staff is listening. Staff, if you're listening, this is a professional development and be prepared, because this information is going to come to you within the next day, but everyone's year begins in either August or September, one or the other, and it rides all the way out for a full year to the end of July-ish the new year begins with. Of course, we have to focus on enrollments, because that's what we do. Your enrollments actually should begin with your summer camp.
Speaker 1:People, if you do a school age program, start with converting your school age summer camp you know summer camp children into your before and after school program. So you want to have conversation with families. Like I said, if you do a before and or after school program, this is the first thing. The first step you want to do is get them converted over to the year. But when you're doing this, you also have to look at what your school age program is going to look like, to see if you're even going to do busing, possibly to certain schools. If you're not, are you taking drop-ins? What the time frame looks like? School age is a whole different beast and I get that A lot of people don't like it and there's some people that do. I'm one of the people that I do enjoy it. So, but that's where you want to start off at.
Speaker 1:I like to do an open house the weekend before the public school starts, whatever. Whatever day the public school starts, it's always best to do your open house either the weekend before or the weekend before that, so no further out than two weeks. And the reason why is most people don't think about enrolling into school or getting ready for school until school is about to start, especially families that have multiple children. I know it sounds bad, but they kind of forget about the younger children and then they're kind of like an afterthought. They're like oh yeah, you know so-and-so's going to third grade this year and now I need to put so-and-so into a preschool. It doesn't hit them until at least about two weeks before. So either the weekend before or the weekend before.
Speaker 1:I prefer open houses on weekends because if you try doing it during the week and you're encouraging families to come in during the week, a lot of them have to work during the week. Those people are going to come in regardless. You want to try to hit the market where people don't work during the week. So having an event on Saturday, some form of an open house, allows them to come in and tour your facility. Now, even before your open house, about a month out, you want to start communicating and let people know that it's happening. It's kind of a countdown.
Speaker 1:Usually a month before I'm sending out emails. I'm sending mail to families that are no longer with us, families that are with us. Let them know that we'll be touring, we're getting prepared for the next school year, kind of going through all of those things. I will say each week before open house. I'm sending emails out, just a reminder. I'm not bombarding or harassing people, but I'm like hey, we're having open house in three weeks, the next week, two more. We're having open house in three weeks, the next week, two more weeks until our open house, preparing for new families one week before and then maybe two times that week.
Speaker 1:I don't want to be annoying with people, but people are busy. I get it. It's just a lot going on. But people will forget or they'll be like oh yeah, that's right, I need to put that on my schedule. When they see your reminder they're like thanks, so and so for sending that to me because I needed that. Or you know, sending something to the house is always personalized. It feels better when it comes to the house because the only thing people get in the mail is bills. Well, I guess. Well, shit, I guess we're technically a bill too. Huh, but we're a tricky bill. We don't make you think we're a bill, but we're a bill so. But at least it feels nice and warm when it comes to you in the mail.
Speaker 1:So always do your open house, usually the weekend before too. The weekend before is kind of busy. Also, you should be doing a staff training. It's always a good thing to do a refresher, kind of a back to the basics, because summertime is always crazy, it's a little chaotic and, let's be honest, you start getting a little lax because the school year's over, you've had graduation, you've got summer camp going on, it's just busy. No one intentionally tries to make their summer horrible or lax off, it just does. So we kind of need that moment to bring the staff back in. Do a refresher, get them ready, get them prepared for the next school year. Getting them back in that grind mindset is always the best thing to do. So staff trainings within that week, at some point before school starts.
Speaker 1:This sounds very rudimentary. Clean, clean, clean. You should be cleaning before your open house. Your open house is supposed to be immaculate. It is supposed to give the illusion that you are teaching you know calculus three in there. You are supposed to be given the illusion that you are reading James Baldwin in there. It is supposed to look amazing, it's supposed to feel academic, even if you suck at all of that. You fake it till you make it. That is the point of your open house. Yes, you are tricking and bamboozling. You are doing all of those things. That is the purpose of your open house. If your open house is a hot mess, that definitely says a lot about your school and I would not enroll in there. Just being honest with you. So clean, clean, clean, organized, buy new toys, redo labels, do all of those things. Just get it back to what I like to call picture perfect, where I would take a picture of it and I would put it on the website. If you can't do that, then that means it's not clean and it's not ready.
Speaker 1:You should have some form of back to school night, if not before, usually the week of and it's not like a curriculum night, not like that Just the back to school night is kind of a time where you know and let me go back. So when I do open houses, they're just for tours. They're not a time to meet the teachers, have in-depth conversation with principals. I don't do that then. This is just for new families to enroll and get them listed, you know, into our program. Now, my back to school night is a time where you can have time to talk to your directors, the administration staff, all your teachers. It's a little slower, more for families that are there, that are, you know, getting ready to transfer to another classroom, that are new to the program. It's more of a family touch-in basis. I like to do that kind of within that first week that school starts, but you can do it before too, that first week that school starts, but you can do it before too.
Speaker 1:Oh, also your New Year's registration. Most places do some form of a registration activity fee, whatever you want to call it, when the New Year starts, to help replenish your supplies, always send out a letter, even though it probably says it in your enrollment information that every August 1st a registration fee or your activity fee or whatever fee fee. I hate places that just have 800 fees. It drives me crazy. But even though it does say that in your enrollment agreement, you never just want to just, by the way, start charging people and playing in their accounts, because that's one way of pissing them off. I always give them a heads up. Here's the letter that. Here's a reminder that I am going to be drafting out of your account within the next month. So get all your affairs in. You know, move money, transfer money from here to there. You can pay it in advance, you can do whatever you got to do, but do know that that money is coming. I will be charging it.
Speaker 1:Just don't do it to people at the last moment, because that's just disrespectful. If you ask me, make sure you have classroom transition letters done, all the children that are going from, let's say, your two-year-old program to preschool, or from preschool to pre-k or however you transition. Making sure that you have letters sent out to parents, sent out to family, so they know where their child is going, who's going to be their teacher. You kind of want to go through all of that with them so that they're not surprised of I don't know where my kid is going. Nobody told me. Be proactive, have transition letters so they know where they're going. I think that's all of the list that I have right now. So, staff, if you're listening, be prepared. Well, actually, we talked about this last week too, so we talked about some of it last week. Um, rest of it is coming this week.
Speaker 1:Oh, also, getting your, getting the back of your house together. So I have this expression where I say if you, if the back of the house is a mess, the front will fall. And I believe that if all of your stuff is not where it needs to be, is not set up, if it's hot mess, it's just going to be chaotic. It really is, and so what I mean by that is this is the time to get all of your child files together, staff files we started staff files today. I sent out emails of just going through getting all of this stuff together enrollment, new enrollment paperwork ready for new families, any licensing, training requirements all of these things you want to get together now so that when the year starts, you are putting your best foot forward and you are moving quickly without having to worry about where's this, where's that, where's that? Because it always shows when your stuff isn't together. No matter how hard you try to not show it, it's always going to show. So make sure you get all of that.
Speaker 1:If the back of the house is a mess, the front will fall. But I don't have nothing more to really give you at this moment. I will say nothing is worse than looking janky because through it, all your shit needs to look right. I hate going to schools where it's just janky. I'm just like what is happening here. Who did this lack of production in here? Because we are a production. We don't realize it, but what we do is a form of a production. There's so many moving pieces happening. It's a production. Get your show together. Get your production together, please for this upcoming academic year. If you know somebody that needs to hear this, because you know that they don't be having a shit right, please send them this episode and tell them they need to listen to the middle section, because it's specifically for them. And on that note, we'll be right back.
Speaker 1:I love sharing information with educators and program administrators. I have had so many successes, but also so many failures in my education tenure. I want leaders to know what not to do, but, better than that, what to do. So I decided to write a helpful guide Best Practices for Center, program and Activity Directors. It's short and to the point. It's a compass to guide education leaders. It's short and to the point. It's a compass to guide education leaders. These best practices will give you a foundation to lead your school program or organization. You can find best practices for center program and activity directors by Jericho on Amazon or Amazon Kindle.
Speaker 1:We are back with today's Reddit and it is a doozy and it is titled Coworker Threats to Physically Fight People Over Day-to-Day Issues being Swept Under the Rug Couldn't make this shit up, y'all. Question for my teachers. This is my second center, so I'm generally wondering if this behavior is considered acceptable in a preschool daycare setting. I hate the word daycare. There was an incident today where my co-teachers and I witnessed where we're going to use fake names.
Speaker 1:Jess, betty and their class was headed to the turf and Frank and Fifi you couldn't have came up with a better name than Fifi, okay, sounds like somebody's dog, but okay. Well, frank and Fifi and the class currently was on the turf field started getting an attitude about having to leave because it was Jess's time. Leave because it was Jess's time. Frank and Fifi say stuff like oh, you can wait. And basically irritated with Jess for crowding them. So I guess their class was coming out and it was time. They were not leaving in enough time. So, okay, I got it. Frank and Fifi started getting nasty with Jess and Betty literally just repeatedly apologizing. I mean, why are you apologizing? It's your time, but okay, this is where it turns.
Speaker 1:Left y'all Frank and Fifi now at the gate and down the sidewalk with all the kids crowding the walkway started cussing and threatening them. I'm gonna smack the F out of you cussing and threatening them. I'm going to smack the F out of you. I got once to be like I'm talking, going off full of being held back by other teachers, and we're on the playground with the children, literally threatened to fight them and F them up. By the way, they're not saying the letters F and B. I'm just saying that because you know this is a wholesome podcast Shit. All the while, the kids in their care are crying and being knocked over by these grown-A people who are supposed to take care of them, by these grown-A people who are supposed to take care of them. It was only resolved because these other teachers rushed them along. Can't imagine what the parents are going to hear. Is this okay? Especially as one of them was a grown man towering over Jess and Betty Like sir you going gonna fight a woman on the clock over using her scheduled playground time?
Speaker 1:A while ago, this man threatened to fight my co-teacher over his belief that we sent a child into his care 10 minutes early. We were following a director's order and he had already flung the child back over to us twice before he blew up at my co. Before he blew up at my co. Quote you don't want to see me angry, unquote. Quote. Tell her she doesn't want to see me angry. Unquote. Like again screaming, getting in her face, although he was a whole, even though he has a whole foot on her, had to be held back and hustled away. What were you going to do, my guy? That's what it says.
Speaker 1:Both of these times the director framed it as though both party both parties are in the wrong and they just had a little chat about it. That's it. I mean, I get stuff happens, but re. But reacting that way instead of, I don't know, being professional and talking to a director about it later is kind of bonkers, right. I don't even think he got written up. Is this freaking normal, dear reddit person? This shit is not normal. Out of 20 plus years for me in education, I have never heard of this. I actually thought it was a joke when I first read it. I mean, they probably got upset because they know that you were going to use the name Fifi to describe the situation. But I digress. There's so much to describe the situation, but I digress, there's so much to unpack in this I feel like I need to read it all over again. Let's go back to okay, even though at the end of this you're telling us a previous story, so let's start there. The fact first off, it's her wording that they flung the child back. I don't think that's what she meant. I think she was just saying like they kept sending the child back.
Speaker 1:My rule with managers, starting off with, is a teacher should never move a child period. A manager or administrator should be the person to move a child. The reason why is usually, for me, two reasons. One, it stops any confusion that a teacher just feels like oh, so-and-so didn't feel like dealing with so-and-so today, so I'm just going to toss them over to somebody else. That's one reason. The other reason, though, for me, is that's giving teachers too much power, too much authority, because now they feel like they're running the show, and if I'm in that building and it's my school, there's only one person running this and it's not you. So I just don't believe that. For me, that was the first issue from this story that I felt like could have been resolved If a manager or an administrator moved the child, I don't think any of this would have taken place.
Speaker 1:But we'll continue with the story. Someone yelling out you don't want to see me angry, you don't want to see me angry, you gots to go. Let me tell you I don't have time for drama. I don't have time for theatrics. I don't have time for someone hyperbolizing. I just don't. I just don't. You're not winning a Tony award in here, you just got to go. If it gets to the point where I have to explain your behavior to someone, it's not worth it. It's time to move on.
Speaker 1:I don't care how great of an educator they are, I don't care how great they are with the children, I don't care how amazing the families are with them. It is my job and responsibility to make sure that this building is running efficiently, because everything I do is about the building. What I mean by that is and I think I've said it to you all before about how I feel about the building, the buildings, about the children, the staff and the families, and that is how I make all of my decisions. And if you are not serving the building, it is time for you to go. So before this even big situation happened. This person already should have been gone.
Speaker 1:You yelling out oh you don't want to see me angry and you all up in somebody's face. I don't care if it's man, woman, anybody, octopus, it doesn't matter. You don't need to be in somebody's face because I don't want somebody in my. I don't like people in my face. It makes me uncomfortable. It does it just personal space. Just back up. You guys, you have to go. I don't think I've ever had that type of situation. And if you are that upset where you feel like you need to get violent, where are your social and emotional skills and capabilities? And how are you teaching children this when you don't have a command on it? So much of this was wrong.
Speaker 1:Then let's get to the incident where somebody obviously can't read a schedule. Now you have people that are illiterate because they can't read a schedule, like what the hell is happening in this school? What is going on? They don't have social emotional skills, they can't read, they can't talk to folks. What is happening? Who are y'all teaching? Is this a daycare? I said it. That's how I feel when you show chicanery like this, when there's tomfoolery going down. This is a daycare. I said it and I hate the word. This is a daycare. I said it and I hate the word. But let's talk about Fifi and all of them. Now we're back at this place. Now I'm about to go off, I'm going to smack the F out of you. I got wants to be the children.
Speaker 1:Witnessing this, all jokes aside, is disparaging. We are not teaching them how to deal with conflict, even if it's not in a conflict situation. That really hurts my heart. I make jokes about things. I try to lighten situations, but when it comes to doing something terrible, wrong or showing a child something inappropriate now that I don't play with, I don't like that. That's something that's not funny.
Speaker 1:And the fact that these children had to witness this embarrassing For the school. It is embarrassing For the management team. It is obviously embarrassing for the staff I mean for everybody that there are people that you have that are acting like this and there were signs before. I'm a big believer and when somebody shows me something and it's not quite right, I'm already moving on to the next. So this wouldn't even gotten to this point because the first time you had a little nasty attitude, I would have said oh okay, and I would have straight to Indeed and go ahead and hire your replacement, because I'm not great deal with this. These children had to see this horrific event. They had to watch people be called b's and f you and my thing is, you don't know what's happening at home, what triggers you can be setting off like.
Speaker 1:This whole thing is actually starting to piss me off as I'm reading it. But let me lighten back up again, because I'm getting serious. Not the director just trying to put it off like they're just having a simple conversation. No, no, girl, this is not a simple conversation and I want to know how many people witnessed this to go back and tell the director this. Now I will say, girl, if the director told you so-and-so got written up, then they wrong for that. That's one thing. You'll just never know. You never know. But my thing is why are you even being written up? Why are you not gone like let's, let's write you up to leave, let's suspend you and suspend you indefinitely. Let's take you down to one hour a week and that's that closing to make you quit.
Speaker 1:If you don't want to fire them, there are ways, ways that you can fire people without firing them. Just take them off the schedule, adjust their schedule or just straight up, get your shit and get out. Bernadette style, wait until hell, get your shit and get out. There are so many ways you can do this, but this was one of the craziest things I think I've read. Dear Reddit user, what happened? Look, we want to know. My cousins want to know what happened. Where is? Is he still there? What happened with the parents? I got questions. Maybe I could, maybe I can, hit a reply and ask what happened.
Speaker 1:What was the follow up with this? Because I got serious questions now, like I need to know. But this was a crazy story and I feel for Y'all. I just read the name. I just read the Reddit user's name. I'm not going to read it to you, but it's stupid. It's a name, but this was a really sad story, but it was sadly entertaining. It almost felt like it's not real, because I can't see adults, educators, people that are supposed to be teaching children, people that are supposed to be quote quote, unquote some form of a role model doing this teaching, lack of social skills, teaching, lack of problem solving. They just took it to the streets, I guess. So I guess that's what we're doing, but very disheartening.
Speaker 1:All right, team, I do want to thank you for tuning in for another episode of stumbling through work where educators figure shit out where. This week, I want you all to really focus on getting ready for the next school year. Go through that checklist, get all of those things done. I want you all to have a productive week. Don't fight anybody in your schools. It's sad that I have to say this, but as we see, it needs to be said, and other than that, I'll talk to you all next week. That's it for today. If you liked this episode, it would mean so much to me if you left a rating review and subscribe to the show. I'd love to hear from you. You can visit my website, which is in the show notes, to contact me, and I hope you have a great rest of your week and speak to you all soon.
