Halloween

I wanted to write this like a spooky fairy tale, but I lack the sense of humor.

Here goes:

For the past year, I have been working at a school under the leadership of a new principal. The hallmark of this principal's young tenure has been TIME. She declared ZERO TOLERANCE for lateness, adding up lateness by the minute. Even when a colleague was ill, she was given no leeway. Our entire staff now races to work to be early or on time. That we don't see students for one or two hours because our administrative duties come before the commencement of classes at 4pm is immaterial. This is a rule my principal has meant to enforce and we know that. Some of us have the pay deductions on our check to prove it.

Or so I thought.

Periodically, our school has fire drills and students are evacuated at 9:15. Previous principals had allowed students to return after the drill to continue to work until the close of business -- 10pm. This principal dismisses the students at 9:15 and does not allow them to return. Furthermore, she encourages the staff to leave early. She does not give OFFICIAL LICENSE to leaving, and in fact, has sometimes taken back offers to allow people to leave early. But, last night she had the Dean of Students aggressively lobby the faculty to leave early. Still, when confronted she did not give official permission for staff to leave. So, staff left at their own risk.

Even when she was an assistant principal, our current leader was very interested in cutting our school day short. She often pressured me to put my equipment away early -- even if it meant taking computers out of students' hands.

Meanwhile, when others and I have been late, we have been seriously penalized. Our current principal has openly discussed how little she likes our schedule, particularly the lateness of it.

So, there I was last night, in my room, waiting to leave at the OFFICIAL close of business. Without official sanction, I wasn't taking any risk. My cat has an echocardiogram on Sunday and I can't afford to lose pay. Plus, I am not a big fan of hypocrisy. It seems to me that if TIME is so important, then it should not lose value as it increases; if we enforce the start of the day so strongly, why suddenly become lax about the end of the day?

As we are also ALL PAID to be at school until 10, I felt the need to email my principal and her assistant, as well as the our local and regional superintendent. It's not fair for us to cut our school day short, unless it is done so officially. I don't want to be at the mercy of inconsistent policy. I also don't want to make a practice of leaving early just because everyone else "thinks it's okay."

Of course, the administration and staff are all angry with me for "ruining it for everyone." But, what did I ruin -- those who left could have been held responsible to the superintendent without my informing her of what happened. We are all on camera so there is proof of last night's mass exodus. Moreover, I am just asking for policy to be fair.

One of my colleagues insisted to me that, as I know the principal is always going to enforce the time of the start of our day, I should just accept that she will only break the rules later in the day. I should accept the unfairness because it benefits teachers who want to go home early. That doesn't make sense to me. I should let the principal break rules when she wants to or break them over my back, as it were, when she chooses.

And when people complained that I am causing them to suffer and that I am "wrong" to tell about their breaking of the rules, I am reminded of my colleague who needed to come in late last year because of illness. What was the staff's response? Did they come to her defense and say that it wasn't fair to ask her to be on-time when she physically couldn't? To the contrary, they went running to the principal to complain. So, who's sorry now -- even if I didn't care about the rule and THE STUDENTS who are affected by it, I would still not be inclined to assist anyone in breaking a rule for convenience. If rules are to be applied indiscrimately, even to the sick, then, at least, they should be applied evenly. Or, should we tell our students that they should try to get away with cheating -- and that it's okay, so long as most people do it.