I knew when I entered the MLS program to become a librarian, it was a time of turmoil. The county I live in, as well as all across the United States, libraries and librarians were being attacked by religious groups pushing their values on the community. They did not want students to have access to books that showed inclusiveness for LGBTQ+, different cultures or other diverse viewpoints and their end game was rewriting history to fit their religious values. I was prepared to fight this battle by my professors, district leaders and colleagues.
However, I never dreamed the battle I would have to fight on a daily basis would be my campus administration. I will go into more details later, but in the last two years (I first two years as a public school librarian) I have faced on my campus:
1) the first week of school, having my principal tell me that every staff and student on the campus hated me. Our campus was 950 students. I had seen less than 1/2 of the staff and students that week.
2) being monitored and recorded by the surveillance video camera and having that footage uploaded into a Google Drive file every member of the staff could see.
3) weekly meetings in which nothing positive was ever said to me. Usually not even a "Good Morning" just a sigh by the principal and then she would start in on what she felt I had done wrong for the week. If she could find nothing wrong, she would go back weeks or months and bring back up old things. Things such as "You say "Shhhhh!" too much in the library. You should stop the entire class, go back over your CHAMPS for that activity and have the students model the expected behavior every time a student does not follow expectations. I was screamed at and threatened in these meetings by my principal and one of the assistant principal multiple times. A lot of times, I was documented for doing the things I had to do for my MLS classes. "Why are you using your phone? I am making video recordings during my conference period for my MLS courses. You CANNOT be on your phone for any reason on campus."
4) Purchase requestions denied. I have run a public-school elementary library for two years on a budget of ZERO. And without volunteer help or a paraprofessional.
5) my personal boxes and items gone through and questioned by Admin
6) endured construction on the school and had to back/unpack the entire 10,000+ collection twice in one year.
7) change teacher organizations. The first one, I had been a member of for 20+ years. But when their only advice for me was "find a new job" I left them and joined a different organization.
8) endured being gossiped about across the campus and district I work in by my principal and team lead.
9) I am now having to fight for my job.
10) so much more.
And sadly, I have no idea what I have done to this principal and her admin staff to be treated in this manner. I am a 25-year Texas public education teacher. I have taught high school. I taught junior high social studies - 8th grade for 21 one years. Never received a negative walk through or summative evaluation in my career. Yet, according to my principal, I was the worst elementary librarian on the face of the earth.
Over the next posts, I will go deeper into the battles I have fought, the emotional and mental abuse I have faced and the toxic work environment I have endured. And hopefully the happy ending I am searching so desperately for.