Queen of Hearts aka Miss B

Author’s note: I’m paraphrasing my colleague’s experience with the admin we both endured.

     She was a real B and I’ll tell you why.

     Principals are supposed to have your back and keep their word.  Their job is to support and help teachers.

     In our remote location on an island in SE Alaska it is a challenge to get home, which for many of us is in the lower 48. We sacrifice seeing our family in order to teach in Alaska. Administrators should respect this.

     Travel logistics, catching ferries and booking flights is difficult. I asked for a personal day to leave a day ahead of summer break to catch a ferry to Ketchikan and a flight to get me back for a family occasion. This admin told me ok. I found out later that under the contract staff were not supposed to get personal days before a break.  The superintendent found out about it and I was reprimanded. This principal, my boss, denied that she had ever approved my personal day. Thanks a lot Miss B!

     In addition to my regular duties I did a lot of after school clubs and activities. One project involved decorating drums. Students were to come up with an original design for their drums.

However, when it came time to paint their creations I was admonished because the student’s own original designs were not in the traditional northwest indigenous style that drums were supposed to be painted.

    Ok, fine, but this admin “leader” was a white guest worker herself, not a member of the community. If there was an expectation around traditional art she should have communicated it in advance. Also, a couple members of the tribe let me know that even getting kids interested in drums and creating art that represented their own values and interests was totally appropriate.

    What made it worse is that she sent in her mini-me bully junior teacher to scold me along with a para professional who was from the community. It came out later that the para wanted my job and this was part of an effort to get rid of me. The pair later got married, that’s fine, all the best, but kinda makes you go hmmm…

    These are examples of the horrible toxic behavior that got Miss B aka Queen of Hearts banished, literally kicked off the island.

    Myself, I don’t need that negativity and I bailed halfway thought my second year and went home.