Let's Talk About Discipline....no, really...we need to talk about this

     As previously complained about, the boys' building was completely out of control!  The high school boys were on one side of the building and the middle school boys on the other.  There were far more students than the previous year and we were short of teachers.  Our principal decided she would help by "teaching" a few classes.  She called the teachers working in that building together for a meeting near the beginning of the year.  We ALL agreed that there needed to be rules, discipline policies, and most importantly, CONSEQUENCES!  It was the principal's long held belief that the teacher was the only one responsible for controlling the classroom, and if a child acted out, it was because the teacher was not doing their job.  I wish I was kidding.
     We all agreed that discipline was an issue.  The principal told us to write up rules and we would post them.  Right.  In the end, she called the high school boys together and instructed them to write up posters about things like discipline and team work.....seriously, stop laughing....which may have been posted about a month before the end of the school year.  I was paying less than no attention by that point.
     By mid November, with the principal "helping out", the addition of new teachers, and after all of the vandalism, things were at an all time low.  EVERYTHING, including school condition, teacher morale, and student behaviour, had gone down the tubes.  I likened it to feeding time at the zoo, at which time the principal had opened all the cages, and where they were also behaving like feral cats in heat.  Any time anyone attempted to discipline a high school student, the principal would step in and overturn the decision.  I took a phone from a student during school hours, she gave it back.  I took a soccer ball from a student who was playing soccer inside, she gave it back.  I received a formal email in which I was informed that I was not allowed to speak with or interact with any of the high school students, and I was to tell another teacher.  One of the new teachers, would simply tell the boys it was ok and tell me I needed to loosen up and relax....in front of the students.
     One of the new teachers, a young woman, was being sexually harassed by all of the high school students, as she was the "hot teacher".  Keep in mind she wore both an abaya and a hijab.  The students would make comments to other teachers and students, of an explicit sexual nature, and then wink and smirk at the teacher to her face.  She knew what they were up to and was terribly uncomfortable.  She came back to the teacher's room almost every day near tears.  By the end of November, I was always surprised when she showed up to work.  Some of the high school boys took to telling me, to my face, that I was a bitch, a cunt, and should go fuck myself.  The principal was informed of the harassment, as to both the teachers, and after she "had a talk" with the boys, things only got worse.
     Speaking of "worse", we were reading, "The Diary of Anne Frank" in grade 8, and one of the high school boys (who wound up actually failing the school year, but will likely pass after the principal alters his grades at the direction of the head of education for the base), took to calling himself "Hitler" and having the 8th grade boys throw him Nazi salutes.  One of my parents was in the school the day it happened and was HORRIFIED!  He agreed it was NOT funny and I should inform the principal.  One guess how THAT went.  It never stopped.  Any attempts to drive home the concept of the Holocaust were met with comments about how it may have been faked or over exaggerated.  That they would believe this is just sad.

THE GAY THING
     
    We had a problem from the beginning of the year with bullying.  There was a new student who may or may not have been gay, but who was relentlessly tormented.  He was in the 9th grade, and the entire high school boys student body jumped on the bandwagon.  In Islamic culture, because the concept of being gay is so haram  (forbidden or proscribed by Islamic law) , that it is about the worst insult you can throw at someone.  It became a game of sorts, and they took to beating people up outside of school, as the principal's statement was that she didn't care what happened outside of school.  The entire middle and high school staff agreed that there needed to be an intense discussion about bullying.  I did not discuss any aspects of the gay lifestyle, nor did I support or reject anything gay.  I said some of my best friends were gay and unless they felt their god made mistakes, that was the way that they said they were born.

      There were two 8th grade boys that were beyond out of control.  Both were failing miserably, and had conspired to make the teachers' live hell.  These two had their fathers complain to the principal about the content I was allegedly teaching them.  All of the middle school teachers agreed these 2 boys were our biggest problem and we asked the principal to call the parents in.  She summoned the parents, who were very excited to come and complain about me, apparently, I was the ONLY problem teacher, and summoned us all to her office, where we were confronted by the angry parents of horrible children.
     The first father IMMEDIATELY pointed out I was the ONLY problem teacher, and the fact that his son was failing was because I taught them horrible things that offended him, and put him off learning completely.  He specifically pointed out use of the words, "freedom", discrimination, racism, pork products, and....HOMOSEXUALITY!  Didn't I know that it was all terribly HARAM and I was insulting both the students AND their religion?  He was OUTRAGED, and the principal then agreed I was a terrible teacher and told him to write me up formally, and, as all of the parents were talking together, they should ALL get together and write me up to get me dismissed.  NOT ONLY did she strongly encourage the parents to write me up, she offered to get up immediately and get him the proper form.
  I explained that we had started reading about Harriet Tubman, talking about slavery, emancipation, the underground railway, and racism. A prior story discussed the fact that Chinese culture included almost 5 courses at every meal.  I was asked to explain what emancipation, racism, and the typical Chinese meal, YES, I had used the words "freedom", "racism", and "PORK".  The Chinese eat a LOT of pork.  "Did I ever eat pork?"  ALL THE TIME!  "Did I like pork?"  YES.VERY.MUCH.  BACON!  I explained to the father that these were not things I pulled out of my ass, but were discussions related to our readings AND I was very careful about what I said.  When asked if I liked pork, I simply said Yes.  When discussing racism, I explained that in America, especially in the South, if we went into a "Whites Only" restaurant, I would be the only one served, because even the very white looking Egyptians, etc., would be asked to leave when they opened their mouth to order.  THIS, they could understand.
     As to the issue of all things HOMOSEXUAL, it was only mentioned in relation to the bullying issue, and ALL of the other teachers, including the BSCL who did NOT like me at all, backed me up and said we ALL talked about it as it related to bullying.  BSCL went further to explain that she discussed this in ARABIC so there was NO EXCUSE, they did not understand.  After this, the principal AGAIN, asked the father if he wanted to file a formal complaint, and offered to get up immediately to retrieve the proper form.  He immediately said there was no need to file a complain as this was apparently just a misunderstanding on the part of the students and what they told their parents.  The students had previously told me they wanted to see me fired.
     The second father came in and we had the exact same discussion as the previous father (they were talking among themselves at the hospital), and he too agreed that there was no need for a complaint against me, as this was clearly a misunderstanding (and NOT a misstatement of details on the part of the sons), and there was no need to file a complaint.  After relieving the other teachers from the meeting we met one-on-one with just me and the parents.  BOTH agreed there was no need to file a complaint, and yet again, the principal offered to get the form immediately and strongly recommended they file a formal complaint.
     That was mid November, and we hadn't even gotten to winter break. (VERY HEAVY SIGH).  At this point, having had all of our efforts at sports activities deflated, and with the principal hell-bent on seeing me fired, I was a bit stressed out, to say the least.  When I wound up leaving school in an ambulance to the hospital, with a BP of 225/125, I knew it was time to consider not coming back.  Rumours were afloat that she was not comping back, but I had to consider jumping ship to save myself.  For the record, even after having to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance, the principal never contacted me to see if I was ok or coming back to work.  This was two weeks before mid-term exams and winter break.  I took one day of bed rest and refused the next two weeks because I had to do mid-terms.  The principal took over "teaching" the middle school boys for me and administered the mid-term exams, worth a total of 20 points....(Another very heavy sigh).
     And then we got to "Winter Break".  Last year it was 2 full weeks and started on Dec. 24.  This year it was 10 days and did not start until Dec. 27.  Being in a Muslim country, we were told that it was NOT Christmas break, as us Americans liked to call it, but Winter Break.  Because we were getting out for the summer much earlier this year (Ramadan), they were cutting our winter break short.  Because some teachers had already book tickets to the US for Christmas, there was much ado about when it started and when we could leave.  Did I mention the students were out the 24th?  Yup, holding us hostage until AFTER xmas....LOL  When the Arabic teachers at the nursing school heard some of the Americans were leaving early for "Christmas", our leave date was moved forward to Dec. 24.  AFTER WE HAD ALL BOOKED OUR FLIGHTS for Dec. 27.  Zantika and I very quickly agreed that we did NOT want to spend Christmas day in Saudi, and booked flights to Bahrain for a few.  We flew back into Jeddah right before we were scheduled to depart.  She was LA bound, and I was headed for Poland to spend some much needed comfort time with Nikka.   To be continued....