So I proceed as normal like the good little worker bee that I am. I suffer inside because, as you know, if a female expresses anger, it is feminized to being "upset". I am cordial with the co-worker.
In the meantime, I find a box of slides belonging to a science department teacher. I go see her to ask if they are indeed hers. She is astonished that they are still there. Here is the story: AF offered to scan them for her. They are years worth of slides for her subject matter, a couple of hundred. She never saw them again, until today. She thought he trashed them and was afraid to approach him. Why? He slashed her tires over a parking space. We have no assigned spaces at work. Parking is first come, first served, as it should be (If I can get my ass to work by 6.15 am, you had better believe I deserve a batter parking space than the history teacher who runs in the side door at 8.03 am.) AF didn't think this woman should park where she was because he claimed it was "his" space. She didn't comply and thought it immature. He responded by slashing her tires. She knew it was him because he had done the same to another female a few years prior (she had since left for another school). When this woman asked administration to check the camera footage - knowing the incident was in in full view of a security camera - the claim that nothing was seen was made. So she stayed silent. I offered to do the scan job that AF never did. I also learned what this man was capable of and that I had better not make waves.
Luckily, I made the program grow such that we needed another Photography teacher. I now had two levels and could fill all eight periods with kids. After two years, AF was moved across the building and I got my partner. Like any roommates, we have issues, but they are minor. However, the program continues to grow - I have AP now at the behest of the kids - and according to guidance, they could fill 10 whole periods of Photo based on demand.
I do still have issues. Guidance has been encouraged or forced to not put individuals in my class over another class. Kids are coerced into other classes by teachers or admin. However, I am having fun with the special beings that end up in 026 every year. I know I have a target on my back. My old principal used to start the school year with a special e-mail to me nearly every August - a link to some article or report noting the death of film. I think this qualified as some subtle form of harassment, but keep your head down, little girl. There is a custodian who always comes to chat me up in the mornings and peppers the conversation with his insider knowledge that the darkroom is going to be converted to class space for the Bergen County program. Of course, he knows that I can be moved to room 148. That room has a darkroom, you know. Yes, space for two enlargers. The hits just keep coming. I also have a couple of colleagues who like to steal my kids. (They do this to another gal in my department as well). If they see we have a special creative bond/relationship with a student, and they happen to have that kid as well, they manipulate the student into dropping their concentration on our class and redirecting their focus on the other class. They have even bullied/coerced the kids into not coming to us for extra help or advice. Seem paranoid? We thought so too until students confided in us what was going on.
I could go on, and I might continue this story another time. However, I need to rest for now. It has been a lonely, quiet summer. There has been disappointment and death and the sun is finally out. I have a rare chance to garden and some brand new music to listen to.
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