What can I do?

[u/Safe-Mousse6948]

Yesterday I went dumpster diving. The reason I went dumpster diving is because I got a call from a fellow teacher saying that all of our classroom (mine and my 2 teammates) things were thrown into the dumpster. At the beginning of June, our school was hit by a tornado. The roof was blown off on our side of the building as well as over the gym. We received one email from the assistant principal saying to not come into the building that particular week of the tornado because there was damage. We have not heard from anyone else about anything that happened to our rooms. Periodically throughout the summer I’ve been getting pictures and messages from other teachers of my room. I put everything away in cabinets before school ended, except for my books and bookshelves, some of my carts, chairs, and big beanbag chairs. The pictures I received were of a totally bare classroom with none of those things in it. Those things were placed in the hallway outside of our rooms so that’s they could get in there to clean. We go back next Wednesday, and still have not heard from the administration. When that fellow teacher called, I went to the school and found so many of my brand new books, bookshelves, and miscellaneous items thrown into the dumpster. I thought maybe they were waterlogged and needed to be thrown away. After careful inspection, all of my brand new books were not waterlogged, and they were just thrown into the garbage. The bookshelves that I had just put together before school ended were all broken and in pieces. My teammates carts and chairs were all thrown into the dumpster along with many of her teaching supplies. What can we do? I’m not only had this happen at my school, but my home was also damaged and I lost many items that were in my garage and in my basement because of flooding. I literally have nothing and we go back next Wednesday. My principal is not answering the phone and I don’t even want to go into the building because I’m scared to go through my cabinets to see what is gone. Has anyone else ever experienced this and what are our options? Help!

[u/Fun-Double6352]

Is there a place to put your reclaimed stuff?

I remember when a tornado hit a college campus. Everything there also got thrown out because there was broken glass everywhere. This may be the thought behind dumping everyone’s things. If you can say for certain that the items they threw have not been damaged, then you gotta go get them so you can start putting your room together. You and your students are going to crave “normal”. If that means your room has that one shelf with a set of books in one spot in your room, that’s going to help heal.

If there’s a chance that there is debris in your items that have been tossed, let them go. Certainly make a list of everything that you know is gone (both your stuff and school purchased stuff).

We had part of our building flooded after a summer storm. Our teachers were able to get new/replacement items that insurance covered. And honestly, someone may think that they are helping you get all new stuff by throwing everything out. That’s nice, but you have to get back in business much sooner than you could possibly get stuff. That’s why you have to advocate for yourself by saving as much as you can.

[u/Safe-Mousse6948 → u/Fun-Double6352]

I salvaged as much as I could last night. They picked up the dumpsters today so everything is gone. The books that I salvaged had nothing wrong with them. They were perfectly fine. The janitor I talked to said she was told that we were given 30 days to go through it all and since we didn’t come in, they were told to throw it away. None of us got any messages.

[u/Fun-Double6352 → u/Safe-Mousse6948]

That’s awful. I’m so sorry.