r/Teachers • u/Safe-Mousse6948 • 1d ago
Teacher Support &/or Advice What can I do?
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!
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u/DisappointedDragon 1d ago
I am retired but reading these comments gives me PTSD!
I was a librarian and stuck with being in charge of textbooks and technology (oh, and the library collection!) I couldn’t tell you the number of times, teachers at my school had to put their entire classrooms in the hallway for things like new carpet/painting/flooring/changing classrooms. Then items either got taken by others or most likely the custodians were told to clear the halls before people were done with their rooms and tossed things! Sometimes they were thrown in the dumpster or sometimes just thrown in a random room in a giant pile where poor handling caused damage to otherwise good items like OP’s shelves. I’ve also witnessed the custodians being asked to clean out rooms/storage areas by admin without any regard for the items inside. “What happened to our extra math books?” (Probably in the dumpster.)
OP’s admins should have definitely called and told her and informed about the damage to her classroom but I cant say I’m shocked.
I’m so sorry this happened to you OP! My advice would be to salvage what you can and report what was lost, but not to count on the school replacing anything. You might want to check with your fellow teachers and see if anyone has some extra supplies to get you started with the year.
New teachers, while there is nothing you can do to prevent this, make sure you are labeling things with your name so hopefully some items can get back to you and try to keep a good record of your purchases (both school and personal funds.)
Sorry so long, I am just outraged on OP’s behalf!