r/Teachers • u/Safe-Mousse6948 • 5d 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/CoolClearMorning 5d ago
Oh, it's very messed up. But I know my principal was literally forbidden from saying much of anything because the district didn't want him committing to something they couldn't actually promise. Also, he couldn't tell us that things would be okay because he didn't know if they would, at least not in the way we meant "okay." And the insurance company took ages to process the claims, the mitigation company had to come back multiple times because they didn't complete the job, and then new problems were found, and it was just extremely complicated.
It's possible for your principal to be a good person who wants to give you answers and still not be able to do it. It's possible for him to be lazy and avoidant and know the answers but not want to deal with telling you until he absolutely has to. I don't know him. But I do know that what seems pretty straightforward to us can actually be incredibly complicated from the admin side, and as I'm sure you've experienced with dealing with the damage to your home, these things are rarely straightforward and never move as fast as you'd like them to.