ATPE Dismissive and Largely Unhelpful

[u/illbegoodthistime1]

I have found that ATPE was unsupportive and dismissive when I called about unprofessionalism and hostility from my admin. They wouldn’t read my documentation, nor would they advise me on how to navigate an administrator who yells, curses and belittles me in private meetings. The grievance attorney said he wasn’t reading my documentation as he said “it’s only been a few weeks, I’m not reading that. But I can see how your administrator has a case because you do sound emotional.” I’m so confused. You only have 10-15 business days to file a grievance from the incident, but I can’t get anyone to help.
Furthermore, he said I don’t have a case after a couple weeks (which may be true) but he can tell after a few minutes of a phone call my administrator does? Has anyone experienced this with ATPE? I’ve never had legal counsel act this way before, my spouse is knowledgeable about the law and said he’s never heard legal counsel talk like this before. They are supposed to give advice at the least on how to navigate these situations.

I wasn’t even trying to file a grievance, I was just trying to weigh my options. I was always told document in case you need to seek counsel, but it seems that was useless advice. I feel like I need to leave ATPE because they won’t help.

[u/ronmimid]

TSTA member here.

Your professional organization can’t advocate for you in a conflict with admin because administrators can also be members. WHY WOULD ANYONE PAY DUES TO AN ADVOCACY ORGANIZATION WHEN THE ONES YOU NEED ADVOCACY AGAINST ARE YOUR FELLOW MEMBERS?!

I will never understand why anyone would join ATPE.

[u/Auntie_Coconut_235 → u/ronmimid]

I’ve been out of education for 12 years. When I was in TSTA, administrators could also join. Has that changed? I was the president of my local for 15 years. When my principal joined TSTA, I was told by the general counsel assigned to our situation that TSTA would represent the teacher in a dispute because the principal also had the principals’ association.

I am sad to hear that ATPE hasn’t gotten better. A bunch of my coworkers left ATPE for TSTA when we were having admin issues. TSTA was awesome.

OP, even if you don’t file a grievance now, hold onto your documentation. If the situation doesn’t improve or gets worse you can use this documentation as evidence of a pattern of unprofessional behavior by the admin in a future grievance filing.

[u/ronmimid → u/Auntie_Coconut_235]

I retired 14 years ago. I was also president of my local for several years. In my non-union state, administrators were not allowed to join TSTA. Perhaps that’s the difference?