Digital Etiquette

My husband was the Association Negotiator for his school district. As a negotiator his responsibilities included negotiating salary, contract language, and benefits. He had to poll the members of the Association and determine what the greatest needs were for the teachers. This was a difficult job because the administration he was negotiating with had their own goals and needs they wanted to achieve. One year mutual agreement was arrived at in regard to the distribution of the district’s teacher leadership funds. The state organization had advised all schools to make the funds part of their salary schedule in order for the teachers to benefit from the money year round as well as put it in the salary schedule in order to keep it as funding source from the state. One member was not happy with the way the funds were going to be distributed. He wanted them distributed twice a year. The majority of the teachers wanted the distribution the way it had been negotiated. Over the course of two days, he emailed my husband repeatedly in a harassing manner to change the decision. The tone and verbal abuse of his emails were a major distraction to my husband while he was trying to teach his classes. As a result of these emails, the Technology Coordinator blocked the teacher from having access to my husband’s email.  Also, if the teacher wanted to talk to my husband, he had to go through my husband’s administrator first, and then the administrator would be present during the meeting.