|
I had a situation where a disgruntled former teacher decided to post outrageous accusations against me on social media, but left them vague enough that I wasn't in much of a legal position to do anything about it. The teacher in question had gotten into a physical altercation with a student that the teacher had clearly escalated, by his own account. He was the first to put hands on the student, so it left me very little room to support him. When I couldn't do so, he posted widely about me being two-faced, and a liar, and an untrustworthy administrator. I have been a classroom teacher for 30 years, and during the last 15 or so of those years, an administrator as well. From that perspective, I have always strived to keep the teachers' perspectives in mind, frankly much more than many administrators I have had over the years. In that situation, seeing those posts and knowing that people who didn't know me were seeing them and forming an opinion of me based on them, people with whom I might have to work in the future -- it made me feel powerless and frustrated. There wasn't much I could have done differently, and while I understand the teacher might have felt abandoned or even angry at himself, I wish he had done things differently not only in the original situation but in his posts about me.
|