My Nose Knows I Blew It. A Rough time To Be A Teacher.

[Teacher of the Year]

7. Left this out of my reply:

I am in a union state and have had amazing support in the past from my union. I was their Teacher of Excellence a few years ago (the Union's version of Teacher of the Year...kind of).

We had a month-long strike this year to address safety issues, support and more. Our school has filed grievances to address these issues. I use my platform as a pretty well-known educator to advance the discussion on this topic. My list of injuries is a bit more extreme, due to the nature of the type of programs I have worked in, but every teacher has a list. Nobody talks about that, but every teacher has a list.

That becomes sickeningly clear when I publish on the topic. The essay I linked above led to hundreds and hundred of messages from teachers who would not speak publicly but shared heartbreaking stories of physical abuse. I'm a big guy. My arms are bigger than a lot of people's legs. So is my neck, come to think of it. But when someone writes you saying, "I'm 5'2"..." it scares me. I can barely do this job with my size and strength behind me.

The public does not know what it means when a kid, in "fight or flight" mode, chooses fight. It means they are fighting as if their life depends on it. My size is what has kept me safe. I'm the only male teacher in my K-6 program and I'm getting the stuffing knocked out of me at times. Our coaches even take worse.

I can say that almost all of my injuries have occurred because of a lack of staffing, a lack of experienced co-workers or a lack of a proper physical space to help disregulated students. So, I remain a squeaky wheel doing crazy things like publicly demanding that the US Government FINALLY fund IDEA. That great piece of lawmaking has never been fully funded by the government and so has never been fully implemented. Instead they are spending their time writing bills that protect dishwashers from having to be energy efficient.