Friday, December 14, 2007

Bullies in the schoolyard - and in the front office.

Perhaps the District would like the contents of our 2 2" three-ring binders that document our treatment, much of which consists of e-mails to or from bullying District employees. But then again, all we have are those e-mails that we had the presence of mind to save or forward to our home e-mail account; the District would have all of them already. They just have to put forth a little effort to find them.

But wait! Perhaps if someone were to go through the old cached e-mails they might find evidence that is NOT helpful to the District on a number of issues with a variety of present/former employees. Perhaps this is a case of "Be careful what you ask for" for the District.

And note again that the intimidation factor of a District paid lawyer monitoring this blog is ever-present. This is a threat to anyone who feels the need to get the truth out. Which reminds me of WAC 180-88-040 which I ran across recently. It seems that "verbal abuse" means "the use of malicious or hostile language by an employee that results in harm to another if the school district has determined that there is sufficient evidence to conclude that an employee engaged in the conduct and that it resulted in the employee leaving a position with the district." Also "under RCW 28A.400.301, a district is prohibited from entering into any contract or agreement that has the effect of suppressing information about the abuse by a present or former employee or has the effect of expunging such information from employer files."

It seems to me that ANY settlement agreement which limits a former employee's ability to openly discuss their "constructive termination" is, under this statute, ILLEGAL. And yet the settlement agreement, with the agreement and approval of the Edmonds Education Assn, is the weapon of choice for the school district. Mine says just that: you can't talk about your former employer or your employment "story." Of course, the catch 22 here is that the District has to find that verbal abuse occurred. They get to investigate themselves and determine that they verbally abused someone. What, do you suppose, is the chance of that? It will be a cold day in the underworld before that happens, you can be sure. We need oversight from another government agency, or at least the daylighting of these practices to the average taxpayer.

Editorial: A sincere thank you for another informative entry from an unknown contributor.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have 1 question to the district. Do you people get off on being bullies or do you have a bad home or were you abuse as a kid. So, now you get a job in the schools. So, you can abuse people like you were abuse as a kid? This is a problem in the EDMONDS SCHOOL DISTRICT. NO QUESTION! So, if you "FEEL" like you're getting bullyed go right to the big guy "NICK" & say Nick, I'm being bullyed & write it down. He must act on it. Remember state laws guys! "Play the game or get played by the game"

Anonymous said...

It is interesting that you should mention this. There are a number of longitudinal studies that look at this very question. The schoolyard bully becomes the boss who bullies employees. Or in this case, the schoolyard bully who becomes a school district administrator who bullies.

There is also research on why some people start bullying ONLY after a bully has become boss. It's as if the bullying boss brings out the worst in some people. Bullying enabled by the bully.

Anonymous said...

HR, where are your morals? or do you take "JOY" in peoples pain? The time is here so don't cry when people start asking questions. I'll by there with flowers when you get the axe.

Anonymous said...

I think some the "joy" comes from pushing people around and then pointing at them when they get angry and calling them mentally unbalanced. Nice job to be able to drive people crazy and them fire them for it. Or file a no trespass order against them.