Wednesday 27 August 2003

The day before the meeting with the district administrator, a few students who were social leaders of their classes went in to talk with the principal. They wanted to know why their favorite teacher would even be considered let go from Holmen. The principal complimented them for caring about me and for having the integrity to show up in such a professional manner. The principal told them that I was a fine teacher and that he, too, cared about me. One of the students, J.J. was normally reserved, but he clenched his fists under the view from the principal's desk, knowing he was being lied to.

The students wanted to know why if the principal thought I was a fine teacher and that he cared about me, why would he try to make me leave? "It's complicated," he said, and gave them no real answers.

The meeting when exactly as planned, I presume, for the principal. He prepared packets a quarter-inch thick for the district administrator, the teachers' union reps, and myself. The packet contained each individual letter he'd written about my infractions of school policy and was padded with copies of the pamphlets he'd asked me to read the summer before.

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