Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Original poster

to think that if I were in any other job, this would be taken extremely seriously?

151 replies

dollydoops · 14/11/2011 18:18

Today at work, a huge erect penis was drawn on my door in glue. This is the second time this has happened. Also, an unwrapped condom was left on the floor of my room. I was in tears and very upset. Still am.
Guess what my job is? And if this happened in your job, what would you expect to happen?

OP posts:

worraliberty · 14/11/2011 19:00

But you are not being 'treated' like this.

Someone drew a dick on a door...did it have your name on it or relate to you in any way?

Someone dropped a condom on the classroom floor...again did it relate to you in any way other than being on the floor of the class you happened to be teaching in?

JamieComeHome · 14/11/2011 19:01

worall - what?

abbierhodes · 14/11/2011 19:01

I'm still interested in how long you've been teaching, OP.

I don't claim to be the world's toughest...I've been reduced to tears by pupils' actions on more than one occasion. But that was because of repeated verbal abuse or months and months of teaching an uncontrollable class...this was a prank. Not worth getting your knickers in a twist.

Honestly...have stern words with the perpetrators if you can find them and then focus on toughening up. You need a thicker skin than this to teach teenagers.

grovel · 14/11/2011 19:02

dolly, what do you teach?

FullBeam · 14/11/2011 19:02

I was responding to Scarlett's mummy but a few posts got in the way between me writing and posting!

valiumredhead · 14/11/2011 19:03

I would suggest you need to develop a thicker skin tbh. YOU are not being treated like this - kids do this, it's part of growing up. God, I cringe at the things we used to do as kids.

Andrewofgg · 14/11/2011 19:03

dollydoops Obviously these days you would not have to put up with this from a colleague and if you made an issue of it you could hold the employer liable in compensation without being able to say which colleague it was.

But pupils aren't colleagues. They are more like inmates. Not much you can do. The more upset they can see you are they worse it will get.

Girls' school, boys' school, or mixed?

ATruthUniversallyAcknowledged · 14/11/2011 19:05

"They are more like inmates"

I may print that out and post it on our staff room wall.

JennaTailor · 14/11/2011 19:05

This kind of thing happens to me a lot at work and I'm not a teacher. Don't take it personally ..its not about you ...or your relationship with the students... and it is a teeny weeny bit funny!

worraliberty · 14/11/2011 19:07

worall - what?

Huh?

Original poster

dollydoops · 14/11/2011 19:09

I teach English in a mixed school. Ok, I get it. IABU to be upset but IANBU to think this would not be acceptable in another workplace. Think i need some ! thanks ladies, you have made me give myself a shake and think 'live to fight another day' :)

OP posts:

catgirl1976 · 14/11/2011 19:11

It wouldnt be acceptable in your workplace if a colleague did it.

Your work place contains children - you can't compare

FullBeam · 14/11/2011 19:12

Hope tomorrow is better dollydoops.

valiumredhead · 14/11/2011 19:12

No it wouldn't be acceptable in any other workplace but anywhere else you wouldn't have herds of hormone fuelled kids charging around the place. You don't work in an office - you work in a school.

valiumredhead · 14/11/2011 19:13

X posted with cat

grovel · 14/11/2011 19:13

I think it was either a reference to Chaucer or, perhaps, Jude the Obscure (where condom use would have saved a lot of grief). It could just be a compliment.

Loonytoonie · 14/11/2011 19:19

I'm a languages teacher and have flags over the lower walls. Little scrotes have decided to draw loads of penis's under the flags over this last year and this week, when I showed a colleague during break, a god almighty whopper of a 2 footer was staring out at me. Quite detailed too, so I'll be cross referencing my class lists with the art teacher soon.

Secondary school boys are completely obsessed with dicks. It's not acceptable, and not in the least funny. It can get you down OP, so YANBU.

Fight the good fight though.

BuckminsterFullerene · 14/11/2011 19:22

A colleague's favourite way to deal with this type of 'art' is to photograph/copy it and send it to the parents!

A nice kid will say who did it.

Alternatively: photograph it, mark for scientific accuracy & labelling, include your most cutting comment & stick to your door.

And wait to hear that wonderful comment "you just got OWNED by miss!"

Teaching is emotionally draining. Sometimes the straw breaks the camel's back. No shame in letting it out, just make sure you come back stronger. We have to suffer the few to work hard for the majority.

valiumredhead · 14/11/2011 19:22

That made me chuckle Loony

kritur · 14/11/2011 19:22

I doubt it was aimed at you personally, they probably just thought it was funny. If they'd done it to my room (bearing in mind the prevalence of CCTV around the last school I taught in) I would have had the kid buy a new glue stick to start with (flagrant waste of resources really annoys me, I swear the kids don't understand if the school has to keep buying glue, paper etc because they mess about with it then they can't buy computers or footballs!). A strategy I used with one boy who used to draw anatomically incorrect penises and testicles on everything was to get some beautifully correct line drawings from the PSE teacher and make the boy trace over them in detention for an hour, complete with pubic hair. Funnily enough he lost his desire to draw them after that.

Could the condom just have fallen out of someone's bag?

BertieBotts · 14/11/2011 19:23

Condoms are hilarious when you are a teenager.

Andrewofgg · 14/11/2011 19:25

Of course it could be girls acting boyish to put OP and Loonytoonie on a false scent . . . they're cunning, you know.

My fellow legal eagles will remember the case some ten years ago where a woman teacher got this sort of persecution in a girls' school which is why I asked the question at 19:03.

noblegiraffe · 14/11/2011 19:26

I would bet a million pounds it was a boy. Boys are always drawing nobs everywhere, it's like a compulsion.

The walls of my classroom are covered in them but I'm only part time so loads of other teachers use the room and it would be pointless in trying to track down the perpetrators. And if I did find them, they'd get bollocked for graffiti, sexual harassment wouldn't even cross my mind.

Is this particular class getting to you in a way which makes you suspect the Pritt Prick was personally directed at you? If so, you need to think about getting some support there.

TheMonster · 14/11/2011 19:27

If it makes you feel any better, a year eight girl shouted 'I hate you, you fat bitch' down a corridor to me and her two friend then bellowed 'fat bitch' at me as they ran off. Charming.

TheMonster · 14/11/2011 19:28

I also had a year 10 boy walk into class last week with a sanitary towel stuck to his groin, on the outside of his trousers. Hilarious.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Swipe left for the next trending thread