Malicious and potentially prejudiced colleague - what to do?

[Laura2121]

Hello all

I have been at my current school since September where I am a science teacher with a full timetable as well as a Head of Year. I have been giving a lot of effort to both roles, and it is my 8th year teaching.

As HoY, I received a complaint from a parent about her son’s Latin teacher who he believed was targeting him. Other students of the same ethnic minority also came to me to complain that she was treating them unfavourably.

I should mention here that this teacher has always been quite rude to me for no reason, and I am also of an ethnic minority. I have always been polite back, and our interactions have been limited anyway since we work in different faculties.

I arranged to observe a lesson of this lady, let’s call her N, without telling her about the parental complaint (I was observing lots of teachers for one particular student who was being problematic in school so she assumed it was for the same reason)

After arranging the observation with N in advance, she ended up doing a test in this lesson, naturally rendering an observation pointless.

I arranged to speak with this N the next day to ask her why she did a test during the planned observation and also to rearrange. Knowing N’s rude treatment of me, I asked a witness to be present to this conversation.

N was again very rude to me during the conversation, during which I was polite but firm, and then she stormed out. She later however came to see me that day to ‘clear the air’. I again requested the witness to be present for that conversation. That conversation ended nicely, with all of us agreeing to move forward from what happened.

I thought that this was the end of it, however the next day, I find that N went to the Deputy Head, who is my HoY line manager, to make a big complaint about me. She threw me under the bus, and depicted me falsely in how I treated her, and asked me to be banned from observing her in the future. The DH then detained me for 90 minutes after school, chastising me, criticising me and even giving me a warning for my job. Given that I was not guilty of what I was being accused of, this naturally left a very sour taste in my mouth.

Even worse, the DH invited my HoF to this meeting as a ‘guest’, even though I’ve had zero issues in the faculty and this meeting was nothing to do with him. My HoF has always hated me because his former students who were failing in his class last year and who have me this year, have been making lots of progress with me, even to the point of receiving awards which he tried to block. His current students have also been coming to me for help. The HoF completely took over this meeting which was supposed to be run by my DH, being horrendous to me and making the most of the opportunity of finally having found a stick to beat me with, even though it was nothing to do with him. Even though I was completely framed for something I did not do. I kept asking both of them to interview the witness, but this fell on deaf ears.

Even worse, the discrimination complaint has been evaporated into thin air; nobody is caring about it even when I brought it up at that meeting.

This meeting has naturally driven me to look for other jobs. But I am wondering how to improve the current situation. N has got away with bullying and then framing me, and her students are made to suffer her continued discriminatory treatment against them. Would it help if the students’ parents wrote against her? The students were initially asking me this but I had said I’d sort it out.

I would really appreciate some advice, thank you 🙏

Hang on. You went to observe this teacher under the guise of student observations but but were actually there to see if she was racist?

Then you accuse her of "framing you" and "throwing you under the bus" bjt don't say why?

To be fair if I was the Teacher I'd have done the same.

You need to look for a new job ASAP

Also any allegation of racism or discrimination needs to be passed onto SLT.

I'm afraid this won't be resolved very easily for you because you handled the initial parental complaint all wrong.

Is this your first HOY post?

It all sounds a bit of a mess, OP

You haven’t gone about this the right way at all. The allegations should have gone to the headteacher to deal with, it’s not for a head of year to launch their own investigations under the false pretence that they are observing students.

If this person is a racist, you’ve actually made it harder for the HT to tackle them.

I think you need to contact your union. I'm afraid you've messed up here.

I don't know all the ins and ours of secondary, but if a test was next in the sequence of lessons I'd be annoyed at having to change that for an observation from someone who, presumably, has no authority to be observing me...

I've been thinking about this all evening.

A major part of my role is observations. If I am observing, I always share the focus in advance. If a teacher said to me they were doing an assessment, I would rearrange because those things are planned into curriculum time. What I wouldn't do is turn up on a pretext and then complain about the observation being pointless.

I'm also a union rep. If one of my members came to me about this, I'd be asking for the senior team to step in and speak to you about your behaviour.

The discrimination complaint has evaporated because it effectively doesn't exist. That should have gone straight to SLT. It was not your place to investigate without express permission from them.

OP, it simply isn't true that you have had o previous issues within your department - your previous posts are all about this.

It sounds like this current school is quite toxic for you and you'd be best off looking elsewhere if you can.

You sound like you can be a bit of a bull in a china shop. HOYs cannot be like this as it is so easy to make things worse! It's hugely undervalued a diplomacy role.

I've looked at your other posts and I see lots of conflict with students, colleagues and management. Both in this post and your previous one.

You need to contact your union and get advice.

All the best wishes for a restful break.

Maybe reflect a moment or two on what message the deputy head is giving you and how you can adapt your practice to match the expectations of you HOF and SLT.

And reflect on the lessons you learned from you previous run ins with various colleagues, parents and students. It's documented quite well on here. Can you see a pattern and a common denominator?

How are parental complaints of that sort of nature normally handled at your school? Doing a covert observation to investigate wouldn't be standard practice at most schools. And normally a complaint of that nature would be passed on to someone senior to investigate.

It all sounds very messy and toxic, and I know toxic schools can make people behave in strange ways. Perhaps it's time for you to look for somewhere new?

If you want to stay, I'd consider discussing the whole incident with your union, so they are aware in case anything further comes of it.

Your post reads as if you had already made your mind up that this teacher is racist therefore surely you should have recognised that there wouldn’t be a fair outcome for your investigation. Isn’t there a complaints policy for this sort of thing? As a form tutor I constantly here the excuse ‘Miss X is racist because she tells me off and not the child of a different ethnicity next to me’ I’ve yet to encounter a situation where this is actually the case. I actually had to deal with such a complaint from a student last week when I reminded the student that the alleged ‘racist’ teacher was actually the same ethnicity as them! I would think the chances of you encountering a teacher in the education system in this day and age who is actually racist to be extremely slim. You appear to have a lack of awareness of what you have done wrong in this situation and you are blaming everyone for having a problem with you. Maybe look at how you are coming across to others. I would be looking for a new job too.

It sounded from your OP that you are working hard and trying your best. I hope you find a resolution. Taking on board all the above comments can't be easy but there is some good advice.

My advice to you is to start looking for another job as soon as possible! You have plenty of time now to find a different role and be able to leave at Easter with the February resignation deadline.
It’s clear to me that this was somewhat orchestrated especially with your HOF being invited into this meeting when it simply has nothing to do with them.
How can you do your job effectively if you haven’t got the support of your line managers?
The positive for you though is - even if there isn’t a teaching role in your subject, you have pastoral experience and you may find a job in that field - there’s plenty of scope in pastoral and is also a route into SLT too.

Hello all

Thank you for your replies so far. Some people are bringing up that I have posted about conflict in the past. It might interest you to know that I have had the misfortune of working in toxic places before.

I have had no more than 2 complaints from students and parents in my entire career, whereas the people I have had to work with and who have tried to make my life difficult have had several.

This is not a school I want to spend much more of my time in, however when she found out I was thinking of leaving, the DH wanted to make me think about staying. It is too late, they have pushed me to the point of no return now. I could leave at Easter but I intend to stay the year. It is the most toxic workplace I have ever been subject to.

Regardless of the toxicity of the workplace ( all your complaints seem to be about this one) , your sniping at others and the fact that you seem to know how many complaints they have experienced (maybe they suffer from the same vexatious parent and student issue) is not constructive.

You went about investigating a serious allegation all wrong, have made that worse, and I wouldn't be surprised if a grievance is raised against you. It's an unholy mess, OP. Can you not see this as a learning point for you as a new HOY?

You've messed up here. Plus you shouldn't be telling teachers they can't do an assessment in their lesson because you want to see something. They need to be doing whatever they need to do. If you want to see something specific ask if you can come back another time.

It sounds like you've overstepped in a few places.

Firstly it seems you've mishandled a allegation of racism, which shouldn't be investigated by you lying about why you're doing a lesson observation.

Secondly, you seem to think your HoF dislikes you because their former students are doing better with you than HoF. That's fair enough, but to be encouraging their current students to come to you over their actual teacher (which you are doing when you don't direct them to their class teacher), you're actively undermining the HoF.

For someone who complains about toxic colleagues, your behaviour also sounds quite unpleasant and unprofessional in places.

I agree with previous posters here, I think you are lacking in management skills and experience for your role, and you need some CPD urgently.
From your previous threads it seems you had experience at sixth form (possibly with some subject responsibility?) but then moved to an 11-16/18 setting for one year and struggled with departmental relationships, so moved again and are having similar issues with HoF/DH and others at your current school.
Sorry to say, but you do come across very much 'I'm excellent and everyone else is the problem' in your posts. I'm not suggesting that you haven't experienced some unpleasant situations but I don't think your management style is working. What training have you had for these roles? I've almost finished my NPQLT (Leading Teaching) and there has been lots about managing relationships. I think you need to go back this term and ask for some training or guidance, maybe an experienced HoY as a mentor? Also show some contrition for the way you handled this allegation/assumption you started the thread about (because you are absolutely in the wrong here) and ask for support in dealing with new situations in future.
Good luck, hope you can turn it around and make a success of it.