From Loving My Job to Glad to Make my Escape

I loved my school counseling job Loved it, loved it, loved it. Until they moved me to another school part time. One week -school A - my home school. The next week school B- a school that loves me, respects me, and appreciates me. Now I know how stressful school A truly is. Toxic, a hostile work environment. After three years it had started to feel normal somehow. Now that I get to go to School B where walkie-talkies are not going off every two seconds reporting bad behaviors, I scoff. School A, my home school gives a steady daily diet of this: "a second grader walked out of class, a kindergartener refuses to go to recess, a third grader needs a snack, a first grader need attention." School B had none of this nonsense. And they did not reward bad behaviors all day long. That's maybe the key to why that school had good behaviors. More than once after a student walked out of class, the principal of School A would lead them straight to my office and say in front of the child, "he needs a break. Play a game with him or something." I have raised three successful citizens, myself. I never remember playing a game with them when they disrespected their teacher, took their class hostage or disrupted everyone else's learning. I would ask the student "were you the one who walked out of class?" They were braggadocio about it. The reason usually had something to do with "just wanting to". I would refuse to play a game, and they would run to the principal to "tell on me". She never confronted me. But two seconds later I would hear her on the walkie-talkie saying, "fourth grade boy returning to class" so I know how hard she must have been on him. School A is a school where the children are in charge. They act like zoo animals on speed. They can put another child in a head lock and get away with it They can take off their clothes and streak three times in one week. This year well into day ten a new sixth grade boy was sent to me. I am the school counselor. Invisible until needed. I asked if he wanted to talk. Head shake no. Told him if he changed his mind, he could let me know. Checked back. He did want to talk. “It is too chaotic here,” he told me “these kids play all day.” Play in this environment means taking the class hostage with outrageous behaviors guaranteeing that no one can learn. “I want to go back to my old school,” he told me I asked what school that was. It is the behavior disorder school. Where children who are out-of-control are sent to cool off, so they can return to their old school. “It is too chaotic here!” he wailed. He is not wrong. He is not wrong. He is not wrong. Who is to guess? Parents are not allowed in the building. If they saw the turmoil in the lunchroom they would shut us down. I must say God gave me school B for a reason. To remind me what a good school can be. School B received a full time counselor in March I was sent back to my home school full time. Where the walkie talkies report bad behaiors all day long. A school that has a campaign"no hate". Anyone who has studied one sliver of brain research knows that in order to think "no hate" you must first think "hate". The one running it is one of the meanest "mean girls" in the school. Being back in School A full time has put me into PTSD mode. I got violently sick. So stressed I was not sleeping. Retiring? No, retired, and damn glad of it.