to file the initial report and for failing to follow up. In his job, the assistant
had seen the iniquities of the very small minority of staff members in the
“rubber room” of the superintendent’s office. He told Mr. Chen that no
one can ever see into the heart or head of another person and know what
was going on. He added that principals had enough responsibilities—
when they can report anything to others and let them take responsibility,
they should just do it.
The staff member was found to have engaged in verbal misconduct.
There had been no physical improprieties. The staff member was sus-
pended for one year and then returned to service in another school. No
hearing was held for Mr. Chen. The investigator recommended that the
superintendent place an official letter of reprimand in Mr. Chen’s file and
levy a fine for his going outside the box; neither happened.
Mr. Chen still wonders if the seven-week delay in reporting the origi-
nal allegation made any difference. Would the investigators have come
sooner and been able to settle the matter before the school year ended and
before they had been laid off over the summer?
Many months after the hearing and teacher’s suspension, Mr. Chen
heard two conflicting addendums to the story from different sources. One,
a school paraprofessional who had several student aides assisting her, told
Mr. Chen she was glad this staff member was removed—several student
aides had told her that they felt “uncomfortable” around this teacher and
that this teacher had made remarks they did not want to repeat. Mr. Chen
told her that if she ever heard anything like this again about any staff
member, she had to report it to him immediately.
The other story came from an honor student who worked in Mr. Chen’s
office. She told him that the two students involved in the allegations had
been bragging to their peers that they had “gotten even” with a teacher
for suspending them.
Where is truth in all this? Mr. Chen never found out. He only knew that
the personal life of the staff member was never the same, the teacher’s
department was negatively affected for several years, and he sought
professional advice from his own union, which had a principal’s support
program.
Mr. Chen had reason to recall the words of his first assistant principal.
When this assistant principal knew Mr. Chen was actively interviewing
for a supervisory position, he asked him if he knew why supervisors were
174 Chapter 13