Superintendent Won't Cancel School For Dangerous Weather, It Ends Her Career

Author image for mattstaff
mattstaff
Oct 19, 2019 1:00 PM EDT

Sounds like this mean superintendent was in way over her head when it came to carrying out her job in a way that didn't endanger people in the school. Sometimes the weather pulls a fast one on you, and it's just not safe to make the trek into school. Unfortunately, this superintendent was caught up on a strange power trip. It all came back around when her career eventually ended as a result. 

Advertisement
  • 01
    Text - TOkevenge JOIN u/tranquil-potato 6h 1 1 Superintendent doesn't like to delay or cancel school no matter how bad the conditions. This comes back to end her career. TL;DR at the bottom. (This is my sister's story, but I will tell it in the first person for clarity's sake. I have her permission to post it here.)
    via u/tranquil-potato
  • 02
    Text - Both my children attended elementary school in the northern midwest. As you can imagine, it snowed. A lot. Even with all the snow removal infrastructure, when a particularly heavy storm came along, the town just couldn't keep up with it, and the buses couldn't run. For decades, the school district dealt with this by having five snow days built in to the calendar. If they had more than five snow days, the kids would go an extra day(s) at the end of the year. For years, this system worked,
    via u/tranquil-potato
  • 03
    Text - Well, all good things must eventually come to an end. The old, mild mannered super retired. A new super took his place. She was young, aggressive, and almost immediately reviled by everyone in the district. Let's call her Sue, because that's what we ultimately did to her. Sue came right out of corporate America. I don't know how she got it in her head that she wanted to run a school district, but she did. She was so inexperienced that the school board had to give her a waiver to work in o
    via u/tranquil-potato
  • 04
    Text - But what's important to this story-- she ended the decades old snow day system. Took the days right out of the calendar and said we wouldn't be needing them, as she was "cracking down" on snow days. Here's how snow days work: the transportation department keeps an eye on the roads. If they are unsafe, or even if they are safe but the forecast is looking crazy for later, they tell the super they can't safely run the buses. The super then cancels school. It's really supposed to be the trans
    via u/tranquil-potato
  • 05
    Text - For two years we parents tolerated this dumbfuckery, but needless to say, we were frustrated. We tried going through the proper channels. Contacting the transportation department, writing to the school board. We even wrote a collective letter to Sue personally. Who, if the rumor is true, spit on our letter and tossed it in the bin. Though we did get a nice message on the school department website about how they are always thinking about the safety of the students, so that's nice I guess.
    via u/tranquil-potato
  • 06
    Text - My sister in law is a criminal defense attorney. I am a disability advocate with a state agency, so while I'm not an expert on the law like my SIL, I tend to know my way around. We met for dinner and decided that, if and when the inevitable tragedy happened, we would sue. We met a couple more times to work on our game plan. You can't sue a school district for making dumb snow day decisions, but if a kid gets hurt... The day finally came in the late autumn of the third year of Sue. We had
    via u/tranquil-potato
  • 07
    Text - It was a disaster. Buses couldn't access every road to pick up students. Buses were late. Individual schools were putting out bulletins that attendence was parents choice, students unable to make it to school would receive a Principal's Excused Absence, stay home if it's the safer choice. Bear in mind that all the schools were running on generators. So the high schoolers (who start an hour earlier) were sitting in the gymnasium bored. There was literally no point in having school this day
    via u/tranquil-potato
  • 08
    Text - The district sent forms to all of the parents of injured children: they would cover all medical costs and provide counseling for the kids in the guidance office, AND a small cash settlement, in exchange for the parents signing a release of liability ("you can't sue us") But my SIL and I had gotten to the parents first and advised them not to sign ANYTHING, as we were taking the district to big boy court. Some of the parents did take the settlement offered, which is understandable since no
    via u/tranquil-potato
  • 09
    Text - My SIL also pulled some strings at the local newspaper and got our lawsuit a small spot on the front page. Parents came out of the woodwork to express their support. They were frustrated after years of Sue's authoritarianism. It turned into a small media circus, and I'm sure some redditor will Google this and find something. Well, the district's lawyers got to work and quickly really that this was going to be a mess. A discovery process pulling up dirt, the parents of the injured children
    via u/tranquil-potato
  • 10
    Text - As for Sue, she became very quiet. She used to spend all day sending aggressive emails about her "policies." Now, hardly a peep. All she did the rest of the year was fill the seat. As summer approached at the end of the year, Sue announced her resignation. She was leaving to "pursue other interests." We think she was asked to resign She was replaced by a superintendent who was much nicer :) He rolled back all of Sue's power trippy policies. TL;DR New superintendent is mean and doesn't can
    via u/tranquil-potato

Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.

Tags

sketchy school revenge education Reddit dangerous karma
Scroll Down For The Next Article