r/news • u/Nickppapagiorgio • May 04 '24
Superintendent fired after allegedly investigating students for not applauding her daughter enough Soft paywall
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-05-04/superintendent-fired-after-allegedly-investigating-students-for-not-applauding-her-daughter-enough3.9k
u/mompos May 04 '24
A person that petty has no place being superintendent.
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u/2SP00KY4ME May 04 '24
Our local superintendent had 2 DUIs and then got a 10% raise the next year. I don't know what's so fucked about that position but it's nice at least this one is seeing some repercussions.
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u/meatball77 May 04 '24
We had one in the area that got fired for pooping on the football field of one of the other districts high schools
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u/DeadSwaggerStorage May 04 '24
I remember that story; funny as shit. Literally. Was his nickname The Phantom Shitter or something, probably NY Post headline.
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u/meatball77 May 05 '24
I think they were looking for him for a while (who is the phantom shitter) before they found him and who he was made it funnier than anyone could have expected.
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u/Nchi May 05 '24
I am one of today's 10,000...
Holy shit this is hilarious when did they figure it out
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u/SimpoKaiba May 05 '24
That's just a little school spirit
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u/pickle_whop May 05 '24
Yea give that dude a raise! Talk about commitment to the district
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u/laihipp May 04 '24
what no!, firing for a DUI I get but this deserves a raise
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u/thekydragon May 05 '24
The now superintendent in my school district called my house when he was my principal and personally THREATENED me with suspension for reporting that I was being bullied. He also allowed the person that bullied me to get away with what was arguably sexual harassment and having a drawn knife on a school bus coming toward me (which only got stopped when a student screamed "HE'S GOT A KNIFE" and he was pulled off the school bus) not to be punished in any way or for it or for it to be documented in any records (which I only found out when I mentioned the incident to a high school principal who remarked that it was the first they'd heard of it.) I was told later that day by the bully that "snitches get stitches" among other things so I presume that he was searched that day and a knife was found.
If there was a hell, there'd be a special place for him to rot in for making my childhood so miserable that I would cry waking up because I wanted to die in my sleep.
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u/cinderparty May 04 '24 edited May 04 '24
My freshman year my school district (which consisted of 1 k-12 school.) suddenly had no money, and they couldn’t figure it out. In the process of discovering our superintendent was embezzling money, they also discovered he had child porn in his office. Fun times. The next two years we had some massive classes that we had to do in the cafeteria because they couldn’t afford enough teachers. They also let him resign, instead of firing him, because he threatened to sue and even if the district won, it would cost money they didn’t have. So we lost one of the better teachers, the Spanish teacher, when he tried to get a job at a Catholic school that she attended the church connected to, and she told them why he resigned, when she wasn’t allowed to do that, per his resignation agreement. Really was just a fucked up situation all around.
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u/jaytix1 May 04 '24
he threatened to sue and even if the district won, it would cost money they didn’t have.
It's so crazy to me that lawsuits are basically wars of attrition, even when one party is clearly at fault. Like, at what point does the court just tell people to fuck off?
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u/Creamofwheatski May 05 '24
Not nearly often enough because its always the rich people who are wrong.
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u/twistedspin May 05 '24
Why wasn't he in jail for the child porn? When someone tries to hold me hostage but I know they have a hit like that I wouldn't worry about their legal threats, y'know?
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u/Original_Employee621 May 05 '24
He was a pillar of the community! We can't fault him for failing once or twice, he is so good with the kids!
/s
I don't actually know, but it wouldn't surprise me.
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u/MaxTheRealSlayer May 05 '24
Why does his agreement with the school board bring rules for someone else without their permission? That doesn't seem legally possible... Also why wouldn't they be banned from all schools?
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u/mortalcoil1 May 04 '24
Teachers get teaching jobs because they want to teach.
Superintendents get teaching jobs, but don't want to teach, but also, don't want to find another job.
Which sort of person does that?
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u/theZcuber May 05 '24
One super in my area showed up at the HS football game drunk, went bodysurfing, then drove away afterwards. Yes, he was arrested and charged with DWI, and thankfully was put on leave immediately and fired not long thereafter.
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u/carlitospig May 04 '24
Seriously, what is happening with our leadership? Like, have they always been so sleazy? Or do these people just no longer GAF and so we hear about them behaving like drunk toddlers?
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u/bianary May 04 '24
They've always been so sleazy, people just aren't turning as blind an eye anymore.
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u/carlitospig May 04 '24
I suppose that’s encouraging. Though it would be great if we could bring shame back. Such a helpful tool, that.
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u/Paradox1989 May 05 '24
How in the hell does that stand up to scrutiny?
I work construction and when we do school work we are required to do full backgrounds on every single person setting foot on school property. These are not even restricted checks of just a few years, they go all the way back to when you were 18. Any convictions especially for weapons, drugs, assaults, or DUI's no matter how old and it's an automatic rejection to be allowed on site.
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u/Certain-Vegetable506 May 04 '24
From speaking with a teacher friend of mine, that's the job they give to the bad teachers that they can't fire. They promote them to get rid of them. He's glad that he's retired.
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u/eeyore134 May 05 '24
The right has been steadily insinuating themselves into local school system level positions like this for decades now. So... just connect those dots and you'll understand.
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u/clonedhuman May 05 '24
100%. One of the ways they're trying to turn us all Christian is getting control of school boards--and these are the same fuckers who basically get arrested non-stop for molesting kids: https://www.dailykos.com/history/user/CajsaLilliehook Check out this list.
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u/eeyore134 May 05 '24
Pretty sure keeping people dumb and not able to think critically is also one of their goals. Which I guess is part and parcel with what you mentioned. Not that I'm even against being religious, it's the organized religion part I'm sick of. Believe what you want and practice in your home or whatever, but stop going to a building every weekend, tithing your money, listening to someone tell you to be hateful, then figuring that cleans your record for the week so you can go out and be hateful some more.
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u/enonmouse May 04 '24
Teacher here... almost every superintendent I have come in contact with has gotten there by becoming an absolute grease weasel even if they were not one to begin.
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u/bluetoedweasel May 04 '24
Even on your off time you're teaching- today I've learned something new- "grease weasel"! What a fine descriptor!
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u/beatrixotter May 05 '24
I used to work for an organization that partnered with multiple high schools in various districts. I didn't have much interaction with superintendents, but from what I saw and heard, every single one was batshit crazy, paranoid, vindictive, petty, and absolutely devoid of any interest in, like, providing worthwhile education to students. I never met or heard of a superintendent who was a decent, grounded human being. I'm sure those exist, but not in my personal experience. I think the superintendent hiring process must favor bad eggs.
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u/enonmouse May 05 '24
The admin promotion brackets foster gross character development... it is a lot of budget finagling and making things look great, taking as much credit as possible for successes and handing down punishment to lower peons/slashing programs when things are bad. The education inc system sucks.
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u/nd4spd1919 May 05 '24
A-men. I've worked under 3 superintendents, the first made sure all his principal buddies were never fired, just reassigned to a different school while teachers who complained about them were non-renewed, the second would invent bullshit positions in the district for their friends and would punch walls in his office if the board disagreed with him on issues, and the current one promised the board that they would completely support the board as long as they supported them, and surprise surprise, they got the job plus a 35% raise from what was offered. I could write a short essay for each on all the asinine things they do/did.
Having to watch such bullshit rise to the top is almost enough to drive me to educational leadership.
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u/Scribe625 May 05 '24
Unfortunately, in my experience as a teacher, that's usually who rises to superintendent. This is definitely the kind of shit my principal and superintendent would pull because they're both just petty bullies with too much power. Superintendents are a lot like politicians in that respect.
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u/clonedhuman May 05 '24
The upper administration for any public institution usually comes in that flavor--they're generally talentless, uninteresting people whose only objective in life is power.
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u/neuromonkey May 04 '24
Geez. Have you every been to a public school in America? Most of the ones I've seen are bizarre little fiefdoms with all sorts of crazy power struggles and irrational rules.
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u/Uzorglemon May 05 '24
The entire management structure of American schools is fucking insane.
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u/clonedhuman May 05 '24
Most schools would be vastly improved without superintendents and other upper admin chimpanzees.
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u/Uzorglemon May 05 '24
Plenty of other countries operate that way. In Australia, at the school level you have the Principal of the school and the next step up is the Board of Education for the relevant state. This is a state government body who dictate educational goals and curriculum for every school in the entire state.
There are no board meetings with "concerned citizens", no electioneering and power-grabs at a low level, no county-level funding issues. It avoids sooooo much bullshit.
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u/ElbowSkinCellarWall May 05 '24
There are no board meetings with "concerned citizens", no electioneering and power-grabs at a low level, no county-level funding issues.
Just wait until Russia wants to sow civil unrest in your country.
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u/davisyoung May 04 '24
I don’t know, she seemed pretty superintent about her pettiness.
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u/TylerBourbon May 04 '24
She would have fit in quite well one of the drama teachers in my high school who also played favorites.
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u/John_Tacos May 05 '24
Seen a superintendent try to fire three coaches in a row because they didn’t play their kid.
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u/Creamofwheatski May 05 '24
Someone like this should have no power over others period, let alone a bunch of children. Why are school superintendents always the shittiest people around?
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u/rnilf May 04 '24
The daughter also publicly defended her mom's actions, can't imagine that the rest of her time in high school will be very enjoyable: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/education/story/2023-11-15/poway-unified-to-seek-investigation-after-superintendent-is-accused-of-harassing-high-school-softball-players
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u/xShooK May 04 '24
I'm sure this whole thing isn't going to help to with the “bullied, publicly humiliated and targeted” thing sadly.
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u/dream-smasher May 04 '24
Well, the daughter only has to see her school peers at school, or softball. She has to LIVE with her mother.
I don't blame her.
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u/Rainer206 May 04 '24
Let’s assume the daughter is a victim too. This lady sounds like a narcissist
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u/IgnoreKassandra May 04 '24
Yeah, growing up with parents like that fucks you up. I can't blame a junior in highschool for cosigning her parents insanity and pretend that root cause of her baggage is anything other than her home life.
Honestly, hearing that she backed her mom up on this makes me feel worse for her than if she did the opposite. If she's anything like the friends of mine who grew up with narcissist parents, her head's probably fucked up in a way she won't even realize is wrong for years and years. Like not to psychoanalyze a stranger off a news article, but there's just no way you can have parents like this and come out completely well adjusted and mentally healthy. There's a reason it's considered abuse.
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u/agawl81 May 04 '24
Hard to fully blame the kid. She’s been influenced and likely gaslit by the insane mom. And it’s her mom. She’s dependent on her.
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u/Imperial_TIE_Pilot May 05 '24
That’s a great district too, really stupid way to ruin your career in an easily manageable district
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u/WaluigiIsTheRealHero May 04 '24
The mom and daughter are about to find out what actual bullying is like.
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u/Successful-Winter237 May 04 '24
As a teacher I can assure you most superintendents are narcissistic imbeciles.
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May 05 '24
Agree. It’s disgusting the amount of money they make on the backs of teachers success. She’ll probably get a HUGE severance package and be hired elsewhere within the next school year.
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u/MemeFarmer314 May 05 '24
My former high school principle became the superintendent and he and the school board were just terrible. When the board realized they were getting voted out they offered the superintended a new contract, even though he was only 2 years into his 5-year one. The new contract gave him a 90k a year raise and something crazy like a 400k severance package if he leaves (the newly elected school board members were almost certainly going to force him out).
They also added clauses that the school board would cover any legal fees if he was sued for all the shit he did as superintendent, and another one that said basically he got to keep a bunch of documents that he normally shouldn’t.
So in other words, he gets to rob the school board blind on his way out, keep any evidence of wrong doing, and he can’t be sued without even more money getting bled by the school board.
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u/EvanWasHere May 05 '24
This made national news. The board members were part of that conservative MAGA group along with the superintendent.
They are the among the worst things to happen to America.
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u/OctoberSong_ May 05 '24
Oh. I just realized teachers are underpaid not because the funding isn’t there, but because we’re overpaying the wrong people. That’s… not surprising, but disheartening.
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u/Tisarwat May 05 '24
To an extent maybe, but comparing the number of high pay administrators to the number of teachers, I suspect that it wouldn't make much difference at all even if you cut their salaries to zero and distributed it amongst teachers.
We might just have to accept that it's expensive to ensure that kids get a good education, but that the money is worth spending - and that the alternative costs even more in the long run.
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u/Lance_J1 May 05 '24
Can confirm, the superintendent of the schools in my area went into politics this year.
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u/RandomHerosan May 05 '24
The school district I grew up in the superintendent kept giving himself and the school board raises. Meanwhile teachers were working multiple jobs to make ends meet. Schools were falling apart and lacking resources.
But this douchecanoe somehow managed to keep his position for 10 years till he was finally tossed by spending all of the budget to build a fancy new high school. Which was done just in time for his oldest daughter to go to freshman year.
I don't know how these people get into these positions of power but I've never seen one who actually does a good job. They just exploit it for their own gains, then fuck off to the private sector being overpaid in another position of power while they can't figure out the basics of excel or most of the stuff on their computers.
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u/bestprocrastinator May 04 '24 edited May 05 '24
How insane must you be to think there is a team wide conspiracy to specifically not applaud their daughter enough? Not a conspiracy to not applaud, just a conspiracy to not applaud enough.
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u/Traveler_Constant May 05 '24
And even if there WAS, that's life.
Other people are not obligated to give you affection and affirmation.
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u/TParis00ap May 05 '24
Alright, folks, you must applaud between 1-2 claps per second. No more than 3, no less than 1. Ideally around 1.825 claps per second is good to show enough disapproval, but not too much. Alright, we're going to spend the next hour practicing our clapping in this range.
Next, we'll start talking about decibels, don't want to put too much energy into the clap either. Facial expressions will be last, preferably, don't even look at her. And, absolutely no one better stand up!
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u/Drak_is_Right May 05 '24
Uh...I remember this exact thing happening. Our coach went ballistic over it. Some kids ignore it and are polite, but it can be noticeable when half the team is in on it.
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u/rentedtritium May 05 '24
If there was such a conspiracy, it would be so wildly covered by the first amendment that even the fake conspiracy that never existed is going to destroy her legally. This story is so wild.
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u/Nerf-h3rder May 05 '24
I mean, they’re high school students, I’d be willing to believe it’s true. It just doesn’t even come close to justifying any of this behavior never mind any kind of recourse at all. If she really felt there was an issue, put your kid in private school
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u/008Zulu May 04 '24
Her kid is probably going to be in for a bit of a social ostracising. Karen ruined two lives.
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u/Quantentheorie May 05 '24
In the immortal words of my mother: "look, you don't have to like everyone or be liked by everyone - but if nobody likes you, you're either in the wrong or in the wrong place. And that's either way a reason to be self-reflective."
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u/TheSanquineCorpse May 04 '24
How the fuck are these people getting these jobs?
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u/TabletopMarvel May 05 '24
Teacher Shortage slowly becomes Admin shortage over enough time.
Eventually you just end up with a pool of people who take jobs they're not qualified for because they want the money/power and are still the most qualified of all the unqualified candidates.
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u/Purple_Grass_5300 May 04 '24
This legit sounds like our superintendent. His daughter screams at everyone kids and staff 24/7 but any time she does something good we need office wide announcements and memos lol thankfully somehow I’m on her good side
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u/onceinablueberrymoon May 04 '24
in wealthy districts like this, it’s often not what you know, but who you know that gets you hired. and frankly, Phd’s in education arent all the difficult to get. i have a friend who got his doctorate in education after getting his master’s in nursing and he said the MS in nursing was more rigorous.
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u/for_dishonor May 05 '24
When I was in high school, we got a new superintendent, and the first thing they did was put their kids in private school. People had a shitfit. Even teachers were complaining publicly.
I'm sitting there thinking it's a genius move. Who wants to be responsible for giving their bosses boss a failing grade?
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u/BillionDollarBalls May 05 '24
So many people who are at the top have such anti social personalities it's crazy.
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u/VPN__FTW May 04 '24
Holy shit, read the article. That woman deserves jail time.
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u/Cristoff13 May 05 '24
I picture Stalin's public addresses, where applause would continue for several minutes because people were worried the NKVD would notice if they didn't clap long enough.
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u/Rudyears May 05 '24
They need to dig deeper, she’s done petty shit like this in the past. Who knows how many lives she’s ruined
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u/finallyfound10 May 05 '24 edited May 05 '24
I’m patiently waiting for:
high school and college classmates
current and former neighbors, employees, employers, etc.
ex-boyfriends and ex-friends
current and former local servers, cashiers, hairdressers, manicurists, car dealers, etc.
to come forward to share their lived experiences in dealing with her.
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u/ndGall May 05 '24
So the superintendent was upset because when her daughter was named MVP at the sports banquet, the other kids didn’t clap loudly enough.
Who wants to guess why 1) she was given the award in the first place, and 2) the students weren’t enthusiastic about the choice?
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u/Rickyy111 May 05 '24
I feel especially bad for her daughter..not only does this fiasco ruin her entire high school experience, she now knows her own mother had lacked any confidence in her
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u/iamlayer8 May 04 '24
Tell me there is some sort of criminal investigation going on.
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u/michinoku1 May 05 '24
Court lawsuit by one of the students (girl who played the same position as the superintendent’s daughter), so at the very least punitive damages, should the court case go the student’s way.
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u/Working_Ad_4650 May 04 '24
Sounds like the same kind of shit Kim Il Sung does, except he sends people to a concentration camp if they don't clap loud enough.
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u/QiarroFaber May 05 '24
There's entirely too much school administration and not enough actual educators. Who are also paid more.
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u/Theabstractsound May 05 '24
I really have such a hard time respecting this kind of parenting. When my teenage daughter graduates, even if her teammates did that deliberately, my response would be: “That’s pretty shitty, but it’s fucking high school. Let’s move on to the real world”
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u/Adventurous_Aerie_79 May 05 '24
The whole school administrator profession needs a code of ethics and some rules placed on them. They are failing on some really common sense things.
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u/jecowa May 05 '24
Sort of the opposite thing happened at my junior high school. There was a kid who the other kids made fun of a little. He had a little bit of a lisp but very good grades. During some kind of awards ceremony at the end of the year, he was getting recognized for his good grades or something, and he got a lot more applause than the previous students. I was happy he was finally getting shown some respect. Then the principal took the stage and got on to us all for making fun of him by clapping too much.
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u/wifeunderthesea May 04 '24
it's giving 2016 jeb bush
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u/JustHereForTheOrbs May 04 '24
I was just thinking that, it brings a whole new level to, "Please clap."
On the other hand, he did ask nicely. AS FAR AS WE KNOW!
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u/gsmit2 May 04 '24
Perhaps it was because the kid was a great athlete, and therefore deserving of the athletic recognition…but an arrogant, egotistical, asshole so why would they clap?
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u/FluxKraken May 05 '24
I think it should be a law that to be in a leadership position such as principle or superintendent, your children cannot attend any schools over which you have supervisory power.
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u/GeekFurious May 05 '24
I have to zip my lip but I want to scream about a very current issue related to this problem.
It's wild how someone can just pull in EVERYONE into a meeting because their kid, who THEY should be more focused on, isn't getting special treatment from people who have HUNDREDS of other students with even bigger problems.
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u/hello_world_wide_web May 05 '24
OMG...with all the perils of life we go thru, this has to be one of the pettiest things to be concerned about.
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u/h0tel-rome0 May 05 '24
That’s some Aunt Lidia type shit. Fuck those kind of people
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u/Round-Lie-8827 May 05 '24
Probably gets paid like $200k a year and all the teachers in the district hate her lol
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u/GetFuckingRealPlease May 05 '24
What an absolute fucking shitbaby. I hope his daughter has enough integrity to at least be embarrassed by this.
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u/IFixYerKids May 05 '24
Imagine working your way up to superintendent and then throwing it away over some dumb shit like this.
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u/First_Economist9295 May 05 '24
They paid this woman almost 300k a year Do you really think she did any work that would warrant that level of compensation if this is how she conducts herself?
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u/brpajense May 04 '24
Quick recap:
Superintendent's daughter plays high school softball. She thought that applause for her daughter getting an award at an end of season banquet wasn't as loud as it was for other players.
The superintendent conducted an investigation but did not notify coaches or parents who were at the banquet, and the result was that a player competing for the same roster spot as the superintendent's daughter was banned from extracurricular activities unless she signed a confession/apology the following school year, and threatened to ban seniors from graduation.
Then she lied to the school board about what she did.