Current Events > I was falsely accused of harassment at work, AMA

(+) Yeah! (+)

No story no care

What were you accused of specifically?

The accusation itself was just "harassment". They kept the accuser anonymous, but I was a teacher and the school asked us to enforce punctuality on our students without telling us what consequences to apply for people that were constantly late. This one girl showed up 5-10 minutes late every class, and despite talking with her, giving her extra work, giving her detention and sending emails to the parents, she never changed. As my class wasn't the only one she had a problem in this regard, I asked the administration to do something about it, which they refused. In the end, she ended up accusing me of harassment and I got fired.

The accusation itself was just "harassment". They kept the accuser anonymous, but I was a teacher and the school asked us to enforce punctuality on our students without telling us what consequences to apply for people that were constantly late. This one girl showed up 5-10 minutes late every class, and despite talking with her, giving her extra work, giving her detention and sending emails to the parents, she never changed. As my class wasn't the only one she had a problem in this regard, I asked the administration to do something about it, which they refused. In the end, she ended up accusing me of harassment and I got fired.

The accusation itself was just "harassment". They kept the accuser anonymous, but I was a teacher and the school asked us to enforce punctuality on our students without telling us what consequences to apply for people that were constantly late. This one girl showed up 5-10 minutes late every class, and despite talking with her, giving her extra work, giving her detention and sending emails to the parents, she never changed. As my class wasn't the only one she had a problem in this regard, I asked the administration to do something about it, which they refused. In the end, she ended up accusing me of harassment and I got fired.

The accusation itself was just "harassment". They kept the accuser anonymous, but I was a teacher and the school asked us to enforce punctuality on our students without telling us what consequences to apply for people that were constantly late. This one girl showed up 5-10 minutes late every class, and despite talking with her, giving her extra work, giving her detention and sending emails to the parents, she never changed. As my class wasn't the only one she had a problem in this regard, I asked the administration to do something about it, which they refused. In the end, she ended up accusing me of harassment and I got fired.

TC... i hope you realize just how serious this is, a harassment complaint especially in the teaching field can harm alot, if you truly believe this was an unfair termination you need to lawyer up because this is not only your livelihood but your reputation as an educator at stake. You can't let some brat with shit parents ruin your life this easily and you especially can't let this adminstration cowardly toss you away to appease their shit parents.

Sexual harassment or normal harassment

sounds like you should have just let it go

i mean was it really that big of a deal some people simply arent punctual

This. They wouldn't fire a teacher without an investigation at least.

Idk about everyone immediately calling you a harasser, but it is weird that you immediately jumped to her being the accuser

Regardless, based on your side of the story, you probably should've let it go after a certain point

I had no issues with any other student, and I had a good rapport with most other kids. Some even asked me for game recommendations and such.

And people telling me to "let it go" probably have never been teachers.

Punitive measures towards lates are bull ****. I've been late to every job I've ever had and always told my employer to deal with it. I turn in better work than 99% of my peers. I have had managers try to threaten punitive measures and I always call their bluff. Maybe this is a case of the student teaching the teacher.

CE has an irrational hatred of teachers. There was once a topic where a student beat his teachers brains in and was arrested because she confiscated his phone, and tons of people were siding with the student.

so the student was anonymous. did they at least tell you what the sexual harassment was? is the student being tardy even relevant to the story? not trying to hate, just trying to gather information.

assigning extra work sounds out of line to me. points docked for attendance sure, and detentions for repeat behavior sure.

Punitive measures towards lates are bull ****. I've been late to every job I've ever had and always told my employer to deal with it. I turn in better work than 99% of my peers. I have had managers try to threaten punitive measures and I always call their bluff. Maybe this is a case of the student teaching the teacher.

Punitive measures towards lates are bull ****. I've been late to every job I've ever had and always told my employer to deal with it. I turn in better work than 99% of my peers. I have had managers try to threaten punitive measures and I always call their bluff. Maybe this is a case of the student teaching the teacher.

assigning extra work sounds out of line to me. points docked for attendance sure, and detentions for repeat behavior sure.

when you spoke to her, was it actually civil? respectful? they are things you would say in front of anyone? her parents, the principal, everything?

because from your story of the overall process, everything sound legitimate. but what's missing entirely are details, and maybe that's true in your reports as well?

did you get angry? did you raise your voice? did you threaten, or say bad things?

everything looks really nice on paper though. if she has no records of how you actually acted towards her, then yeah, seems like she was the guilty one here.

And people telling me to "let it go" probably have never been teachers. If you let one kid get away with something you don't like, everyone else starts doing it and then you lose group control and your classes become an actual living hell.

At the end she asked what my end goal was and I told her "the only thing I'm asking is the same thing I've been asking you for 3 months: arrive on time to my lesson".

The school forbade behavioral issues being punished with academic measures.

In my senior year of high school, I drove myself to school and I was consistently 5-10 minutes late to my first class every day. The teacher talked to me about it a few times, but he never gave me detention, or assigned me extra work. He eventually just accepted that I was going to be late and marked me tardy whenever he took roll. He never lost control of the classroom, and I was the only one that was always late.

You were just doing your job, but I bet that got really annoying for her. The solution was obviously for her to arrive on time, but since she didn't, she continually got punished. And if you were the only teacher enforcing being on time, she probably felt like you were singling her out and started to really hate you.

Fact is you did harass her, even if you felt it was justified, so saying falsely accused is misleading. This might be a 'imo' type of thing, but contacting parents should be reserved for slipping grades or disruptive behaviors. Assigning extra work is definitely overstepping though, leave the disciplinary actions to administration and keep your hands clean.