DC1346
Well-Known Member
I see dead people ... okay ... not like the character Cole Sear (played by Haley Joel Osment) in the 1999 production of The Sixth Sense, a supernatural thriller produced and directed by M. Night Shyamalan.
But I have seen dead people walking this Earth.
Years ago I worked as a Culinary Arts teacher at a small rural district in Arizona. The community I worked in was reasonably affluent and was heavily Mormon. Most of the teachers at my high school were Mormon. My immediate supervisor was also Mormon.
During my first year, I could do no wrong. My principal loved me and I was given a PERFECT evaluation. Sometime during the 2nd year, something went terribly wrong. I was still the same teacher I had been the previous year but all of the sudden, I couldn't do anything right.
The principal went from smiling at me in the hallways to pointedly ignoring me if she saw me. Even if I wished her a "good morning," she refused to acknowledge my presence.
One day she called me into her office to scream about the disgraceful lack of cleanliness and sanitation in my commercially licensed kitchen. I didn't know what she was talking about. The county health inspector had literally come to my kitchen the previous day and he had given us a PERFECT SCORE. How could the kitchen that had been so clean and immaculate one day suddenly be "disgracefully lacking?"
"A lot can happen in 24 hours!" grumbled the principal. She beckoned me to follow her and led the way to the Culinary Arts kitchen.
"LOOK AT THIS!" she barked pointing at a food prep table.
I looked but didn't see anything out of the ordinary.
"DO YOU SEE THIS?"
I looked again.
"WELL?"
"Well what?"
"WHAT DO YOU SEE?"
I looked again. I didn't know what she was talking about. "What do I see? I see a stainless steel prep table."
"ARE YOU BEING SMART WITH ME?"
"No ma'am."
"THAT TABLE IS A DISGRACE! IT'S FILTHY! IT'S COVERED WITH HARD WATER STAINS!"
I shrugged. "There's nothing I can do about that. Hard water stains are the result of mineral residue in the tap water. It has nothing to do with cleanliness or sanitation."
"ARE YOU STUPID?"
"No ma'am ... and I wish you'd stop yelling at me."
"I WILL STOP YELLING WHEN YOU STOP BEING ARGUMENTATIVE! YOUR KITCHEN IS A FILTHY DISGRACE! i WANT IT SCRUBBED FROM TOP TO BOTTOM. I WANT THOSE DISGUSTING HARD WATER STAINS REMOVED!"
i scratched my head. "How am I supposed to do that?"
"SERIOUSLY ARE YOU STUPID? DO YOU NOT HAVE STAINLESS STEEL POLISH! DO YOUR JOB AND USE STAINLESS STEEL POLISH!"
I blanched. "I can't do that! The state health code says that the chemical residue of stainless steel polish is toxic and I'm not allowed to ..."
"ARE YOU ARGUING WITH ME?"
"No ma'am, but I need to explain that!"
"THAT'S IT MISTER! I'M WRITING YOU UP FOR BEING UNPROFESSIONAL, ARGUMENTATIVE, AND INSUBORDINATE! NOW I'M GIVING YOU ONE LAST CHANCE! CLEAN THIS DISGRACEFUL KITCHEN! OR ELSE!"
I was quivering with anger when this woman left. After weeks of treating me with gross disrespect, she had yelled at me IN PUBLIC, had issued an illegal order, and when I challenged this order - stating that it was a violation of the state health code to leave toxic chemical residues on food prep surfaces, she had told me that I'd be receiving a written reprimand.
I went to my office, printed out the relevant health code, highlighted it in yellow, and made a beeline for the superintendent's office. The superintendent was a tiny woman by the name of Dr. Givens. Dr. Givens listened to my story, read the highlighted health code, and immediately called the principal.
"You may NOT tell chef to break the law," she said. "Using stainless steel polish on steel prep tables would be a major health code violation." She listened for a minute and then hung up the phone.
"There you go," she said with a smile. "Problem solved."
But the problem wasn't solved.
The next day, I was given my formal teacher's evaluation. I had failed every area of the evaluation. Whereas I had once had clearly outstanding scores for every measurable standard, the principal had accused me of gross incompetence, poor class management, insubordination, and an an inability to accept "constructive criticism". I was written up for having a filthy unsanitary and dirty kitchen. I was even written up for not using technology in my classroom .... never mind the fact that my school had provided laptops to every teacher on campus except for yours truly.
I was LIVID.
I went back to the superintendent at day's end with the evaluation. She looked at it and sighed. "Well ... I've seen worse. Ms. ____ is clearly getting back at you for having talked to me. I'm sorry for that ... but since today is the last day before the Christmas break, let's take care of this when the school year resumes in 2 weeks. Don't worry about this chef, I'll make it right."
The only problem was that Dr. Givens never had the chance to make it right. She died of a massive coronary on Christmas Eve and instead of celebrating Christmas, her family had to plan her funeral.
The district initiated emergency calls to all faculty and staff using a phone tree ... but my principal left me off the list ... so I missed the superintendent's memorial and funeral. It was a senseless and petty act ... but quite in character with this woman's vindictive behavior.
When the school year resumed I learned about the death of the superintendent. I also learned that she had been replaced with a man who was best buddies with ... you guessed it ... my principal.
My bad year got worse a whole lot more quickly.
I was put on an "improvement plan" but my principal wouldn't tell me how I was supposed to improve or how I was supposed to document this improvement. I wound up creating an improvement plan and submitting weekly emails to her regarding my progress. We never had a meeting to discuss my progress and she never did a follow up evaluation as required by district policy to confirm that I had addressed all areas of concern.
Although I was invited to return to the school district for another year, I couldn't bear the thought of working with this administrative bully ... so I resigned.
I was immediately replaced with a Mormon instructor from a neighboring district. As a final parting "gift" my former principal kept me unemployed for six months. Try as I might, I couldn't get another job ... and I couldn't understand why because I'm quite good at job interviews. A kind administrator finally took pity on me and told me that my former boss had been disparaging me during reference checks.
I immediately retained an attorney who slapped my former supervisor, the school board, and my district with a lawsuit for defamation and for retaliation under the state's whistle blower law. Since I had been replaced with a Mormon, the attorney wanted to add a discrimination charge but I talked her out of this because I didn't want to make religion part of this case.
As part of the lawsuit, my attorney hired a PI who called my former boss while pretending to be an HR director for a large school district. A court recorder transcribed the entire phone call.
As much as I disliked my former supervisor, I had a hard time reading the transcript. The woman had out and out LIED about me. She accused me of everything short of being a child molester. I was lazy. I was incompetent. I had held a meeting with a state official behind her back ... never mind that I had an email confirming permission to meet with the state's CTE director during school hours.
I was accused of having "abandoned my class to meet with a state official" never mind the fact that the principal had given me WRITTEN PERMISSION to meet with the state director in my office. The office had a large window that opened into the classroom, so I could see what the students were doing.
The really chilling part about this reference check was that my former boss laughed and asked the "HR director" not to let me know about their conversation. She didn't want word getting back to me that she had sabotaged yet another job interview.
So ... my attorney hit my former district with a lawsuit and because I really didn't have an interest in winning $250,000 or more in damages from the district, I secretly told the New superintendent that all I really wanted to do was to get a job without anymore sabotage efforts on the part of my former principal.
The next thing I knew, I had a job in Tucson. I dropped the lawsuit and moved.
Now here's the ghost story.
On my first day of work, I was headed back to my classroom from the administrative office. I looked down the walkway and saw a woman who looked just like Dr. Givens standing outside my classroom door. Not only did she look like Dr. Givens but she was also wearing the same red coat that I had seen her wear in my last school district.
The woman did not look like a ghost. She was completely corporeal. She smiled at me, turned to my classroom, opened the door, and went inside.
I hurried after her ... and found an empty and darkened classroom. I turned on the lights. There was no one there. Could she be in the kitchen? The classroom connected to the kitchen, so I crossed the room, opened the kitchen door, turned on the lights ... and there was no one there.
There was only one way in or out of the classroom ... and that was from the door that I had entered ... and the only way in or out of the kitchen was through the doorway I was standing in.
Far from being scared, I felt a sense of calm. I felt a warm reassuring presence. I felt warmth and love and a sense of peace.
This happened just after school in broad daylight. I was not on medication and I was not asleep at my desk.
The only explanation I have is that the ghost of Dr. Givens had come to check up on me to and to reassure me that everything would be alright.
That was my most vivid ghostly experience. I will share others if there is any interest.
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I'm really glad you did, too, because you deserved it after that painful experience.
