A Year in Maplewood

After the principal fired my child's teacher, the principal herself was fired.

Maybe not "fired." She is on administrative leave. A paraprofessional blew a whistle, with reference to a head teacher. The head teacher had allegedly mistreated a pre-verbal child. The child's parents then claimed that the teacher had dangled the child by his feet and administered a kind of "shaking/jiggling" punishment. (Who was the source for these details, if the child was pre-verbal?)

Not a good look--and so the principal disappeared. The fracas led to renewed interest in a 2018 event from the principal's career. Back in 2018, the principal worked with a student-teacher who had restricted growth ("dwarfism"). The principal took a photo of this student-teacher and sent it to a colleague, and the caption was "LOL." Lawsuits ensued--and a career seemed to be close to its end. But some parents lobbied for the principal: "She apologized, and, as a woman of color, she is being singled out for unjust and excessive attention. This, sadly, has historical precedent...."

My husband looks at me, carefully. "If you're going to write a satirical novel about Maplewood, could you at least wait until we move out of Maplewood?"

I clear my throat and change the subject. I'm not making any promises.

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