Hawthorne

As a Special Ed teacher I had a brief and strongly negative experience. I was treated as unwelcome from the sped dept from the first week, when the dept head publicly complained about my hire in front of all my peers at my first staff meeting.It didn't get better from there, I was targeted by that teacher almost daily. Slandered over and over. Gaslighted and gossiped about, especially to the principal. The teachers assistants also supported her in undermining me, when they were sent to assist me in my classroom, I was actively sabotaged. I was actually a highly skilled teacher and formed fast trusting relationships with my young students, but she forced me out as fast as possible.The culture I imagine she was trying to protect was one I observed her and her assistants verbally abusing the students. I witnessed her on multiple occasions tell special Ed students to "quit crying or she'd give them something to cry about!" Telling them to shut up and generally treating them more than not unkindly. She led by fear and intimidation, and the principal supported her and her catty department culture.One kindergarten student who was flourishing in my classroom, who spoke often and well, she was shocked to learn could actually speak, because under her watch he had been nonverbal, presumably gripped with anxiety.I was released citing trivial reasons, but those women had a cake to celebrate the day they got me fired. Do not send your kids to this special Ed department. Some of the other teachers are great but I found the overall culture to be unsafe.The school also removed reviews from Google soon after I left mine. I wish the principal would have sincerely supported me instead of going along with the bad behavior.