#71 - Mold, Mice, & Retaliation in Boise School District - Fighting For The Kids Pt.2 w/Michelle Chung

When culinary arts teacher Michelle Chung first reported mice in her classroom, she never imagined it would lead to a parasite infection, major surgery, and a battle against a school district determined to silence her at all costs. In this powerful follow-up episode, Michelle reveals shocking new developments in her fight for classroom safety and accountability.

The situation has escalated dramatically since her first appearance. After paying her own money for a professional inspection that confirmed hazardous conditions, Michelle discovered the district had covered her classroom in bleach to hide evidence of mouse urine and droppings, creating a toxic environment that even hazmat-suited inspectors couldn't safely remain in. Rather than addressing the dangers, administrators emptied her classroom while she was on medical leave, removed her nameplate, and incredibly, threatened students with detention for mentioning her name.

This isn't just about one classroom, it's a window into systemic failures that prioritize institutional reputation over health and safety. As Michelle fights not just for her career but for student wellbeing, her story raises urgent questions about accountability in our educational system and what happens when dedicated teachers stand alone against administrative corruption.

If you missed Part 1 of the story, you can download and listen here! For KTVB7 News coverage on the case click here!

Disclaimer: Always do your due diligence as a parent and/or faculty.

Chapters

• 0:00 Mouse Infestation and Health Aftermath
• 9:29 The District's Ongoing Cover-up Attempts
• 24:54 Teachers' Fear to Speak Against Administration
• 38:45 Suspended for Checking Classroom Safety
• 1:04:49 Threat of Termination and Legal Battle
• 1:20:26 Student Support and Witness Testimonies
• 1:34:13 Educational System Failings and Solutions
• 1:56:41 Compassionate Teaching vs Administration Failings
• 2:04:56 Supporting Troubled Students in Public Schools

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Your story is the definition of wild chaos.

Speaker 2: 0:02

The keyboard, the desk, the bowls, their aprons were infested with mouse urine and droppings and dead carcasses in the classroom. And then I got bit. And then I was diagnosed in July a parasite. My three versions of it telling me they were going to fix the problem. They never did. They won't even tell the news the truth and they lie about their lies. Let's just fix it. If you say her name again, you're getting detention. The harassment from the district just continued and he said Boise School District, you have messed with the wrong teacher. I will not stop. All right, Are you ready? I'm ready, let's talk about that, Gosh.

Speaker 1: 0:56

I am Okay, back by popular demand. Ms Chung, welcome back to the Wild Chaos Podcast and thanks for everybody for tuning in again for this week. This is a update on episode 60. So, as we break down this episode, you were previously on episode 60. Yep, and it was a very impactful episode that ended up going viral.

Speaker 2: 1:21

Yeah, it was weird.

Speaker 1: 1:22

Fortunately, I mean, I would like to say for the right reasons, because you're a teacher, a mom mom yeah, you, you do identities yes, which every mother has, I'm sure, multiple identities. But you have this classroom that pretty much got infested by mice. It became a huge problem with your school, yes, that everybody was ignoring it. The principal was just blatantly disregarding it. You end up catching Lyme's disease, which ended up leading into a couple of secondary diseases which led to your ovary. You have a hysterectomy, which we know.

Speaker 1: 2:07

That is a very invasive surgery for a woman, a mother yeah which is a horrible thing, and then, once this whole story was brought up, the school completely is just sweeping under the rug. So now these children are being introduced to in the classroom.

Speaker 2: 2:26

I mean so since we met um. So when did we do our episode?

Speaker 1: 2:31

episode 60 so like had I done the inspection yet in the building yes, you just got word on it, so you just gotten the word back on the inspection from a private I hadn't gotten the report, so the report so I guess let's's just start. Let's just give me everybody listening. That's brand new. So, like I said, everybody can go back to episode 60 if they want the full in-depth, but give us the elevator pitch of what we covered last time. Okay.

Speaker 2: 2:56

So essentially, seven years infestation, reporting to the principal like I was asked to Only help I'd get is traps. I thought she was doing the right thing with exterminators and I just trusted her and foolished me. Like really, the jokes on me, yeah, um. And then 2023, january, uh, major infestation in my curriculum classroom and the cooking or curriculum closet and my cooking room. So then that's when I went to the district and I went above my principal's head and had somebody come in and you know like hey, I need help. They said to me and I quote, we can't fix what we don't know. So that told me the district had no clue that our building was a problem. Okay, then you know they were bringing the exterminators in. So I again fool me once, fool me twice thought they were doing everything they possibly could to fix it.

Speaker 2: 3:53

March of 2024, I had a guy come in and recalibrate the ovens and when he unscrewed them and lifted all five, they were infested with mouse urine and droppings and dead carcasses. So at that point they shut my room down, they shut my lecture room down, they made me move all my stuff for fourth quarter upstairs, telling me they were going to fix the problem. And they never did and I paid attention. I'd come in on the weekends. I would check after school see if things had been moved yet, see if they were doing what they said they were going to do, and use my lecture room to stage all the crap from the kitchen room and nothing was happening. And come summertime I would go in and continue to check my ovens because I would get emails being told oh, we fixed it. I'm like, okay, I'm going to go check it.

Speaker 1: 4:44

And that's my right. Nothing would change. Nothing would change.

Speaker 2: 4:46

Okay. So we went through that all summer long last year and then I was diagnosed in July and found out I had to start treatment in August.

Speaker 1: 4:54

Diagnosed with what?

Speaker 2: 4:55

Babesiosis. It's a parasite. I had three versions of it, so like a IgG version which is considered oh, you've had this for a long time. Your body built an immunity to it, so now I've got that. Then I had the IgA version, which is active. So they're like, okay, well, you've come in contact with it, it's present as well. And then I had anaplasmosis, which I believe is like the red blood cell version of it.

Speaker 1: 5:21

Okay, and how did you contract all of these?

Speaker 2: 5:26

version of it. Okay, so, and how did you contract all of these? So my doctors are telling me that there's a tick larva that hosts on the deer mice in my room. Okay, and then I got bit and I and I have pictures and videos of bites on my body that I had sent my husband sitting at my desk, unclear, like what is this? I didn't know. I just you know, we communicate all day. So I'm like what the hell is this? You know and didn't know at the time. But that's what it was. So gave it to my doctors, gave them all the information, told them about the classroom, the tests, I mean everything comes together and makes sense, like everything.

Speaker 2: 5:59

There's other doctors involved, one in Pennsylvania. We got people involved from U of I and their agricultural department. Who's helping me with the whole Western black legged tick? Because there's this. Oh, we do have it. We don't have it, we do have it. So we got a tick expert to kind of help, because I I do want to make sure that I'm telling the truth and that this is the truth, because if it is the truth, then there's kids that are gonna present this way too.

Speaker 1: 6:24

There's other teachers that are presenting, like me and this is the wildest part of this whole entire story to me that this is there is a student that has been diagnosed with lyme disease.

Speaker 2: 6:34

That was in my classroom okay so whether or not they've gone to the district, I don't know. Everything's HIPAA violation right, so I have to be careful. So I go on, leave, and then the harassment from the district just continued. There's no harassment that you don't know about. That I've discovered.

Speaker 1: 6:57

There's new harassment.

Speaker 2: 6:59

Yeah, since I've seen you and so at that, and honestly it's, it's gotten to a point where it it's, let's just fix it. We had this conversation, it's you. Just, they just keep emailing me lies and then they lie about their lies and then they won't even tell the news the truth. They're not telling the Idaho statesman the truth. And I'm sitting here and I've talked to other principals within our district that have said this is so simple, Like it's so simple. Why? Why the cover up? Why?

Speaker 1: 7:33

Do you feel that you're a little bit crazy at this point? I just I ask this out of respect because everything that you're saying and everything that's happened, but the fact that it's so blatant and it it's the, the proof is there, but nothing is changing to help the health of these, the, the health side or the, the living conditions that these children, these students, are in. I mean, I I feel like I would be going crazy right now I wouldn't say crazy, I just feel discounted okay I just feel like like we have.

Speaker 2: 8:03

We have educators that are being protected, who are pedophiles. We have people in our district who work in our district who literally have a record of masturbating in the Costco parking lot. Wait a minute, they are a part of our district. To this moment, how, how? To this moment, how?

Speaker 1: 8:24

So you're telling me Boise School District is allowing registered pedophiles?

Speaker 2: 8:31

Whether they're registered or not. I have no idea. There are records of them, ada County records on these individuals.

Speaker 1: 8:39

They're involved in the Boise School District. They're employed by the Boise School District.

Speaker 2: 8:43

Yes, and I've seen the list.

Speaker 1: 8:47

What do you mean? List of people.

Speaker 2: 8:49

There is a. You should have this woman on your podcast. There's a woman, laura Bolton Okay, she was also. She sued the school district. She settled. She was treated very unfairly. She had harassment against her, she had lots of stuff. I don't really want to speak for her, but she settled with the school district. It's all over the news and she started an advocacy group to help kids who need help reporting sexual abuse and or harassment within the school district. What so? She started this advocacy to help these kids because the way the reporting mechanisms are happening within our school district are part of the problem. And so I sit here and I look at what's in our district and I look at some of the educators, like the most recent who killed himself a few minutes before he was getting arrested for creating child pornography.

Speaker 1: 9:47

It was here local.

Speaker 2: 9:49

Oh yes, he created child pornography with three-year-old nonverbal autistic children, and he did it on his school computer, and so I sit here and.

Speaker 2: 10:02

I sit here and I know I'm a good teacher and I care about my students, I care about the staff and I'm trying to do the right thing. And I'm not a pedophile, I'm not doing any of those things. And yet I can't even get the school district to come in and protect me in any way, shape or form. But I see what they are doing for the other side of that stuff and that actually infuriates me more than making me feel crazy.

Speaker 2: 10:34

I just sit here and go. We have some, and I said this in the last time I was here. We have the best teachers. We have some really great administrators. My administrator, no, I will not give her any clout ever again, absolutely not, and I did for a long time.

Speaker 1: 10:51

Okay.

Speaker 2: 10:52

But we have a ton of amazing administrators in this district.

Speaker 1: 10:57

Here's my problem with that statement. Yeah, since the last show, because you talked about it then. How incredible these teachers are. Here's my problem with that statement. Why aren't these teachers all standing up for the children?

Speaker 2: 11:10

So that's a good question. I reached out to a good friend of mine from work we have. We've communicated throughout the whole year. A couple of teachers and I still communicate. We were supposed to meet and get together. The second I went on this podcast and the second I gave myself a voice because I stayed quiet for the last year and a half. I chose to respect my district, thinking they're going to do the right thing. Every time I would consider coming on a show or doing the news, I'm like, no, they're going to do the right thing, I don't want to do this. And the second I came on here and I went to the news. Those colleagues have now said we're not comfortable seeing you and I sit here and go. You guys know these particular colleagues cannot stomach this principal. We have we, these colleagues get. We have meetings Like we will have. We will have meetings because we're working on something and our principal won't be in it and there's nothing but crap talking her.

Speaker 1: 12:07

They can't stand her For sure.

Speaker 2: 12:09

Nobody wants her at the school anymore. People talk about it all the time. The end of the school year comes, everyone's like please, please, please, please, please. The new, like administrative replacements come out. We all are like is she leaving? Is she leaving? Is she leaving? No, nope, Is she leaving? Is?

Speaker 1: 12:22

she leaving? No, nope, but that goes back to my question. If these teachers are such incredible teachers and you're putting these teachers on the same level as you, why are you the only one standing up? You're giving them credit.

Speaker 2: 12:33

Because look what they're doing to me. They're trying to fire me.

Speaker 1: 12:37

But it comes down to the safety of these kids. I know.

Speaker 2: 12:40

Well, there was one teacher and actually let me, I don't even want to jump to that yet, but they're afraid. That's, that's that is my, that is my opinion is that they are afraid.

Speaker 1: 12:50

Isn't this like unions? So they didn't. They have reps they can go to in the union, supposed to protect them.

Speaker 2: 12:54

I went to the union.

Speaker 1: 12:55

Nothing.

Speaker 2: 12:56

They well, they attempted to help me in the very beginning, in January of 2023. Okay, of 2023 when I finally kind of opened this whole thing up. But once I decided to get legal assistance, or even inquired about it, the union rep, I had said if you get legal assistance outside of the union, we can no longer speak to you. And I thought, well, you guys are all in bed together. I'm not going to take a lawyer from the union. I don't trust this.

Speaker 2: 13:24

No way you guys keep telling me everything's okay and it's not. So no, I I. So at that point I realized like, oh, I don't have the union support, I don't. I don't have, I don't have that, so why am I paying for it? So I just canceled paying for it and was like, okay, I'll keep with my legal help and call it good. That's what I did. So you know, since I've been here, um and gone on the news, it's gotten a lot of positive. I haven't had a lot of negative feedback from anybody but one individual who, ironically, started running his mouth on the channel seven news. He's a teacher at my school. He decided he well, he retired. So now that he retired he's got a voice now.

Speaker 2: 14:13

Now he's like oh, now I can. Right, Now I can.

Speaker 1: 14:16

It's like the kid that gets down the street and they run in their house and you can't catch them.

Speaker 2: 14:19

That's okay, and so he went on the comments and basically was calling me a liar, saying there's no problem saying that I'm exaggerating. Do you have?

Speaker 1: 14:30

proof of all of this Correct. I have the photos, I have everything.

Speaker 2: 14:33

Correct. Okay 100%, and so I can see this, I can see it all, and I have a lot of friends and I have people I don't even know who they are that were fighting for me against his voice. And one friend said hey, have you seen the inspection? Like you have no idea what you are talking about, have you seen the inspection?

Speaker 1: 14:55

Yeah, april 25th. You paid for, I paid for $5,000.

Speaker 2: 14:58

I paid out of pocket for this inspector to come from a very reputable company, pocket for this inspector to come from a very reputable company multiple PhDs.

Speaker 1: 15:06

And what were his conclusions?

Speaker 2: 15:15

So okay. So here's. He came in and here's the scariest part and this is part of what I'm suspended for which blows my mind. He came into my room and because he was in head to toe hazmat and a gas mask, because he's like this is toxic, I'm not exposing myself he said that the school district had covered my room in so much bleach to hide the urination and the issues that his mask continued to shut, and so he, his mask wouldn't let him breathe.

Speaker 1: 15:41

For certain chemicals.

Speaker 2: 15:42

People listening there, certain respirators will shut off for certain poisons, chemicals, gases urine, like it was kind of like covid okay, we couldn't mix certain things, the cleaners they wanted us to use. We couldn't mix with our original because it created this gas. So when he went in there, mouse urine and bleach together create a toxic wonderful situation right already.

Speaker 2: 16:05

The mouse urine is toxic, bleach is toxic. You put them together. So he he had to keep going outside into the hallway. He said the district official from the custodial staff could not stay in my room. The bleach was so strong he had to leave. He couldn't. This came from the school not you.

Speaker 1: 16:24

you didn room. The bleach was so strong he had to leave. He couldn't. This came from the school, not you. You didn't clean with bleach.

Speaker 2: 16:27

No, I would never clean with bleach, so sure Like to be like safe, serve, serve, safe to have all those certifications. You're supposed to have the red bucket, like you see at a restaurant, and it's got like a cap full of bleach or whatever. That's great. I never did that because it ruined the kids' clothes. They couldn't, it's just.

Speaker 1: 16:44

Bleach is horrible.

Speaker 2: 16:44

And it's horrible, yeah, and I'm like there's other stuff we can use. So that was my choice as a teacher. It's not like we're a restaurant, right? Yeah, so I never used bleach in my room.

Speaker 2: 16:55

When he realized he couldn't continue his inspection, all he could get was the red or the blue light, black light, I think it's a black light he used, yeah, and he couldn't get a hole in the wall to even put his stethoscope in there to look at all the dead carcass because his mask wouldn't allow him to stay in the room long enough. So the district tampered with evidence in my classroom and they have suspended me saying I have tampered with.

Speaker 1: 17:27

How did you tamper with evidence? Or how did you tamper what are they? What did you tamper with?

Speaker 2: 17:31

So I first let me just say I've been on medical leave up until the end of, like third, third week of May.

Speaker 1: 17:39

Okay.

Speaker 2: 17:39

So, basically, my doctor released me the last day of school because there's no sense in being on medical leave when we're not teaching. Yeah, doctor released me the last day of school because there's no sense in being on medical leave when we're not teaching and because the district forced me to sign a fake contract that violated my federal leave act. The contract they forced me to sign said that I could not enter the building while on medical leave, which is not legal. I'm still the teacher of record right, but I signed it because they asked me to and I was trying to do everything the way they asked me to. So once I was released from medical leave, I got access to my building, which I needed.

Speaker 2: 18:10

I needed to get in there. I have all my stuff in there. I go into my classroom, my lecture room, and I'm looking through the glass of my door trying to unlock it, and it's empty.

Speaker 1: 18:22

The whole classroom.

Speaker 2: 18:23

The whole, whole classroom the only thing in there was like a, a librarian desk like that belonged to the school. Um, it had, uh, my chair, the that was one of my belongings that was left. But all of my stuff, like my own personal desk, armoire, hutch, my, my own children, like their pictures, my lamps, lamps, all my curriculum, anything that was mine. My husband built me a huge six foot cutting table for fabric gone, everything gone. And I was like that's weird. Did they move my classroom? And so I'm looking all over and I can feel myself Like not only did they remove my nameplate, so when I got to my door, my nameplate was gone. They shut down my mailbox and threw away all my mail and so I just felt like okay, they erased me in there. You know, they got my nameplate gone.

Speaker 2: 19:12

Okay, I go in my room Now all my stuff is gone and I'm like where could they have put this? And I go into a closet that I have in that room. That's pretty big. They just threw all my stuff in there, all the furniture, like flipped it on top of each other, dumped, like they almost like took stuff, put it in a big basket and just dumped it on the floor. And I walked in and I just started to cry because I was like I cannot take any more. Like why I'm still the teacher of record, why would you pack up my entire classroom? So I emailed the substitute. She wrote me back immediately and said oh, janet Cherry packed your shit up.

Speaker 1: 19:50

Who's?

Speaker 2: 19:50

that. That's the principal. She supported us packing your shit up at Christmas Christmas. I was planning to come back in January and the only reason I didn't come back in January was because they wouldn't allow the inspector in there at Christmas break and my doctor said you're not going back into that classroom till you show me an inspection of that room and that it's safe for you because you've been sick and they wouldn't let me in so I couldn't come back to work. So I see all my stuff packed up and honestly, I've been pretty strong throughout this whole thing. I just kind of fell to my knees and cried.

Speaker 1: 20:28

Okay, yeah.

Speaker 2: 20:30

Like so upset.

Speaker 1: 20:32

Nothing's happening after all this time, and now you feel they're deleting you Correct, they're just swiping the slate clean and they're going to get a fresh, and then they're going to hope that you just kind of go away.

Speaker 2: 20:42

Well, it makes sense because I would be at the grocery store I live close to the school and I'd be at Fred Meyer and students would come running at me and they'd be like, are you fired? I'm like, why would you ask me that Like a Christmas break?

Speaker 1: 20:54

That's weird.

Speaker 2: 20:55

Right, I'm like why are you asking me? I had no idea why they were asking me and I said, no, little did you know? Teacher of record, I'm just on medical leave, I'm coming back. Well, they thought I was fired because they removed all my stuff and the substitute told me we did it to keep the children out of your drama. Those were her exact words. It was a decision we made with the administration to keep the kids out of your drama and that the kids told me. Anytime we ask about you or we say, well, mrs Chung wouldn't do it that way they would tell them. If you say her name again, you're getting detention. And I was like kids were emailing me. Kids were stopping me at Fred Meyer. I had students stop by my house with their parents talking to me about this, asking me what is going on, when are you coming back? This is what they're saying. And I was like you're going to get detention if you mention my name.

Speaker 1: 21:53

So if a student mentions the name of the teacher, you, that is standing up for them because of the unsafe living conditions and environments that these kids are subjected to, every day they get detention. Yes, they will get sent to to. Every day they get detention.

Speaker 2: 22:05

Yes, they will get sent to the office and they will get detention.

Speaker 1: 22:08

I don't know how many times I'd said this on the last episode, but like none of this makes sense, this whole story, like trying to explain this to people.

Speaker 2: 22:17

I can't even you know the only thing that comes to my mind, and I've never personally said this out loud, but my husband will say it, my friends will say it. Um, colleagues from other schools that I still talk to have said it and they're like your principal is so jealous of you.

Speaker 1: 22:36

The second you walked out of here. The second you walked out of here, her and I sat up here. We're like this is crazy. She goes, her principal's jealous of her, her principal's jealous and. I was like like that's the only thing that makes sense, it's all, it's all that makes sense out of this whole entire now two-part series with you. The only thing that makes sense is your principal has a personal vendetta vendetta against you and is jealous of something. Because you used to you were neighbors. I don't know if you still are neighbors.

Speaker 2: 23:04

You guys were cool my husband almost hit her with his car on accident the other day and I was like dear god on accident like seriously he goes. It was dark. I was leaving for the gym. I've never seen her there. Before I back up and there's this woman. I would have hammered and I was like oh god, thank god, I'm like quincy, he's like, honestly, he's like that would have been the greatest feeling in the world.

Speaker 1: 23:22

Just a couple of thuds and you see it's her. Sorry, but it's the only thing that makes sense out of this whole thing, is that she's jealous.

Speaker 2: 23:31

I don't know why. I've never. I mean, there was only one time I had some colleagues come up to me the beginning of so this last year I wasn't there, so it was the year before year I wasn't there, so it was the year before they came up to me during our first like beginning of the year meetings and they said did you hear how Janet just threw you under the bus? And I said no, because I don't. I don't fixate on like comments people are making in public either, cause I'm like she's not going to do that. But she made some derogatory comment about how foolish and stupid it is to be somebody who likes to cook and somebody who cooks in a kitchen and that she hates cooking and that it's waste of her time and that if anyone wants to cook for her, that's fine. But and so everybody heard that as a direct like at me, because I love to I teach culinary right. So they're like did you hear that?

Speaker 1: 24:22

An amazing skill.

Speaker 2: 24:24

I didn't see it. I didn't see it. I didn't see it as a negative, but everybody else did. Everybody else saw it like what is her problem with you? And I'm like I don't know I didn't pick up on it.

Speaker 1: 24:37

Did she come off as like feminist? I have no idea. Is she like these boss babe that I need to need to? I mean, I know she's older, but I don't understand why she would look at you. You represent a woman, a feminine woman. You, your kids love you. You're teaching baking. You have skills that you're teaching these kids, the only thing I can think of is the opposite.

Speaker 2: 24:59

No, I I think I said this in the last one I actually really liked her. I really liked her when I started working there. I was like dude, you are awesome, you don't micromanage us, you don't like to communicate. The one thing I wish she did more was like pop into our classrooms more, because at North Junior High, jeff Roberts was my principal and even though his wife is our superintendent and making my life a living hell, I still somehow look up to that man.

Speaker 1: 25:26

Wait, say that again.

Speaker 2: 25:27

So my principal at North Junior High was Jeff Roberts.

Speaker 1: 25:30

Okay.

Speaker 2: 25:30

His wife is now our superintendent.

Speaker 1: 25:32

Oh, okay.

Speaker 2: 25:34

She has the ability to kibosh all of this and say you guys, we need to fix this.

Speaker 1: 25:38

And she won't, she hasn't.

Speaker 2: 25:41

But even though that because I don't know, I don't know the ladder, like I don't, I don't know where I assume as the big chief she could right she could say something. He was the best principal I've ever had and he would come in my classroom and he would visit my kids and he'd visit with me and he would sit and like so with them and he just was great. I never got that from her and I wish I did. I would do contests like cupcake wars and I'd want I'd have staff come in to vote and she'd never come in occasionally but it just I'd invite her in for our Thanksgiving day feast where I put all the tables together and the kids write what they're thankful on and they've on the tablecloth and they've made all these pies and we just embrace like being thankful for our lives and stuff. And I would ask her to come and she'd never come in.

Speaker 1: 26:32

It's crazy.

Speaker 2: 26:34

And so that's the one thing about her. I, just at the time before all of this, that was the only thing that I was like God, I wish she'd be more present in the halls, I wish she'd be more in our classrooms to just visit, not to do our evals, just pop in, you know, and be engaged in that side of it. And it wasn't until all this stuff happened where I realized she wasn't taking it to the district to help me, that then I was like what the heck? And so I don't know. I don't know what her problem is with me. I've never had an encounter, a run-in with her. I've never. I've never reported her to the school district. I've never complained. I mean sure, all staff members complain about their boss, right? Everybody kind of nitpicks and says that or whatever.

Speaker 1: 27:19

If you're doing your job now, yeah, yeah, doing it being a good person, yeah, but yeah, um but it just every once I went to HR.

Speaker 2: 27:27

that's when she would come after me, and so she packed up my classroom.

Speaker 1: 27:31

In Christmas.

Speaker 2: 27:31

At Christmas time, um, and at the at the time. So I have two rooms. So I come into the building. I go into my kitchen room first. Let me re like preface this. I go in there and there is food everywhere. Okay, it's summertime. So the big problem was Michelle, you're the reason, the mice are here, I'm the cause. That's how they responded to the lawsuit. I caused the mouse infestation. Okay, all food needs to be in mouse protected containers. And they would only direct that at me. Okay, fine, well, I hope you're telling a substitute the same thing.

Speaker 2: 28:06

I show up last week of May. I go into my room and there's chocolate chips loose all in the cabinets. There's chocolate chip cookies in the drawer the sub didn't clean anything. There's boxes of Chex Mix, like rice cereal is a mouse's heaven. There's boxes open on the tops of all the cabinets. So I'm taking these pictures and I'm like, okay, and the sub had put like taped up all this crap on my cabinets. Well, I'm coming back right. So I'm cleaning up my room, I'm taking off all these things off the cabinets and I'm going in a circular motion. I get to the door and there's a few pieces of paper kind of taped to the door. You know, like when you go into a restaurant bathroom and you see they've signed off like okay, they've cleaned the bathroom. So because I found all this food and because I found mouse droppings, on this day I see this on my door that they're signing my room off as good to go.

Speaker 2: 28:59

And I'm like the district, somebody I don't know. There was like a section for a principal, a section for custodial staff, and I just stared at that like bullshit. You signed off this classroom the last week of school with all this food and you guys are telling the parents that you're protecting the room and keeping it clean Bullshit, bullshit. So I took the paper off the door and then I walked over to my other room and I was going to untape the pages, or like three or four, and lay them out and get like an aerial picture of this to give to my attorney. It's in my classroom. There's no reason I can't take a picture of it. Correct? See, all my stuff is gone. I start panicking. I opened the door. I see they've just thrown all my shit into the closet with zero remorse, like I don't exist, fell to the ground, started crying.

Speaker 2: 29:52

My son called me and he can tell I was upset and he's like mom, what's wrong? And I just burst into tears. And I was like they're. And I used his phrases I'm like they're low key, trying to erase me. And he's like mom, are you okay?

Speaker 2: 30:07

And I used his phrases I'm like they're low-key, trying to erase me. And he's like mom, are you okay, and I'm just sobbing on the phone to my 17-year-old which I couldn't control myself and he's like I'm calling dad. And I was like no, no, no, it's fine, it's fine. He's like no, I'm calling dad, like you can't even breathe. Called Quincy. He calls me and he's like get the fuck out of there. This is not healthy for you. You know that they're monsters. You know what they're trying to do. Get your shit and get out. So I had keys, sunglasses, my badge, my car keys, my phone and the papers that I had just taken from the other room to take a picture of all in my hand, and I am frantically going through my closet trying to find one thing that's missing, and it was my son's seventh grade sewing project that I use as an example.

Speaker 1: 30:52

And it just means something to me. It's gone.

Speaker 2: 30:55

It's gone. I can't find it. So I'm I'm kind of a mess and I just kind of just lost it at that point. So I gathered all the stuff and I walked out of the building, I got in my car and I threw everything on the seat. Well, they suspended me, saying I stole papers off my door. So I go home and Quincy and I later on we get in the car and he's like what is this?

Speaker 2: 31:23

And I'm like oh, I'm like I got to go put it back in my classroom. I totally didn't even realize I had it in my hands. He's like what is it? And I said it's like logs that they sign saying my room was clean, and I really wanted to give a copy of it to my attorney, because there's food everywhere in it that's not clean, so it's wrong. And everywhere in it that's not clean, so it's wrong. And he's like Michelle, you shouldn't have taken that. I'm like I didn't, my hands and my brain weren't working together. So he's like well, tomorrow let's go down to your room, let's check the ovens and we'll put that back. I'm like okay, so we go down the next day. Well, we took the truck and the papers were on my front seat of my car. We got halfway there and I said, shit, I left the logs. And he's like well, just bring them back tomorrow, it's not a big deal. So we go in. Well, they look at security cameras every time. They see that I've logged in and saw Quincy carrying a toolbox like a small toolbox and I ended up getting suspended.

Speaker 2: 32:22

Well, first they transferred me to Capitol High. So the first time I walked into the building where I found my room demolished. I get a memo and they said because you don't feel safe in your classroom and it's against district policy for you to not feel safe, you're being transferred to Capitol High. Oh, and we need your building. We need your lecture room for special ed. So you can't have that room anymore. So we're transferring.

Speaker 2: 32:43

Transferred to Capitol High. Oh, and we need your building. We need your lecture room for special ed. So you can't have that room anymore. So we're transferring you to Capitol High. So the room's not safe. The inspection shows it's not safe. It's not just that I don't feel safe, it's physically not safe. You have a copy of this 153 page inspection. So you're transferring me to Capitol and you're going to put a new teacher in that unsafe environment. Mind you, the kids are in there right now for summer school, so they're in it and there's students right now in summer school in your classroom, I think summer school ended like a week and a half ago or something.

Speaker 1: 33:19

Okay.

Speaker 2: 33:19

They were in it the whole.

Speaker 1: 33:22

Still in these horrible conditions.

Speaker 2: 33:23

Covered in urine were in it, the whole Still in these horrible conditions. Covered in urine, mouse urine, fecal matter, all of it. So I respond to the area director who sends me this memo telling me I've been transferred to Capitol to teach high school FCS now and I said I don't, it's not just me that doesn't feel safe. The room is actually not safe. You should review the inspection that's been sent to you guys. It's 153 pages long and I was about to go to Channel 6 News so I said thank you so much for giving me more harassment to add to my case and to report to the news. So then they learned I was going to the news. Then Quincy and I go the next day and they see us walk in with a tool chest, toolbox, whatever. The next day I get a letter telling me I've now been suspended for stealing and tampering with school property. And so my attorney's like it's just more harassment, michelle, it's just more harassment.

Speaker 1: 34:24

I don't get any of this.

Speaker 2: 34:26

Well, here's the funny thing, and this is what. So I had to do an investigation interview a couple of weeks ago with HR and Dan Skinner, their attorney, the school's attorney?

Speaker 2: 34:35

Yeah, the one who represents the school district and as he's asking me these questions, like what were you guys doing in your classroom, you and your husband? I said checking the ovens, like I always have. I'm like you guys taught me to do that. The guy who came in my room from All Valley Repairs showed me how to unscrew the oven so I can check it for the safety of my students, just like any other teacher in a regular classroom. If they felt like there was mice in there, they'd pull a bookshelf off the wall and they would look behind it. So I came in with Quincy one oven. We unscrewed one oven, lifted it up and realized that the cheap ovens they put in there to replace the other ones, they don't even have insulation right on the top. It's like all metal.

Speaker 2: 35:21

The insulation is really deep under so I couldn't even get to it. So once we realized that, we were like, okay, well, we can't even see if they're getting into the insulation anyways, so we'll just close them up and be on our way, and we left. Now I've done that seven other times.

Speaker 2: 35:39

I have sent the school district seven other dates from April of 2024, June, July, August, September, October, November no, it was twice in October. So there's seven dates that I have taken pictures and sent to the school district saying hey, I went and checked my ovens. They are not fixed, they are still soaked in mouse urine, no problems before.

Speaker 2: 36:05

Never got suspended Okay, never. So during my investigation interview, I asked Jason Hutchison, who was head of HR. I said hey, is this a public like? Is the board the people who make this decision? Are they going to see this video? And he said yes and I said great, I want to put something on record. Help me understand how seven other times I have gone down to the school, whether it's a Sunday or a Tuesday or whatever it is. I have unscrewed all five ovens before and I have taken pictures of all five ovens and I have sent them to you and that attorney. And I have never been suspended before. Tell me why I'm getting suspended now.

Speaker 1: 36:42

What was his answer?

Speaker 2: 36:47

He just looked at me like this Well, the board will review. And I said, okay. I said as far as the logs go, he said well, where are they? I said my attorney has them now. You locked me out of the building the next day. I couldn't return them and I said help me understand how I'm getting suspended for taking something that was inside my classroom home with me, which I didn't do it consciously. But tell me how that's any different than every single May that I've been a teacher in this building where I have taken home buckets of fabric and I have sat all summer long cutting hundreds of 12 by 12 squares for my students' projects and then I bring it back. Or how about all the pads of paper and the pens and the rulers and the calculators that?

Speaker 1: 37:38

all the teachers have in their bags right now.

Speaker 2: 37:40

That is school property that has now come home with us.

Speaker 1: 37:42

Go to any teacher's car in the parking lot and look what school supplies they have in it.

Speaker 2: 37:46

Yeah, do you know how many times I've taken home like a leftover pie from my classroom and I take it home and I'll see if my family wants it, so I don't throw it away and then I bring the pie pan back. So I was suspended for stealing a piece of paper and checking my ovens for the safety of my students. That I've done seven other times.

Speaker 1: 38:10

Interesting.

Speaker 2: 38:11

Yeah, so I just got a phone call today.

Speaker 1: 38:15

Perfect timing.

Speaker 2: 38:16

Perfect timing that they plan to terminate me.

Speaker 1: 38:21

Really You're going to get fired over this whole deal, so they're going to terminate you. Really you're gonna get fired over this whole deal, so they're gonna terminate you. Just let me get this straight. You bring up a mouse infestation in your classroom that affected you by getting you deathly sick, other kids potentially sick. You bring all this to light and now you're getting terminated because so.

Speaker 2: 38:42

so this is what they told my attorney this morning is we have grounds we're going to terminate her. Well, in order to terminate me, you have to take it to the board. The board then has to have an open hearing, a public hearing.

Speaker 1: 38:55

Oh, I'm going to this.

Speaker 2: 38:56

I have had. I had a student just last week put a Instagram message out. I didn't know he was doing it. He tagged me and he said Boise School District. You have messed with the wrong teacher. If you continue to do this, what you're going to experience from her students will not come over well, good for that kid. Stop accusing her of things she's never done.

Speaker 1: 39:20

But that just speaks everything of you right there, who you are as a teacher. That I don't know, speaking for teachers, but I feel most teachers probably aren't like these days. Just because of the generation these kids have no respect. But that just shows who your character is. For me at least, I don't know you from adam, except for our kids went to school for a little bit. We have, we have we have mutual friends that speak very highly of you. So I, we're not, we're not friends like right. This is, let's say that in a negative way, but from everything that you've spoken and the people that have reached out, like we had kids reaching out to us. We had parents reaching out to us. She was my the greatest teacher ever. Like you have so many people speaking so highly about you and it just goes to show this kid's willing to do that I would never would have stood up for you. My teacher is like I couldn't give a shit about them.

Speaker 2: 40:07

He was, he was floored, he's just, he's like I don't get it, I don't. He's like I've had I got uh, I would say six or seven letters from seniors from Bora and they all said very similar things that I wouldn't have made it through high school if you weren't my teacher in junior high and I know I'm a good teacher, I'm a good person. I just wanted a clean classroom, like that's it. I feel like it's such. It's the easiest ask. They don't want to. It's the easiest ask.

Speaker 2: 40:40

Well, oh, oh, god, I can't believe I forgot to tell you this.

Speaker 1: 40:42

So when I went on the news, oh yeah, what happened after you did the podcast? The podcast Got a lot of traction.

Speaker 2: 40:50

I did and I felt, I felt which I'm so grateful to you, because I felt okay.

Speaker 2: 40:56

Okay, I was scared to go to the news because somebody had written a story back in October and it got a lot of negative because there wasn't enough information and it lit. I don't do well with like people thinking badly of me or if I've done something wrong to somebody, like I always want to make it right and so seeing some of that stuff, it just was too hard for me. So I was like I'm never doing this again, I'm never going to the news. Then someone mentioned your podcast because it is complete wild chaos, right.

Speaker 2: 41:23

Yes, yes, your story is the definition of wild chaos. So I got some more confidence coming in here and when I went to the news I had this girl make a comment on Facebook and she said I was at that school before that teacher. There were mice and rats running up and down the hallway.

Speaker 1: 41:47

This is at a Boise school district.

Speaker 2: 41:49

This is before I was there. This is in 2016. Okay, this girl was in there, 2016. So I messaged her on Facebook and I said, can you tell me, like what is going on? And she says, yeah, she's like my math class upstairs was infested Math class. Who was your math teacher? She tells me the math teacher. She's referencing the one thing that teacher and I had in common when I started. I would say so. She was there in 16. I showed up in 19. The one thing that she talked to me about all the time was her health and how sick she was and infertility issues and thyroid issues and endocrine issues and like gaining weight in ways that she couldn't understand.

Speaker 1: 42:39

And I was like so you guys like reflecting on similar?

Speaker 2: 42:43

Well, yeah. So I'm like wait, wait a minute. Okay, her classrooms infested. She was sick. I remember sitting with her at multiple times, multiple tables, hearing about her medical problems, and then now this student is saying, hey, these mice were here before she was there, like before I was there, but the district responded to my lawsuit saying that I caused it. So the girl's like I remember literally being handed sticky traps from janet cherry, being forced to put them in the concessions stand where I worked. She's like I worked the concession stand for the basketball games and we had to put traps in there because we had food and we had a mouse problem 2016. So I show up three years later and now I take a mouse with me in my bag in 2019. And still my principal had not reported it. So she knew back in 2016. So it blows my mind that why would you not, in 2016, put the building on a quarterly service? You just had built it, it was brand new. You guys could have done something about it.

Speaker 2: 43:50

So she said I'm willing. She's like I'm willing to come be a witness. Really, she's like you can depose me, I'll write whatever you want. She's like I can't believe they're doing this to you. And then I had two teachers reach out. Well, one counselor and one teacher reach out to me. A counselor that was at my school and he also has said I will be a witness for you. But he said Janet Cherry harassed me to a level where I can't even come back to Idaho.

Speaker 1: 44:18

This is the principal.

Speaker 2: 44:19

My principal.

Speaker 1: 44:20

Ran this guy out of here.

Speaker 2: 44:22

Yep and he said I have sotsd from my experience at that school and she's a narcissist I guess I've never really understood the narcissist thing. I've never I've like looked up the definition so many times, trying to really process it and it's the only thing that kind of makes like, why would she did?

Speaker 1: 44:40

like a narcissist? I feel we'll just turn on people and then they do everything and make them the. They're the victim and you're the problem.

Speaker 2: 44:48

I guess I don't know what else, but like deep down I really genuinely believe. I really believe she's a good person. Like I'm trying so hard, I try so hard.

Speaker 1: 44:57

That ship has sailed.

Speaker 2: 44:58

That's what makes me a good teacher, I think, is I can look at kids who like create problems and I'm like, oh but, but they're so good, right? So it's hard for me, it's really hard for me. I know it shouldn't be, I should be able to be like upset and angry, but I, I genuinely. I'm like I really liked you. Why couldn't you just help me?

Speaker 1: 45:19

She's a tyrant man.

Speaker 2: 45:20

I don't know, so he he said, I'll come back. He's like I had mice in my office in West Junior High.

Speaker 1: 45:25

Before you were there.

Speaker 2: 45:26

Yes.

Speaker 1: 45:28

So now there's hard proof that the mice existed and rats I don't want to say infestation, but they were there, they were there. Yeah, if kids are seeing them, it's an infestation.

Speaker 2: 45:36

Yeah, so now there's proof that this was all pre-you coming in in 2019, which they're trying to pin it on you saying you're the cause of the infestation. Well, they responded to the lawsuit saying I was the cause. The Idaho statesman reached out to the school district after I went on the news and said, hey, you responded to this lawsuit, saying this teacher is responsible. And I said why would she do? And they said no comment, cause they cause I didn't and they know I didn't.

Speaker 1: 46:07

The only thing I can think of, the only thing I can see their angle here, is if the corruption is so deep within the political system and our education system in this state that they just they, they just don't care. That's the.

Speaker 2: 46:23

I think they care about themselves it does.

Speaker 1: 46:27

None of this makes sense. We're like they can be. They're just blatantly lying to parents, blatantly putting things out that are, oh they, 100 false, correct. They're denying any rebuttal statements to parents.

Speaker 2: 46:39

News media will not hand over the inspection to the news. But you have the inspection.

Speaker 1: 46:42

I gave it to the news and, but you have the inspection right.

Speaker 2: 46:44

I gave it to the news and she said we want to request it from them. It's public record, so she's requested it and they won't give it to them.

Speaker 1: 46:51

I just don't understand how everything that you're saying is showing their ass. Yeah, but they're just like they're just buckling down and the worst part about it is I've given so many chances to just say yes, way too many chances.

Speaker 2: 47:04

Like I love my job. Can we just?

Speaker 1: 47:08

fix this together. Can we just clean it up? Can we just?

Speaker 2: 47:10

fix it Like help me get approved for workman's comp. So because I just started treatment again yesterday, which is very expensive.

Speaker 1: 47:17

Fourth round, yeah, okay.

Speaker 2: 47:18

Yeah. And so I was going to just say, hey, can you guys help me get workman's comp so that my treatments are covered? Can we sit around a table with whoever needs to be there Custodial staff, principals, whatever, my attorney, your attorney, whatever and just say, okay, michelle, walk us through what a day looks like, or a week looks like in your cooking room in terms of food and this and that, and where the mouse concentration is in your eyes and what can we, what would you suggest we do? I'd say, hey, let's take the that room down to studs and clean out like the dead carcass.

Speaker 1: 47:52

I think that's the problem. They got to take the whole school down the studs. If there's been an infestation from at least 2016 that we can backdate it to, it goes way deeper than just your room. I don't even know what they'd have. You're probably talking. That's not in the back of my mind. I've thought of you in this story. It was to me. Besides her being an absolute jealous psycho, it's going to be a full demolition of the school because it is so infested by mice.

Speaker 2: 48:21

I think and the they can't afford it.

Speaker 2: 48:23

Yeah, and our the inspector, because he couldn't stay in my room with the bleach he's like I couldn't get my cameras into your walls and so now they won't let them back and he went out to the food pantry in the front of the school which is also where the infestation started, for the kids that don't have food on the weekends that come and get food and he said it was very obvious. They had cleaned it and hosed the whole thing out Like it was soaking wet. They had hosed the whole thing. And so they're suspending me saying I'm tampering with evidence because the log on the door that was taped to my classroom door that I took off to get a picture and unconsciously, in a panic, left and went into my car.

Speaker 2: 49:05

They tampered with evidence. They tampered with my classroom. For sure so hypocrisy is my biggest pet peeve, like with my husband, with my kids, with my students. I'm like uh-uh, I can't, I cannot handle it.

Speaker 1: 49:18

I'm with you I cannot.

Speaker 2: 49:19

I'm like don't tell me that I stampered with evidence and now I'm going to get fired from a job that I love. But you tampered with my classroom. You packed up my whole classroom. You took my mailbox down and threw away all of my mail. Do not tell me I didn't get mail this school year, when I have students that are like hey, did you get my Christmas card? Hey, did you get my grad announcement?

Speaker 1: 49:42

No, and they're just throwing your mail away.

Speaker 2: 49:45

Isn't that a federal offense? It's a federal offense. I we called the post office. They said we can track down some of it. So if I continue through with my federal lawsuit, I'll add that to it, because I'm like you guys have 100 stop like, just stop I.

Speaker 1: 49:59

If I were you, I would.

Speaker 2: 50:00

Fuck up Like you want to. They want to take that whole like everyone's welcome bullshit that you know, that poster shit where the West data is like it can't be in and Boise decides to capitalize on it and say we, we accept, everyone's welcomed. Yeah, no shit, along with every pedophile. You guys welcome everybody into this school district, but you have teachers like myself who are really good and love my job and you just want to run me out because why?

Speaker 1: 50:29

How hilarious is that statement. I've never even put that together, since that was such a nationwide thing.

Speaker 2: 50:35

Here they should have a sign that says everyone's welcome, include pedophiles and sex abusers, because we have more than any district, I think.

Speaker 1: 50:43

Boise School District. You're telling me, boise School District has in your opinion we have more than any district. I think Boise School District You're telling me, boise School District has in your opinion. We have so many cases Of pedophiles and sex offenders that are working in the school district.

Speaker 2: 50:51

No, no, no, Not that are well, that were but then acted on behaviors with kids and then the reporting process wasn't done correctly. There was protection of certain people. There was protection of certain people, Like it's become if you research what we've had in our district. I mean we had a counselor commit suicide I think it was two years ago because he got caught.

Speaker 1: 51:20

Hold on a second Reason 1,223,000 to homeschool your children.

Speaker 2: 51:26

I mean, here's what I'll say, though they have to background check so for sure.

Speaker 2: 51:28

They can't control what a teacher does when they get into their classroom. So I understand that it's not their fault, but what is their fault? And it's the same. It's the same issue with the sex abusers and the pedophiles as it is with me. It's how you are handling it. Don't protect these people, don't not report because you think it's a lie, or don't report to the right people or like don't have the appropriate reporting mechanisms that you should, because you want to try to protect your image, like I can rationalize for them in terms of wanting to protect how their school district is seen. I get that, but not at the expense of these children and good teachers that you're losing.

Speaker 1: 52:13

But at the same time, as a parent, not in the public school system I would have more respect for the school if they sent out this thing. Hey, we found out. One of our teachers recently got accused or we're going to put them on suspension, so their case is covered.

Speaker 2: 52:27

Hey, we just had a teacher okay, so they are doing that okay but where the my understanding and again this comes from, like what I've seen on the news, what I've heard from like, um, they've had like uh, town hall type situations with the schools. Where there's a problem, it's the process of reporting, so it really should go straight to the cops.

Speaker 1: 52:50

Yes.

Speaker 2: 52:51

But it was not. It was going like through the district and the district was doing the investigations and they were taking care of it and it wasn't getting like to the police and the time fashion like the time that it should. And then there was a lot of like well, did this principal know about it? Well, we should put him on administrative leave and just put him in the back office and give him a job or whatever later. And so there's a lot of that going on.

Speaker 1: 53:12

And then I, then I look at me right Then.

Speaker 2: 53:15

I look at my situation and I'm like wait a minute. So I present to you a problem that's made me sick, that's made potentially kids sick and teachers. And now you want to run me out and you just want to harass the shit out of me until I crumble. Well, I'm not, I'm not crumbling.

Speaker 1: 53:34

No.

Speaker 2: 53:34

I'm not Good luck.

Speaker 1: 53:37

I wonder if she's just gotten away with this Like the. The gentleman that you spoke of is the like the counselor that ran that. She ran him out of there. I wonder if she has just gotten away with this and nobody has stood up to her.

Speaker 2: 53:51

Nobody has.

Speaker 1: 53:51

Over the years. And so she has just built this God complex, and when she turns on you, she knows when she's in your, in her crosshairs. You're done.

Speaker 2: 54:01

Yeah, I don't know what she. So there's a lady who reached out to you, a mom, about a voicemail, yep, so I got my hands on that voicemail. I heard it firsthand. I don't know any principal that can call a mom and say you know your son was he's just being a dick. You are an administrator. You don't leave a two minute and 36 second long voicemail on a child's behavior in the school, whether you are repeating what other students said about him, or not, and you tell the parent that the child is just a dick.

Speaker 1: 54:42

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2: 54:43

My friend. We were at a lacrosse game and she handed me the her phone and she's like I don't know what to do. And I said she's like I need your help. And I listened to it and I was like, are you kidding me? You just go straight to the top. She went straight to the superintendent. Superintendent gave it to the area director. Area director contacted the parent and said do not speak to principal Cherry about this, we will handle this.

Speaker 1: 55:06

And they never did.

Speaker 2: 55:06

Never heard from her again. Never heard from them again.

Speaker 1: 55:10

Why is the corruption inside of our school system so bad?

Speaker 2: 55:13

I don't know, why are you as an, why are you a principal, making six figures running a school, allowing a mouse infestation, speaking to parents the way that you do? The amount of parents that reached out to me once this hit the news, saying, oh, my experience with the principal was terrible but I was too afraid to go to the district Looks like they wouldn't have helped me anyways. How, how am I getting you know recommended to be fired for trying to keep a classroom safe? That's all I've done. How am I being set up for termination? But this woman can do all of these things to other employees.

Speaker 1: 55:59

Cause you're swimming against the flow.

Speaker 2: 56:01

Yeah, I guess so.

Speaker 1: 56:02

That's not how she runs her prison.

Speaker 2: 56:04

I guess. So I'm over it, though. So today the attorney called my attorney and said you know, we we feel we have grounds to terminate her, and that will be our next bet. Or maybe we just start to mediate because we started scheduling depositions. For sure, my attorney's like let's move.

Speaker 1: 56:22

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 56:22

Like let's just move, let's keep going. So we started scheduling depositions. Here's another thing Somebody from LeBois Junior High contacted the attorney's office that represents me, given an anonymous leak of information that LeBois has a mouse problem as well. I had a mom contact me from Maple Grove Elementary who said we have a mouse problem as well. So I went ahead and requested public records for LeBois and any exterminating records they've had and Maple Grove. I've sent public record requests for these documents eight times since June 23rd, being blatantly ignored by the school district. So I then thought okay, you guys want to keep playing this game and you think I'm going to quit? I'm not. So then I sent an email to HR and I CC'd the news reporter from KTVB. So I'm like the news is going to know that you guys are ignoring a public records request. He sent it to the attorney. The attorney emails me and says oh my, we're so sorry your emails got sent to spam.

Speaker 1: 57:42

We're not why the old spam excuse, huh okay, well, here they are.

Speaker 2: 57:49

I would appreciate that you send those records out, because if you have a mouse problem there, and you have a mouse problem there, and we have a mouse problem at west, and we have this, what gene hackman died because of one mouse in his house? Come on.

Speaker 1: 58:05

Here's a question. This was probably, once your episode exploded, the biggest question that I saw, or the most common question that we got. How did you not smell the piss?

Speaker 2: 58:19

in the room.

Speaker 2: 58:19

Okay, and that's how I was trying to answer, but I did so well, I didn't know it was mouse urine. I knew that I. The first thing was I couldn't get my dish towels clean in the dryer. No matter what I put in the wash after they went into the dryer they always smelled so disgusting. So then I ordered new ones, because I'm like maybe these are just really old, those wouldn't get cleaned either.

Speaker 2: 58:52

And so that I realized in my mind now, but not then. But now I was like oh, that's because that washer and dryer was infested with mice. Because that is where the mice were concentrated, which was literally right behind my desk. That's where I was always hearing them hiss on so gross hiss on traps. That's where I'd put my bag up against and they got into it. So now I realize like, oh, okay, but I had ordered new washer and dryers, just thinking like, oh, it's just old. I didn't think that the urine that was inside the dryer was what was tainting the towels that my students wash and dry and wipe down and disinfect all the plates and all the things, because they don't use the dishwasher. They're not allowed to because they need to learn to do dishes. So when they go away to school then they go home at night and they do dishes.

Speaker 2: 59:38

So then, when they replaced the refrigerators without communicating with me, then I realized. Then, when they replaced the refrigerators without communicating with me, then I realized oh, that is why the refrigerators kept tweaking out and like stopped working Because they're chewing on all the wires, Because they're chewing on the wires and they're infested the insulation in the back. So every appliance in that classroom was infested and it took me going back into my room multiple times, opening the ovens, to say you still have not fixed this problem. You still have not fixed this problem. And now I'm suspended for that singular action that I did in May.

Speaker 1: 1:00:15

This is so crazy.

Speaker 2: 1:00:16

They should be thanking me. I don't Like legit. They should be like wow, thank you so much for finding this problem. And if you know what you want to throw somebody under the bus, throw your principal. Yeah, Because she's the one who didn't bring this to you and she should have. Yeah, she's the one who should have been with us, she's been hiding it since 2016.

Speaker 2: 1:00:32

She should have taken care of this and I'm not the problem here. I'm really not the problem and the fact that people like I was telling you that teacher Stuart King, who retired and was saying this is unfair. These people can't defend themselves like the district and my principal or whatever I'm like. Yes, they can. They don't have anything to defend themselves on because I have kept such good records I have pictures I have emails I've never answered.

Speaker 2: 1:01:02

They tried to call me to tell me I was answered, like they tried to call me to tell me I was suspended. And they tried to call me and tell me I was transferred a forced transfer. I didn't answer because I was like no way are we going to do a word like against word. You're going to put it in an email and I'm going to have record of it. The other funny thing about the whole forced transfer thing is a friend of mine who teaches at another school texted me and said hey, how are you forced transferred to Capitol when last week the teacher that they hired for Capitol just introduced herself at the state conference as the teacher at Capitol?

Speaker 1: 1:01:40

So they just stuck you there to be able to get rid of you.

Speaker 2: 1:01:41

No, they, they. It was a lie. They're not force transferring me. They have no plan to let me come back. They have no, they're just working. You know, we'll just get rid of her.

Speaker 1: 1:01:54

They're pulling every card they can.

Speaker 2: 1:01:55

Yeah, yeah, because you hired somebody to teach at Capital.

Speaker 1: 1:01:58

And then they said you got it now.

Speaker 2: 1:02:00

Then, three weeks later, in the memo they sent me, it says it's the only position available. And they've already filled the three weeks prior to you. They filled it three weeks if not further.

Speaker 1: 1:02:10

That's when she was hired, yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:02:12

And I'm like wait. So you lied to me. You lied to me telling me or you were going to force transfer me and then make her go to West. But why didn't you tell her that it's been three, four weeks? She just introduced herself at the state conference as the capital teacher. But I'm the capital teacher technically, but my stuff's at West and my contract is at West and now I'm getting fired, allegedly until they promote it to the board, which now they don't want to promote it to the board, because now they want to mediate. And I said fine, you want to mediate, this isn't about money.

Speaker 1: 1:02:49

Oh, it should be at this point.

Speaker 2: 1:02:50

I mean, don't get me wrong, you need to pay for my medical and whatever hardships that my attorney feels like. I'm going to let her because, honestly, in my mind and my heart, I'm not taking a dime until they meet my list of demands to clean that building and that room. I won't. That's what I started out doing. I didn't start this because I'm like, ooh, because one of the this King guy was like oh, it's about money.

Speaker 1: 1:03:18

No, I didn't start you stated it on the last episode that it wasn't yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:03:20

I didn't start this about because of money. This classroom made me sick and now I've got kids and it's our job Like we are supposed to stand in front of the door when we know an active shooter is coming into our classroom and take a bullet for all our kids and I would. I actually have a bulletproof vest that I got from a Marine and he gave me a bulletproof vest.

Speaker 2: 1:03:42

I mean it's sad that we have wear this and I literally have it right next to my door and when we do the lockdown procedure I put it on and I'm like, okay, bring it.

Speaker 1: 1:03:50

Okay, okay, Shoot me first. So I'm taking it. This goes back to my question. You're standing at your door with a bulletproof vest on and these shooter drills. You're willing to go to those extents for your children. Why the hell are no other teachers standing up, Like I feel they should be out front picketing right now.

Speaker 2: 1:04:09

Look what they're doing to me.

Speaker 1: 1:04:11

That's even more fuel.

Speaker 2: 1:04:13

Like oh, we're going to suspend her for that. I'm a teacher. And transfer because it's fucking scary Pardon.

Speaker 1: 1:04:18

Maybe I'm just built yeah. Yeah, maybe I'm built different and my mind works clearly in different ways.

Speaker 2: 1:04:23

You and I are the same, because if one of my teachers at my school was in my place, I would be right next to her.

Speaker 1: 1:04:30

So how are these teachers that care for children?

Speaker 2: 1:04:33

Or care about me, or claim they care about me or friends of yours. They are scary, that's the only thing I can think of. Or they truly disagree with me, I don't know. But everybody has seen it. And here's the thing if I went somebody said it on the news thing to this mr king teacher. Um, they said so if she went. Mind you, he comes in my classroom regularly to heat up his food and use my utensils and this is the king guy, yeah, the one who's like telling me, yeah, okay she said would you, would you actually eat a meal made in that room after you see this report?

Speaker 2: 1:05:08

And she, she loaded the pictures. It's nasty, even the news guy, if you go back and watch the news segment from channel seven. He even looked at a picture and he goes wow and he just chuckled. He's like I don't even know what that is, but that is disgusting, that it's in those classrooms, it was. It's disgusting. So you would. You would go eat a meal. There's no way a restaurant would get shut down. I called child protective services.

Speaker 1: 1:05:33

Okay, this is okay. This is another question. Why can't child protective services come into your classroom? You'd be like here you go.

Speaker 2: 1:05:40

So I I filed a report with Child Protective Services on child endangerment.

Speaker 1: 1:05:45

When.

Speaker 2: 1:05:46

Because I did it in June.

Speaker 1: 1:05:47

Okay.

Speaker 2: 1:05:48

Because the school district and principal of whoever they are allowing children in there. My principal allowed students in there all spring, knowing that there's still a problem even after the inspection. So I called Child Protective Services and just said, hey, I have concern, I feel like I have an obligation to let you know that there are like. They asked what's the child's name and I was like there's 300. And they're like, excuse me, and I said there is a classroom that is an environment that is not healthy for any child to be in, and they are in it and I started filing a police report.

Speaker 1: 1:06:28

Really.

Speaker 2: 1:06:28

For child endangerment.

Speaker 1: 1:06:29

Has this gone anywhere?

Speaker 2: 1:06:30

The detective I'm working with is helping me.

Speaker 1: 1:06:39

Good, okay, okay so, but the fact that you're having to call child protective services and do a police report just to get your room cleaned at your public school.

Speaker 2: 1:06:46

I'm doing everything. I called the CDC. I called them in November of 2023 and nobody called me back. I called again I think maybe it was like February. Nobody called me back, called in March when I found the ovens again I was told oh, we can't help you, you're not the cafeteria, blah, blah, blah. So then I called again this summer and I was like I need to speak to somebody and finally I got a guy to call me back and I explained to him the whole thing and he said if I were a parent, I would be furious. However, again, you're not the cafeteria. And I said but, sir, how can, if I have scientific proof, if I have proof that this room, with an inspection that's 153 pages long, to show that the keyboard, the desk, the bowls, the cups, the mugs, the forks, the silverware, the knobs, their aprons the aprons that my students are cooking in, literally just just cooking in the pockets are full of mouse urine? They're crawling up the straps and they're hanging out in the pocket and there's mouse urine in them.

Speaker 1: 1:07:52

There's mouse urine on the straps how are these parents not burning this place down? I have no idea.

Speaker 2: 1:07:56

I don't know.

Speaker 1: 1:07:57

They're trying I mean, they're not, so they're.

Speaker 2: 1:07:59

How would these I don't they're calling the district, they're trying but they're getting. They're what the district tells them. And then they're getting what I tell them in the news. Tell them and a lot of them are like I don't want to make waves for my kid.

Speaker 1: 1:08:10

That's a. That's a bitch ass parent. That is a pathetic.

Speaker 2: 1:08:13

I don't want the principal to come after my child.

Speaker 1: 1:08:14

I don't want this.

Speaker 2: 1:08:15

And I get it, but I get it no, no, I know.

Speaker 1: 1:08:27

Uh, those are pathetic ass parents. To me I don't even care who that offends. You knowing knowingly send your kid to a school where the teacher has been so sick you had to get a hysterectomy and they're like well, I don't want to, I don't want to have waves with the principal. You're a bitch. You're an absolute spineless parent because they're scared scared of what your child's health I don't know.

Speaker 2: 1:08:44

You know they've just taken them out of the classroom, but I'm like it's not just the classroom, it's the school, it's the whole school. They don't just hang in my room, they. They are not just in my room, oh, they're in the walls, they're everywhere, everywhere.

Speaker 1: 1:08:54

So I that it. That infuriates me like that pisses me off as much as the teacher's not saying anything. Is these parents not wanting to get involved because they don't want conflict with the school?

Speaker 2: 1:09:04

Some. There's a. There's a lot that I've gotten involved.

Speaker 1: 1:09:06

I hope there is there are.

Speaker 2: 1:09:07

Um, I had one friend who called the district and was like hey, if you have nothing to hide, let me go into that room with a black light. And they said no.

Speaker 1: 1:09:16

To a parent.

Speaker 2: 1:09:18

Red flag. She's like I. Why not why? Not Red flag If you have nothing to hide. Let me in that room with my black light. And they said we're sorry, we're not going to allow that.

Speaker 1: 1:09:31

So this is insane.

Speaker 2: 1:09:33

So now I this whole story. Now they want to mediate, apparently potentially.

Speaker 1: 1:09:37

Which means what?

Speaker 2: 1:09:38

It means we sit down around a table and go through the lawsuit and they say, oh, we'll do this or we'll give you this and you no longer work here and we'll pay you this and we'll pay you that. And I told my attorney, I said that's great, but there is a list. There are five things that have nothing to do with money. So she's like I know, and I said, okay, I just want to be clear. This is about fixing the problem, and the problem isn't my bank account. The problem is the mouse, shit and urine that my students are cooking in. And they took a program that I had built and it's trashed, trashed, it's trashed that's unfortunate, because I I feel the well.

Speaker 1: 1:10:29

What is what's the technical term for yours, yours? Fcs which stands for what again? Oh, family, consumer science family, consumer science, the modern home, ec right. Yeah, I feel like it's such an incredible program.

Speaker 2: 1:10:39

It's so fun I was in a store the other day and we always, like my seventh graders, we watch the movie wonder and we always, like my seventh graders, we watch the movie wonder after we do like a bully and friendship unit. And I was just standing there crying because I'm like I, I'm, I. I will teach this again. If I do it as a homeschool cohort or I go to a different district or something I will do again, but it's just the fact that I didn't. I don't deserve this. I really do not.

Speaker 2: 1:11:10

The kids don't deserve it, the parents don't deserve it. It's it's not hard to just get on the news yourself and say you know what? We made a mistake.

Speaker 1: 1:11:19

That's all.

Speaker 2: 1:11:20

We made a mistake. We're going to fix the building. We're going to I don't know what you guys are going to have to do, like I don't know what they can do Put them online for the first semester to fix the building. I mean, the teachers are going to be livid Because teaching online sucks, Like you know, like COVID online.

Speaker 1: 1:11:41

Yeah, nobody's paying attention. I don't get it.

Speaker 2: 1:11:45

I don't either, and I don't. This one has me baffled, and you know, one of the biggest things that bothers me the most, like Quincy keeps asking me why do you even want to go? Even if you could, why would you want to go back to the building? And I said, like I told you this before, at minus one or two individuals, our school has like the best teachers. We really have the coolest, most vibrant, funnest educators at West Junior High.

Speaker 1: 1:12:21

And they're great.

Speaker 2: 1:12:24

All these great teachers need to stand up and have a voice and come together, because they won't.

Speaker 1: 1:12:27

They won't even. That's so bizarre Now that I went to the news.

Speaker 2: 1:12:29

They won't even talk to me.

Speaker 1: 1:12:30

That's so bizarre.

Speaker 2: 1:12:32

Because they don't they want. When this is over, they'll talk to me, but they don't want.

Speaker 1: 1:12:37

The repercussions.

Speaker 2: 1:12:40

Yep.

Speaker 1: 1:12:41

What do you, what do you think the biggest problem is with our public education system? Right?

Speaker 2: 1:12:48

now Lack of integrity. Doing the right thing when no one's looking, okay, they just they preach it. They preach safety, they preach integrity, they preach honesty, but they don't do it themselves. Because if they were, they would have just from the get-go, they would have came right out and said hey, we have a problem, we have a problem in our building, we're going to hire an inspector. We're going to work with the teacher because we appreciate her, we're terribly sorry she's sick, we're going to work through this and we're going to spend this.

Speaker 1: 1:13:26

We're terribly sorry.

Speaker 2: 1:13:27

She's sick. We're going to work through this and we're going to move summer school to Timberline High or wherever and we're going to work. We're going to spend the summer doing extensive cleaning of the walls and whether we tent the building and we bomb it, whether, whatever, I don't know, I don't know how you take, I don't even know Get a cat, get a few cats, put some litter boxes in the hallway, I don't know. Like.

Speaker 1: 1:13:51

I don't know. It's a barn castle.

Speaker 2: 1:13:52

Like, just like, do something and just own. You know, like, hey, we didn't realize, we did not, the district did not realize the intensity of the problem. Thank you to Michelle for bringing it to our attention. We're going to work with her.

Speaker 1: 1:14:07

It's that simple.

Speaker 2: 1:14:08

Like I would have looked at my attorney and been like bye-bye, okay, because honestly honestly, my job has more value to me than a settlement. I love my job, I really do. And to be called this morning and I heard her words out of she's like well, they're going to fire you. I was driving home from the dentist with my son and I'm just sitting there crying I'm like what, why, why? That's a great question. You know, I didn't take that like take it to take it Maliciously, no yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:14:45

Yeah, we all have stuff. I mean, for God's sakes, I have three spoons in my work bag from over a year ago that belong in my classroom. From eating yogurt on my way home like accidentally just walked out, I mean.

Speaker 1: 1:14:59

If there was like if that's their problem, then this mouse problem should have been a huge ordeal to them. If they're freaking out over a piece of paper that was taped to a backside of a door, right, I feel.

Speaker 2: 1:15:08

And I guess they see it as like oh, I tampered with evidence, I stole evidence, and it's like no, I, I, that's not even my character the amount, the amount of stuff that this program, all of the FCS programs, have of things that people could steal and they would never know, or it's insane, it's insane and it's just. You hire the people that you trust and the people that you appreciate, and I don't have a bad thing reported in my file outside of this.

Speaker 1: 1:15:40

This now, yeah I just it has to be like the boise school district just has. It has to be this level of corruption. It is that they're hiding something, because none of this makes sense and this whole story is just mind boggling to me. It doesn't.

Speaker 2: 1:15:55

And there's only one. There's only one human being that I have connected with within the administration that I think. I think he's stuck. He seems like a genuine good man and I think he's stuck between a rock and a hard spot. I don't feel that he deep down thinks that what is happening is right. And I sit here and I wait and I'm like maybe one day he's going to come stand up for me and realize Because my question is that if I had an opportunity to sit with the superintendent, the deputy superintendents, the head of HR and the area directors, and I would say, what if I was your kid? Like my parents are struggling with the fact that I'm sick and I'm going through this and they know the kind of teacher I am, they've seen it. My mom has come and like sat in my class for a couple of days when she comes to visit, and I don't want to cause, I don't want to take time off.

Speaker 2: 1:16:54

So I'm like, oh, I'm not taking time off to hang out with you, you have to come to my room and you can just watch me cook with my students and hang out and she'll come in as a guest and she's like you, just really love your job. And so my parents are sitting back and looking at this from a parental standpoint, seeing their daughter sick and fight for something they love. What if? What if this was your kid? I know my superintendent and her husband, who was my principal, have children. What if your daughter was working in a classroom like this and got sick? Would you really be okay? Would you want the district to cover it up like this? Do what you know is right. And the other part that doesn't make sense is they. They claim they want me to get approved for a workman's comp, which means they're willing to admit I got sick from my classroom, but they're not willing to help me get approval.

Speaker 1: 1:17:41

Does it like that, doesn't't? No, so I've been denied again a third time and, like I said, the fact of how they're handling this is so scary to me because they're in charge of our kids. Future like this is this is a boise school district that is treating this situation situation so mind-boggling to me that I it just none of it makes sense but we're trusting these people with our children. Like that's scary as hell to me.

Speaker 1: 1:18:16

It's it's, it's as an employee if they're willing to do, bury the truth, hide everything, they can tamper with evidence.

Speaker 2: 1:18:24

You know, what's interesting is, a couple of years ago we did something. It must have been, it had to have been before COVID, so or maybe it was the first one after COVID, but every year when the school year starts, they would get every school over at the Mile High Arena or wherever and we'd sit in our schools and in our school colors and you could just see the arena right and we'd have guest speakers. And I remember when our superintendent became our first, like she took over, and I really admired her because we had a male superintendent for a while and she just came in and she was just a boss. She just seemed super sweet, super cool. Her speech was inspiring.

Speaker 2: 1:19:05

And I remember coming back to my school and talking to our lead counselor and I was like I love our school district. And she quickly turned and she goes trust me, you just haven't met them yet. And I said what do you mean? And she goes it is so corrupt and it is so disgusting. I can't wait to get out and just get through my time. And she was retiring in a couple of years and I remember feeling like what, no way. So here's my question. And now here I am.

Speaker 1: 1:19:35

Yeah, fast forward, here you are.

Speaker 2: 1:19:37

This is what she was talking about.

Speaker 1: 1:19:39

What I mean. What is the corruption in the Boise school districts hiding? Or what are I mean? What is the corruption in the Boise school districts hiding, or what are I mean? Is it that they're getting just fat six figure salaries and they're just sitting back and they're comfortable, like, why are they hiding this? Does it come back on them? Does it make them look bad?

Speaker 1: 1:19:54

Because I feel this whole situation even if it was even if it was handled correctly from the start, it would. It would have been over with. Oh right, we'd be done from the start. It would have been over with.

Speaker 2: 1:20:03

Oh right, We'd be done.

Speaker 1: 1:20:06

Thank you, Ms. I'd be giving my lessons. But instead now they're just digging and digging, and digging and digging.

Speaker 2: 1:20:12

Well, I think it started with this situation. I think it started with, I think, a lack of communication between whatever's going on over with between district officials, between whatever's going on over with between district officials. I think the person that represented majority of the communication to me he was lying, but then lying on his lies and then didn't remember what he lied about. And so when I would get, I originally started going to school to be a lawyer. It's kind of in my just, it's just my brain and I would get an email and then I'd get another one and I'd automatically be like, wait a minute, print them, find the discrepancy. And I was like, here you go, and I'd send it to my attorney and she's like, holy shit, how'd you find that? I'm like, because they're lying on their lies and their lies and their lies and they can't even keep track of their own lies, so they just dug so deep. I think that it got to a point where like, oh, they're forgetting yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:21:06

Instead of just having the integrity to be like, call my attorney and say, hey, you know, we messed up and we do want to fix this. So you know what? What can we do? How can we all work together? What can we do? We are worried about our reputation, of course, because we did screw up. You know what's so sad? I'm such a nice person. I probably would have helped cover up their cover up in terms of protecting their image if they just came to me and said, hey, we messed up, what can we?

Speaker 1: 1:21:35

do. This is what we have to do.

Speaker 2: 1:21:36

I'd be like okay, well, just let's be honest with the parents. Let's tell them yep, okay, we've got a problem, let's fix it. Can we move summer school so we can actually spend the time to gut this building and make sure, like I would have, because I love my job so much and I love my students more.

Speaker 1: 1:21:54

So what's next, like, what's the next step or process? Are you just waiting now?

Speaker 2: 1:21:58

So if they want to terminate me before we mediate, they have to take it to the school board.

Speaker 1: 1:22:03

Which is going to be a public hearing.

Speaker 2: 1:22:04

Which will be a public hearing, which will be bad. They will have to bring in police. There's the level of students that will show up are going to be insane, and parents In fact. I was on a walk the other day and a mom pulled over and it kind of scared me and she got out of her car and she's like I've been trying to track you down and she gave me a huge hug and she goes thank you for what you're doing.

Speaker 1: 1:22:25

Really.

Speaker 2: 1:22:27

Thank you for what you're doing. I don't understand why they can't just be honest. My daughter, sydney, was in your class and she would tell us about these mice, and I just don't understand, and I'm like so to answer that question. Um, so they have to present it to the board. We'll do a hearing if that's the case. If they choose to wait to do that and they choose to schedule mediation, then I'll go. I'll hire what they have to say, but they have to fix this problem.

Speaker 1: 1:22:57

Interesting.

Speaker 2: 1:22:58

They have to fix it. I will not stop. I don't care if I'm on my knees crying. I don't care if you guys, you know, want to pack up my room again, put it in boxes.

Speaker 1: 1:23:10

Someone has to Like I just you can't, because I mean, if you just give up at this point.

Speaker 2: 1:23:16

Yeah. Don't get me wrong. I get to a point sometimes, like I said it on my way here while I was dropping my son off, I said I should have just kept my head down and I should have just done my job.

Speaker 1: 1:23:28

Nope.

Speaker 2: 1:23:29

And he said he's like mom. He's like mom, do you know how many people come up to me? Because you know we talked about how, the social media and kids all together, right. He's like do you know how many of your students have come up to me? I'm at a party or I'm at a sporting event and they're like dude, your mom's a badass. Tell her thank you for standing up for us. He's like. That in itself makes me feel good, because I know you would do the same thing for me as your child and you're doing it for these kids. And he's like no, you need to keep going. You need to keep going, and so I do.

Speaker 1: 1:23:57

I do hit the point sometimes where I'm like I should have just stayed quiet nope, because then that makes you the same as the rest of them that are being quiet and they're all cowards, because nobody has a spine to stand up for kids.

Speaker 2: 1:24:10

Yeah, I don't understand my opinion, yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:24:12

No, you're doing the right thing. A hundred percent.

Speaker 2: 1:24:14

Yeah, I just, I don't know, it sucks.

Speaker 1: 1:24:19

I'm sure Because.

Speaker 2: 1:24:20

I don't know what I'm going to do. In all seriousness, I sit here and go. Well, I mean, my kids are. My daughter just got back from Oxford, she's leaving again, go back to school, and Tanner's a senior. He's going to start school, college, soon. He's going to go away and I want to be teaching. And I got hired to work at a charter school. They hired me without even filling out an application that I interviewed twice and they were like, yeah, you need to fill that application out, but we're willing to offer you this job and I wanted to take it and I said if I take this job and I leave, they won't ever fix that, so I gave it up Damn.

Speaker 2: 1:25:00

Yeah, I gave it up. So I don't know. I have thought of building my own building and doing my own like FCS cohort for homeschool. I've had a lot of parents interested. I've reached out on Facebook to some of their like homeschooling groups and stuff. So that's thought. I've also wanted to go to school and get my master's for counseling kids.

Speaker 1: 1:25:22

You seem like the right person for that you care. You have the mom vibe big time where I feel kids get really comfortable with you very easily.

Speaker 2: 1:25:34

Well, I had my own childhood trauma that I can relate with kids, that-.

Speaker 1: 1:25:39

Like what Assaulted.

Speaker 2: 1:25:40

If you don't mind me, okay, oh yeah, I was 12 years old and I got molested while I was babysitting.

Speaker 1: 1:25:46

Oh my God, I'm sorry to hear that.

Speaker 2: 1:25:48

Yeah, it sucked. I mean, I came home and I've always had this personality, though, where I don't hide and I came home and I told my parents and to this day, and honestly, it was my school district job that really surfaced the abuse, because I had to go to this training called darkness to light and they didn't the district didn't warn anybody what kind of training it was. I had no clue and I remember sitting watching this video of these kids who had been sexually assaulted by teachers or family members. I mean, I just remember this like wave come about me and this memory and these memories that I had blocked out for so long. And I ended up in the bathroom crying and there was like six other people in there.

Speaker 2: 1:26:31

One girl was puking in the trash can because she was triggered and there were men in the hallway like hyperventilating and so my co-teacher that was with me she sent a message to the district and was like, hey, you guys got to fair warn them. You can't just throw this out to people who may have, you know, past trauma so it's been a good thing to have. I mean, it sucked when it occurred and you know the stuff that you go through. But I can always pinpoint a child Like I can. All the counselors at my school have asked how did you know?

Speaker 1: 1:27:06

What do you okay? Like a kid, will just be in my class and maybe for what are signs that you look for that a kid's suffering from abuse?

Speaker 2: 1:27:13

Super introverted, like obviously, as a teacher, we're told like you can't high five, you can't touch, you can't do anything, and I'll sometimes just forget and I'll walk like behind a kid and I'll touch him on the shoulders and if they flinch, yeah, because that was one of the things I did for a long time, even with my own husband, like if he was behind me and touched me I would kind of panic. But just those things, or a lot of kids they want me to see, so they'll pull their sweatshirts up and they'll Bruises Cutting, They'll purposefully like you know that they're trying to show it because they want help.

Speaker 1: 1:27:49

How do you address that? As a teacher, can you even?

Speaker 2: 1:27:53

Yeah, sort of. I mean, really we go to our counselors is what we do. I mean, I'll show extra compassion to them and empathy and I'll, you know, make comments like hey, you know, if you ever need to talk about something, I'm here for you, I'm always here for you and find you the right path. But I just have a just. I think from my own experience I can pinpoint it.

Speaker 1: 1:28:18

Being a mom, a great mom, a great teacher. Is it hard being a teacher and knowing kids are struggling?

Speaker 2: 1:28:28

Yeah, I had one. I remember my first year. I had one kiddo that he was adopted and he was just struggling so much with his adopted family and he looked like he wasn't getting fed and I remember coming home asking Quincy, can we take him home? And he ended up having some troubling like I guess what's the like, tics, things that were scaring the family, and so he ended up getting put back in foster care and I wanted to take him home and my husband's like you can't take them all. Like I will come home and I never use names, obviously, but I'll be like there's this girl or there's this boy and they're so sweet and you know they're struggling at home and I just can we take them home? I want to take them home and yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:29:14

What's the hardest part about being a teacher?

Speaker 2: 1:29:21

I think for junior high well, I guess it's probably across the board. It's just really seeing the kids that are struggling not getting the help they need. I feel like at my school there's a lot of focus on like punishment versus Rehabilitating yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:29:40

Counseling.

Speaker 2: 1:29:41

Yeah, like I have one student, he's always a problem for all the other teachers All three years that he was at the school and I felt bad because people would talk about him in like our PLC groups and use him as the example of like the worst kid in the school, and I never experienced him at the time. And then they needed to put him somewhere and the counselor came to me and they were like oh, we're really sorry, you're the only class you know. We have to do this to you, I'm sorry. And I said where are you sorry? It's fine, I'll take them.

Speaker 2: 1:30:15

And day one he gave me a little bit of attitude and I just walked up to him and I was like, hey, what's wrong? He's like nobody likes me here, so I don't know why I respect anybody. I'm like I like you and that's what matters to me. So you and me we can work together. Whatever you choose to do out there with them, that's up to you. And I never had a problem with him. In fact I wanted to give him the ninth grade award and when I put his name on my list I had a teacher come into my room and say you can't give this kid the ninth grade award. You can't do it, he's terrible. And I said he's not terrible for me.

Speaker 1: 1:30:52

See, this is my. This is my biggest problem with public schools is that the kids aren't getting paid. All it took was you, with a little bit of compassion, to level with each other. I get it, I get it. These giant classrooms and teachers, I get it Right. I mean, I don't get it cause I'm not a teacher, but I understand. Yeah, but imagine if, like, we just put more into these children what we can be turning out to society. But now that kid has been programmed and nobody likes them.

Speaker 2: 1:31:24

So they do these surveys at the end of the year and they ask kids like where's your safe place, who's your safe teacher? And there's one other teacher in the building besides myself and we're always the top of the leaderboard and one of the counselors came to me and said what I need to know? What are you two doing that nobody else is? And we both had the exact same answer and we were like and we just treat them like they're humans, we don't own them, they're not our property, they're a student and 99% of the time they're acting out in your classroom because they have a really shitty home life, or somebody's died that you don't know about, or they weren't fed the night before, or they're being abused, or they're doing drugs because nobody cares about them and their parents don't care that they're doing drugs, or that they're out till two in the morning, or they're up till three in the morning playing Fortnite, like there's nobody checking in on them to say hey, buddy, you should go to bed.

Speaker 2: 1:32:23

There's nobody checking in on them to say hey, buddy, you should go to bed. That's why they act the way they do. And when you chase after them with negativity, oh well, if you continue to do that, you don't get recess. You don't get this, you don't get that. You don't get to go out on the blacktop with your friends. I had one kid. He's great Troubled child every class period. Nobody liked him and he came into my room and I had trouble with him, like the first two class periods, and all I did was take him outside by himself, like outside my door, and I'm like what's going on, and he just bursted into tears.

Speaker 2: 1:33:00

And his dad had been arrested and I was like, okay, all right. So when you start feeling overwhelmed in my class or you start feeling triggered by something we're learning because we do we go through some serious stuff in my room. It's not all just cooking. I said give me a signal, wave your pencil, whatever you want it to be. He's like I'll put my hood on. I'm like great, that means you can step outside and take a breath without saying a word, but you cannot leave. And if you leave my door, then you and me are going to have a problem. Okay, and he would. Every day he'd get to a point he'd stick his hood on.

Speaker 2: 1:33:36

I'm like it's fine, how many of us need a breather? I do it all the time. Sometimes I'm teaching something and we get into especially with my ninth graders, we'll get into like family dynamics and they start talking about dads that have been arrested or dads that did burglary or raped or whatever, and they get deep and I have to sometimes shut it down because it's a little too heavy. But sometimes it triggers me and I'll I need a minute and I'm like I'll just give me one sec and I walk out to my door and I'll cry for a minute, a minute, and I'm like I'll just give me one sec and I walk out to my door and I'll cry for a minute. Dry my tears come back in. I'm like okay, cause we're all human right, we can all do that.

Speaker 2: 1:34:11

So and he his behavioral plan like his. They put him on a behavioral plan and I remember getting an email to me and because of his behavior, which what he did wasn't the best I can't even really remember the details, but his plan was that he was to be escorted to and from every single class period. So of course he got made fun of for that because he had an adult escorting him. And then he never got to go to lunch with his friends, he never got to go outside and get fresh air. He'd be put in a box.

Speaker 1: 1:34:43

He's in a prison.

Speaker 2: 1:34:50

Yeah, he was literally probably no wider than that wall right there and it had a door with a little mirror or a little window and a desk and he had a cup of water and they'd put him in there during break, during lunch, and he would do work. He'd eat his food in there.

Speaker 1: 1:34:59

It's not like. You can go to the parents because clearly they Well, the parents were fighting it.

Speaker 2: 1:35:03

The parents would come to me and say I don't know what to do, how do I fight this? And I'm like go to the district. I don't know. There's legislation that's been passed that we're not allowed to put kids in rooms like that anymore, and I found it In confinement.

Speaker 2: 1:35:14

Yeah, but they thought that that was what made him better. And I'm like months and he would just he'd come to my class and he'd cry about it. And I was, and I would ask him like well, why are you behaving this way, why are you treating this teacher that way? But you don't treat me well Cause she treats me this way. You don't treat me that way. And I said well, I'd give him pointers like try this, try this. And he's like it doesn't work. They don't like me, they've already decided. And I even remember this one student.

Speaker 2: 1:35:49

I remember the counselor telling me about him and she was like, oh, he'll be in prison. That was her future is. This child will be in prison before he's 20. And I was like that is why he continues to behave the way he does, because he knows you guys think this way about him. He can feel it.

Speaker 1: 1:36:09

That is so sad.

Speaker 2: 1:36:10

He can feel it. So try, try, change your affect with the child, just try. And the counselor continued to ask again this year you're the top of the leaderboard. What are you doing? I said, john, it's the same thing. I treat them like humans, that's it.

Speaker 1: 1:36:29

Compassion.

Speaker 2: 1:36:33

And if they need to go to the bathroom, I let them go to the bathroom. I don't have like. Oh, you only get three passes this semester or you forgot a pencil. Give me your shoes in exchange, because I want my pencil back. Teachers are doing that. Oh yes, literally had my like, literally like I remember, Hold on, I'm breezing.

Speaker 2: 1:36:54

So I remember I'm a semester teacher so I get new kids at the beginning of each semester have to go through class rules, all the things right. So we're going through my syllabus about being, you know, prepared for when you come to class and I was like, okay, make sure you have a pen, a pencil, something. We don't take a ton of notes, but I still want you to have your stuff. And I said, and if you don't? And I go over to my counter, I'm like here's a box of pencils, there's pens, here's the sharpener.

Speaker 2: 1:37:19

This kid's scared, he's raising his hand and he's never been in my class before and he goes, so you're not going to take my shoes, I don't have to give you my shoes for that pencil. And I was like I'm sorry, what, what, what, what, who? Who's taking your shoes? And he told me the teacher. And I'm like what happens if we have a fire drill? Well, we're scrambling to get our shoes on.

Speaker 1: 1:37:43

Oh my God, I said that is such a liability.

Speaker 2: 1:37:46

If it's snowing. Well, sometimes I've gone out with only one shoe and I was like are you freaking, kidding me right now? So it's our job to to like it's our job.

Speaker 1: 1:37:58

The fact that this is like that this is even a conversation is hilarious to me, because the the, the sub teacher. Yeah, this is even a conversation. It's hilarious to me. Give me your shoes In exchange, because she doesn't want to use pencils. What a liability.

Speaker 2: 1:38:09

And so I said wait a minute. I said pencils are like three cents at Target. We also have boxes.

Speaker 1: 1:38:16

Can't go to the dollar store and buy a hundred of them for a couple bucks.

Speaker 2: 1:38:19

Yes, and so then the conversation came up well, what if I need to sharpen my pencil? I usually get in trouble in all my other classes if I get up and sharpen my pencil and I said like why are teachers teaching, or what? Well, yeah, sometimes, and I said so if your pencil breaks, and that's all you have and I'm lecturing and you are taking notes and now you can't write, how do you write? Like how do you? And he's like well, I need to sharpen my pencil. I'm like great, so get up and go sharpen your pencil. I will wait, Like, if I see you get up and go to the sharpener, I will stop.

Speaker 1: 1:38:53

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:38:53

And I'll just wait for you. It's not that big of a deal. It's not that deep as my son would say.

Speaker 2: 1:39:00

the fact that, like you got to sharpen your pencil right, you got all the slang Come on like it's not a big deal, and so they're like, oh, okay, okay, I mean I have kids doing research projects in my classroom and other teachers are shutting down their pages using GoGuardian like on their computers. So my kids will be in the middle of doing something and they'll call me over and they'll say, hey, so my other teacher has me on go guardian right now and he's watching what I'm doing and he just closed my browser because he doesn't think I should be researching this. But you just told me I could like. That is where it's come to. I won't even use go guardian, i't use it what is go guardian?

Speaker 2: 1:39:45

um, do you know what it is? Yes, yeah. So my son hates it too. So it's a program where teachers can connect to the students laptop or you watch what they're doing you had this when you were during covid before.

Speaker 1: 1:40:00

Yeah, I remember you saying okay, okay, yeah, it's been a it's been a while, but okay.

Speaker 2: 1:40:04

I get it. There's kids that are looking at the wrong stuff.

Speaker 1: 1:40:06

For sure.

Speaker 2: 1:40:07

They need guidance, fine, but once they leave your classroom, if that's the rules you have in your room, then disconnect, because now that they're in mine, we're doing like a mood board on fashion design, so my kids need to actually be looking at some New York fashion website. They're actually doing something within my curriculum and you're shutting my student stuff down without talking to me.

Speaker 1: 1:40:32

Interesting.

Speaker 2: 1:40:33

Yeah, and so I just won't even use it.

Speaker 1: 1:40:35

So let me ask you this question in all honesty, being a teacher for however many years you've been in it in the public school system do you truly feel that we are preparing kids for the real world in our public schools?

Speaker 2: 1:40:53

I'm about 50 50 on it, so I feel I don't know exactly what west data school district has, but I do feel the boise school district is preparing kids in certain ways for career paths with the DTECH center that we have.

Speaker 1: 1:41:10

What's.

Speaker 2: 1:41:10

DTECH. So DTECH is like if you want to be a dental hygienist, you can actually start doing that. You can get your nursing stuff, you can do mechanic things like that. They're trying to bring, I think, a little bit of culinary over to DTECH as well, which is great, kind of like that. My, they're trying to bring, I think, a little bit of culinary over to D tech as well, which is great, kind of like Renaissance. Um, as far as in building, structure, disciplinary, all of that stuff, no, failing.

Speaker 2: 1:41:37

I just think that it's and I guess maybe I parent this way too is we've never been the parents that are like you're grounded for a month.

Speaker 1: 1:41:46

No.

Speaker 2: 1:41:47

We're the parents that are like, hey, what happened? Tell me, what was the choice you made for that? Why did you make that decision?

Speaker 1: 1:41:55

Okay, what are we going to do next?

Speaker 2: 1:41:56

time. Okay now, if you do this again, we're going to have another problem.

Speaker 1: 1:42:00

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:42:00

Right. I feel at our school level it's oh, tardies, like I don't think I've ever kept track of tardies. And someone asked me at my school you're not on the list Like you don't even. I don't have time for that, I don't have time that. They're at the door, the bell rang and they're like one step outside the threshold. I don't sit at my computer and be like tardy, tardy, like I just don't. I, I don't want to nitpick.

Speaker 1: 1:42:26

Like as a teacher, I feel, if that's what you're, that's what consumes you, like that's, you're sitting there waiting to write a kid, a tardy, you suck, you need to be, you need to be aged out of there.

Speaker 2: 1:42:35

I get it, I get teaching like hey, my class rule is you need to be in your seat when the bell rings. If you're not, okay, we're going to tardy or whatever. I guess I'm just a little bit more lenient, in the sense of first find out why are they tardy? Why were they in the hall? Are they struggling? Most of the time when someone's late to my class, I'll walk up to them and I'll be like hey, dude, so you were late yesterday and today. What's going on? Oh, my girlfriend, she broke up with me and I'm heartbroken. I'm like, oh, that's so sad.

Speaker 2: 1:43:05

I'm like, okay, I get it, but I really want you to be in my room, like when the bell rings because, you're going to get in trouble if you're in the hall and I don't want you to get in trouble and they see that like, oh, you actually care about me, okay, and then they're they're on time the next day? How do we make public school Clean house Like the whole 10-year thing?

Speaker 1: 1:43:40

they're protecting and keeping teachers around that need to go.

Speaker 2: 1:43:41

Yeah, that aren't in it anymore for the love of teaching, like when I get to a point. Yeah, that aren't in it anymore for the love of teaching, like when.

Speaker 1: 1:43:46

I get to a point. They're just collecting their paycheck and their time. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:43:48

I mean, a couple years ago I was so fed up with the mice thing, like all of that stuff, and having students be talked about at PLC as these horrible kids and students who like hear, okay, I had one teacher get upset because a student farted in her classroom and she did not know what she should do about it. That was a topic at our PLC table and I was like are we really having this? Do you think he did it on purpose? Like are we really trying to punish the student for a bodily function? I just was, it was on a sticky note, like they literally wrote it on the sticky note as something we should discuss as a punishable offense. And I was so frustrated between those things and the two boys, the incidents I had with these two students where they were like eh, they're lost causes, they're going to be in prison, that I got to a point where I was like I think I'm done teaching, I think I need to move on and do counseling or something where my heart feels like I'm on my own right.

Speaker 2: 1:44:49

I'm working for myself and I can do good by myself, because when you're part of a big school and you teach one way and this one teaches another way and it's very difficult to run your classroom the way that you kind of want to and you see other teachers not, so I don't know, I think, protecting the teachers that you kind of want to and you see other teachers not, so I don't know. I think protecting the teachers that they just need to retire I feel that's.

Speaker 1: 1:45:12

That's the majority of things in life, or not life, but more. All these career positions firefighting, law enforcement, military I can speak on that is you join for certain reasons you become a teacher for a certain reason because you love, you get your compassion, you want to help children, which is an incredible thing. But then you just get chiseled over the years and you slowly get just worn down and then now it's like oh, I got, I got eight years left. Fuck these kids, I just got to do my time I get through just got to get through.

Speaker 1: 1:45:48

And now it's like oh, I got eight years left. Fuck these kids. I just got to do my time, just got to get through, just got to get through.

Speaker 2: 1:45:53

And then it's tardy late, and then the sourness starts to set in these teachers. And it's not the teacher's fault. If I were being honest, I feel it's more of a district's fault, because the district every year it's more.

Speaker 2: 1:46:02

It's more, more. You guys need to do this, like okay, like, uh, the whole clc plc every wednesday, we need to meet here and we need to go over this criteria. We need to do you know, we need to learn how to do this. And then you guys got to do this, then you got to keep record of this and make sure you have the tardies and you have this and the detentions and lunch taken away.

Speaker 1: 1:46:21

And it's like, oh my god, it's like lunch taken away and it's like, oh my God, it's like Do they?

Speaker 2: 1:46:25

use. Sorry, we just have. There's so much on a teacher, not just curriculum. And, like I said, this is the last one where I feel like I have it a little bit easier, in the sense that I teach something kids want to come to. I don't teach math. I don't teach most science. Classes are super fun, so kids want to go. But math, history, english if you don't make it really fun, they don't want to go and that sucks. Because our teachers are great, right, they have great things they're teaching. But when you go to a class that you don't want to go to and then you make the teacher have to go, log onto the computer, enter the kid's name, add it to the spreadsheet, how many tardies they have, how many detentions they have, what level are they on. I mean, I have two wives, 160 kids a semester, 160 kids. You want me to sit there and go. Oh, you were tardy on Tuesday, oh you have a detention. That is not my job.

Speaker 1: 1:47:17

The fact that we're focusing on those instead of why is this kid tardy?

Speaker 2: 1:47:21

Right Now.

Speaker 1: 1:47:22

I was that Everything that you're explaining these problem kids. I'm sitting here like, oh my god, I was 100 times worse, like getting up and sharpening. I would burn a whole pencil down to the eraser just to piss my teachers off.

Speaker 2: 1:47:36

I would be but would you have done that if your teacher was okay with you going to sharpen your pencil while they were teaching like no, I did it because she hated me.

Speaker 1: 1:47:45

Yes, I.

Speaker 2: 1:47:46

I have a teacher, I did that she didn't hate me.

Speaker 1: 1:47:49

She hated my dad because she went to school with my dad and then found out I was a product of him. That's terrible and targeted my brother and I. So then it became my mission, or the old school pencil sharp that I mean. I was that kid. I would purposely just sit in the hallway till the bell rang. I'd be the last one in there and I'd wait and I'd just boom, I'd come kicking her door open like she'd be like mr marshall, like yeah, like it was that I was so bad we had to do a computer class I. I was so bad in this class. This teacher kicked me out permanently for the whole entire year. Every time I'd go to her class she'd be like go to the office and it became no, I deserved it, but it became so bad.

Speaker 1: 1:48:38

This teacher hated me so much I literally stopped going to her class and I'd go straight to the principal's office Instead and I would help the secretaries mail things and I just lick envelopes really which came in a huge advantage at points, because when my buddies would get detention things, I was the one doing all the mailing in the stick so I would pull theirs or report cards, I would pull their report cards and give them to my buddies. So I was like I was like the mail clerk, but yeah, because the teachers were like they mailed home detention notices back then oh dang, there's no emails.

Speaker 2: 1:49:11

Then I didn't get detention, so I don't know, oh boy I was. I did get in trouble for eating mustard packets a lot, though.

Speaker 1: 1:49:17

You just ate mustard packets, uh-huh.

Speaker 2: 1:49:19

I.

Speaker 1: 1:49:19

I want to you on this, but I've probably done way worse.

Speaker 2: 1:49:22

I would steal, like the little mustard packs and you just and I would eat like three of them in the cafe. The little lunch ladies started getting mad because they'd see my little hand come up and I'd grab them and go back to my lunch.

Speaker 1: 1:49:32

You still have a thing for mustard.

Speaker 2: 1:49:34

I love mustard but I don't eat it like that. No, I will stick it in like salami and like roll it like a salami sandwich, where it's like filled with mustard.

Speaker 1: 1:49:46

But yeah and um. So what's your go-to mustard? Just normal, really. Yeah, you know like a spicy brown.

Speaker 2: 1:49:48

I also. I think I just like like that vinegary Cause I would, my mom would make the. You know when you like dye eggs back in our day you had to use vinegar. She'd catch me trying to drink it Cause I loved like vinegary salt and vinegar.

Speaker 1: 1:50:00

Cause you're a pickle person.

Speaker 2: 1:50:01

Yeah, love it.

Speaker 1: 1:50:02

Love it. Love it Interesting.

Speaker 2: 1:50:04

But yeah, I just think that if teachers I mean I think we actually talked about this just approached kids, definitely we have to, though, like now, things are changing. You know what I mean, like social media and everything is changing. Actually, you want to know what school is an absolute rock star at this Centennial.

Speaker 1: 1:50:26

Why.

Speaker 2: 1:50:27

Centennial High. I have my daughter. Obviously she's done. My son will be done next year, but she comes home and she would tell us just how awesome all of their principals were, because they had like four I think they still have four but their principals, their teachers, just the engagement, the involvement, the love for their students.

Speaker 2: 1:50:50

Like Tanner would come home and say, oh, I must go in trouble because I was hiding in the bathroom, and I'm like, why are you doing that? That's so inappropriate. And he's like, well, I didn't want to go to class. I'm like, what'd your teacher do? Because, like that's not cool. And he would tell me and I'm like, oh, they would do exactly what I would do. And so then Tanner's like, oh, I got. Like he grew respect for the teacher, not realizing that they actually cared about him and anyways. And so it's just like the administrators there are involved with the kids, with like the fun days they plan and just so the kids respect them, they don't have a ton of clicks. Riley would come home and say there's no clicks. It doesn't matter if you're in the marching band or you're a cheerleader or you're captain of the football team, everybody just gets along.

Speaker 2: 1:51:36

And there's no I feel that's really hard to do it is and Riley would come home and talk about it and Tanner even says it too. He's like, yeah, Tanner would, he's got a buddy who's in the special ed program and he loves him and they like do these cute little selfies together and he helps them sell cookies and the baked goods and stuff. And he's like, yeah, he's so cool and I'm like that is so nice of you to be that way.

Speaker 2: 1:52:00

Most kids make fun of those kids and so I'm like it's and he's like we all student council, we all bring them in, we all take them under our wing and it's just I don't know. I've just never had my kids come home and really complain about a teacher, complain about an administrator, complain about rules. I mean, Riley was their ASB president her senior year, so she, she got to meet with all the administrators there. But then it went another step, which is amazing. The superintendent at West Ada would take every single ASB president from every high school and bring them to the district once a month and he would meet with all of them and he'd be like tell me what's going on at your school. This is a trusted environment. If there's something going on with your administration, tell me. If you're loving it, tell me. If you need help or administration, tell me. If you're loving it, tell me. If you need help or funding, tell me.

Speaker 2: 1:52:51

And Riley would be like we do, we need some more funding, because Mountain View and Oahe- get a lot of the funding in Rock and he'd be like, okay, and he was our old principal, so that was even cooler that our superintendent was taking the time with our student body presidents to figure out what needed to be worked on. I don't Boise, doesn't care.

Speaker 1: 1:53:10

Interesting.

Speaker 2: 1:53:10

So it's just things like that.

Speaker 1: 1:53:14

I got questions and I don't want to hold you up all day.

Speaker 2: 1:53:17

Oh, you're fine.

Speaker 1: 1:53:20

What are your thoughts on homeschooling? Do you see it as the future, as this country evolves?

Speaker 2: 1:53:29

I think we talked a little bit about this last time too is if I had a toddler right now, I think I'd probably homeschool them. I don't necessarily think it's going to become the full future. I still think we're going to have that balance of people who want the school, because I love the public school system in the sense of camaraderie, social aspect of it, for the kids, the dances, the homecoming, all that fun stuff, I think. From an education factor, though, I I feel after COVID, things are just going downhill.

Speaker 1: 1:54:10

Really changed things.

Speaker 2: 1:54:12

Well, cause, teachers are still teaching online, yet we're in person and I, I, we, I remember telling you how my son's doing math and I'm like why are you doing math on a computer? Where's your paper you need, you know, know? Um same with my students when they come into my ninth hour to do homework and I'm like wait, wait, wait, wait, why is all your stuff online? Oh, it's just better and I get it organized wise, like organization in google classroom is easier, but I'm still a hard copy human being you know like the planner and the right planner.

Speaker 2: 1:54:43

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, so I think it's. I still think it's going to be pretty mixed.

Speaker 1: 1:54:49

Oh, for sure I mean there's. It's just coming down to the ability to be able to do it, the means to be able to do it, I do think they need to make it easier for parents to do it.

Speaker 2: 1:54:57

My friend is a teacher in California and they that state is trying to really shut down.

Speaker 1: 1:55:02

Oh.

Speaker 2: 1:55:05

The char really shut down.

Speaker 1: 1:55:06

Oh, the charters and the homeschooling and she'll be out of a job and I'm like, oh, they see, they see the where it's going. I mean, how many people in the public education.

Speaker 2: 1:55:11

I think you're right, yeah it's just, it's weird.

Speaker 1: 1:55:14

It's a. It's a weird time. Do you? Do you think the public schools do really well right now? With just educating our students.

Speaker 2: 1:55:27

I do think they try very hard um to provide current curriculum. I think there's a level there's more fear in education with like topics and, you know, worrying about what books can be in the library and like old books that you and I were read. It really wasn't always a problem if there was a slang term in it, like we learned from it and I think I don't think it's the teachers that are hindering that part of it. I think it's the students really because there's so much.

Speaker 2: 1:56:07

I mean, when you and I went to school, we didn't have the they thems and all that. We didn't have the. Please reference me as a unicorn. I'm a mouse, you know. I can wear a tail to school and it's fine. We didn't have that no-transcript and I'm like, okay. Well, if you're not teaching with the like, if you're not stopping yourself while you're reading the word to discuss the meaning of it and how we shouldn't say it and the context of it, then you're going to have a problem, and it's. Everyone is so hypersensitive with everything that everything is a problem.

Speaker 1: 1:57:06

Oh, yeah, you know. Does that make sense? Yeah, a hundred percent, a hundred percent. What are as a public school teacher? What are some of the biggest challenges that you face at the public and parents don't realize that you have to deal with.

Speaker 2: 1:57:19

The amount of time we put in that we're not paid for. I will be honest it really frustrates me that a manager at McDonald's makes double my salary. The managers at McDonald's make more than double my salary.

Speaker 1: 1:57:36

Interesting. I've never heard that.

Speaker 2: 1:57:38

A couple of years ago I took my daughter. She wanted an ice cream cone and so we went inside because the drive-thru was so long and there was a sign hiring and I said managers and their salary. And so we went inside because the drive-thru was so long and there was a sign hiring and it said managers and their salary and I was like you've got to be freaking, kidding me. I took a picture of it, I sent it to my mom. I'm like McDonald's supervisors make more money than me and they don't even have to go to school. And yet this lady at Target the other day we were talking about education target. The other day we were talking about education and cause. We were buying school supplies for Riley and stuff and I said something about being a teacher and I had like a coupon or something from it.

Speaker 2: 1:58:09

And um, she's like God, thank you for being an educator. And I'm like well, I should have went to school to be a lawyer. And she's like well, you know what they say without teachers, we don't have lawyers, we don't have doctors, we don't have accountants. And I was like, yes, and we get paid the least amount out of all jobs, If you really think about it.

Speaker 1: 1:58:29

For sure. That's where I think a huge problem comes from, because I'm obviously, you know us, we're out of the system. I feel that teachers are a huge problem in the education system. I think they're the biggest problem because underpaid, not respected, overworked, overworked, and they're dealing with having to deal with oversensitive kids now, where everything's a problem, everything's an issue, so they're giving up.

Speaker 2: 1:58:56

Oh yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:58:57

And they're just throwing in the towel and they're just, it's the motions. 100%. I feel the majority of teachers. It's literally Groundhog's day for them. They're counting down the days till they're on summer break. Then they're counting down the days so they have to start and they're done again for that school season and it's just, it's just numbers. It's literally groundhog's day for them. It's the same curriculum read this, get online, do this.

Speaker 2: 1:59:18

And that's why every year they add more to our plate. Like I was saying, every year there's something else we have to do on top of curriculum and if you're a teacher like myself, so we have some teachers at our school that they teach one class seven times a day. That's so easy. It's easy right.

Speaker 1: 1:59:38

Lose my mind.

Speaker 2: 1:59:39

I teach four different classes a day, so I have to have four planning calendars per day.

Speaker 2: 1:59:46

And so, like first periods, one second period could be another seventh period is totally different, Like it's and it's. My brain is like wait, what am I teaching now? I have to really pay attention because I teach four different curriculums and I so I have to know so much, whereas other teachers don't. And other teachers will get like two or three prep periods because they're this leadership and they're that leadership. So really they're getting paid more than me. They teach one class and they have three prep periods to do because they're this lead position and that lead, Whereas I have one prep. I teach six classes a day, four different curriculums, and I'm like, oh, my God.

Speaker 1: 2:00:32

So it just depends on what you teach as a teacher, if you can rebuild the perfect education model.

Speaker 2: 2:00:42

What would that look like to you? I think it would have to start with how we treat and communicate with kids.

Speaker 1: 2:00:47

Okay.

Speaker 2: 2:00:48

That would be like the foundation has to change in that that. I've always felt that way.

Speaker 1: 2:00:54

So almost every teacher becomes a counselor in a way.

Speaker 2: 2:00:56

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 2:00:57

Like you think that would help a lot. I do, I really do I wouldn't say become a counselor, because our counselors are, especially at my school I'm talking more of the.

Speaker 2: 2:01:05

They just they're educated on how to counsel, but they're not the counselor, but they're able to interact on that and I feel like um, and I don't know what happened last year, but the year before I do recall they had a guest speaker come in before we started and they were sharing a book that Oprah Winfrey had written about how she put together a girl's school in Africa, and all those kids came from trauma, and how you respond to those kids is how they're going to behave, for sure.

Speaker 1: 2:01:30

Rest of the time Sure.

Speaker 2: 2:01:31

And so when you have a child that acts up in your class and your first you know idea is send them to the office, you've sent them a message immediately. I don't care about you, you're bothering me, you're a pain, go get out. So I just think that that needs to change across the board. Like, don't take their shoes for a pencil. It's pretty simple.

Speaker 1: 2:01:59

You'd think, right, all right, last question I'll let you get out of here. There was one message for your students. What would it be?

Speaker 2: 2:02:08

right now.

Speaker 1: 2:02:08

Right now.

Speaker 2: 2:02:10

Um that I love you guys wholeheartedly and I will continue to fight for every single one of you and just always fight for what's right. Never back down. That's what I would tell them.

Speaker 1: 2:02:29

I have one more last question, okay, sorry, because I would like to know if there's a message to parents.

Speaker 2: 2:02:36

Right now about this.

Speaker 1: 2:02:37

Not just this, just in general, about kids and something that they should just be aware of, or just a message to people that are sending their kids off to school every day. You'd want the parents to know. What would that be?

Speaker 2: 2:02:50

Be involved with your teachers.

Speaker 1: 2:02:52

How.

Speaker 2: 2:02:54

Don't think that just because they're in middle school or junior high and it's not like the elementary, be involved with the teachers.

Speaker 1: 2:03:03

I'm sorry to finish.

Speaker 2: 2:03:04

Read the syllabus, get to know them, communicate with them, go to conferencing, like I know everyone's like oh my kid's fine, he's got straight A's. No, you don't know, maybe what a teacher is seeing that hasn't had the time to reach out to you, or you know, we also just like to meet them and know they're involved. Be involved in it. That's what's gonna help them get through school, Do you see?

Speaker 1: 2:03:28

sorry, I keep having questions.

Speaker 2: 2:03:30

No, it's fine. I love this. I'm just as passionate about it, yeah.

Speaker 1: 2:03:32

Do you see a difference in children's behavior from involved parents and non-involved?

Speaker 2: 2:03:38

parents. Oh, 100% Okay, 100% yeah. So it's a drastic, it's that big of a difference, yeah, yeah I mean, when we have conferencing, we get excited if we see 15 parents, 20 parents and I have like I have 160 students your hope. You're happy if less than like a quarter of them show up. Yeah, because once you hit junior high, it's like this mindset of oh, they're okay well, even if they're, even if they are more like an involved parent to a teacher.

Speaker 2: 2:04:06

When you don't show up to conferencing or you don't engage at all, you know, come to back to school night or what have you? Or respond to, maybe an email from a like I'll email parents, not as a whole, but like an individual parent saying, hey, I have a question, or you know, I noticed this is on their IEP, or I noticed they have a medical or whatever, and I don't get a response. I'm like, okay, I need your guidance, I need your assistance with your student. So it tells me that and I always give them the benefit of the doubt because I miss emails all the time. So I'll keep reaching out until I pretty much Get something. Yeah, but just, I feel like when they get to middle school and junior high, a lot of parents are like, oh, they're fine, they're getting straight A's, they're good, not in trouble.

Speaker 2: 2:04:50

Yeah, which I mean I? Get that but the more involved you are, the more Also holds the teacher accountable.

Speaker 1: 2:04:59

Correct I mean I can only imagine if I was a teacher and I had a hundred parents up my ass every day about what was going on. You would have to have yeah, I mean, I feel I'd be going above and beyond for my students knowing that their parents are watching everything.

Speaker 2: 2:05:15

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 2:05:16

But for some reason over the generations at some point it was after we grew up, because I remember my parents, they were dragging my ass every school teacher parent teacher conference. I remember sitting there like oh god, I'm gonna be in trouble, like just sweat, and I mean, thank god, half of them either knew my dad or went to school with my dad or my dad's teachers were my teachers. So that made it pretty comical. But if I was a teacher and every parent is rolling through like okay, what's going on, how's my kid at give, how is my kid in your classroom, then they, you have that interaction. I feel that would hold, but for some reason I feel like that's feedback too.

Speaker 2: 2:05:51

I mean 90% of the time, I don't have anything negative to say. If I, if I have something negative to say about a student in my room, I'm going to reach out to them privately. I'm not going to do it.

Speaker 2: 2:06:03

Yeah no, and I wouldn't even do it at back to school night unless it's. You know, I couldn't get ahold of them or something, but just the involvement. I mean I still go to my kids' conferences. I went to my daughter's senior conferences and I have friends that are like, oh no, I'm done. I'm done. I'm like I want to meet these teachers. I want to. My daughter comes home and speaks so highly of all of her teachers her senior year. I had never met them. I want to meet them. I'm the teacher mom that gives the teacher gifts.

Speaker 1: 2:06:31

So I'm like I want to figure out, like you know, Well, what's weird to me is that, as a parent, you're allowing somebody to raise your child. Teachers are raising our children 100%.

Speaker 2: 2:06:42

We're with them more than you are.

Speaker 1: 2:06:44

I mean, I've talked about it on this show. I don't know if it was your episode or not, I think it was. 13 minutes a day is the average dad gets with their kid. Yep, I feel I would want to know who's raising my children Right? And people don't look. They're not raising my kid. I'm the parent. No, you're not. You're sending your kids off to public school all day. They're being taught whatever the curriculum is being forced or pushed whatever. Then they come home, they do their homework, they sit in the room on their phone. They're a hermit. They have dinner, they go to bed. That's not raising your child.

Speaker 2: 2:07:15

No.

Speaker 1: 2:07:16

You're raising these people's children, so as a parent, I feel like I would. How is Timmy doing? How is his behavior? Has this been corrected? Like then?

Speaker 2: 2:07:28

yeah, that's, and I feel we've gotten away from that, I don't know where when it started to fade out I don't remember we went from heroes to zero, like we were oh my god, I have to have my child home. I'm trying to teach them. I don't know how teachers do this. This. This is insane. I mean, I would get message after message like how do you do this every single day? And then we were these heroes. And then school started and it was like bye, bye, your problem again.

Speaker 1: 2:07:55

I need a break.

Speaker 2: 2:07:56

Yeah, it's been a long couple of years, I mean it takes a special person, I think, to be of any career like right. It takes a special person to be a lawyer and get up and fight yes in front of all these people and it to be a marine.

Speaker 1: 2:08:09

There's no way like what my husband's doing right now I'm like absolutely not by the way, I would love to have your husband I know he wants to does he?

Speaker 2: 2:08:16

yes, he does, he does, I would love to.

Speaker 1: 2:08:18

I just want to hear firefighters. These guys are so fascinating to me.

Speaker 2: 2:08:21

Yeah, and I feel he's got a lot of experience too god, I love wildland firefighters.

Speaker 1: 2:08:25

I love smoke jumpers be. I think they're so much cooler than he went. See, I wish I would have done that route because I have buddies. I have buddies that have done both. This is completely off topic.

Speaker 1: 2:08:37

I don't know where we got in this but, all right, there's some of the baddest dude and women. These women that are doing it are even much and I'm I'm jumped with. I'm very old school and I'll catch shit for this, but I'm not male chauvinistic, but I'm very. Women have their roles, men have their roles, based off of strengths and weaknesses, mindset, all that stuff. When it comes to law enforcement military I don't think women and I'll I and I'll die on this hill I don't think women should be in certain positions in law enforcement.

Speaker 1: 2:09:04

I would agree. But at the same time I know some badass chicks that are smoke jumpers, that are carrying hoses. They can do it, yeah, but I've never heard, I've never heard of the training being altered to help them. So that's where I give them credit. But when you go military law enforcement now there's all these different criteria is different, they're lowering standards. That's my biggest problem. If, if some chick can go and do the job and the training that has not been altered for them and you make it, I'll give you the credit. But if we're altering and we're we're changing standards, lowering standards. Just right for women to fill this position, wrong, right, 100, wrong. So that's where I'm fascinated with smoke and it's such a crazy changing standards, lowering standards just for women to fill this position Wrong.

Speaker 1: 2:09:45

Right, 100% wrong. So that's where I'm fascinated with smoked and it's such a crazy like who the fuck is going to sign up to jump out of a plane in the middle of the mountains or take some trucks up there, park hike your ass over five. I don't even want to do that, chasing an elk let alone.

Speaker 2: 2:09:59

Yeah, he was. He hiked, I think it was like 15 miles the other day in wool, socks, boots, no max, it was 103 degrees where he was.

Speaker 2: 2:10:08

And I was like yeah, no thank you no, but he's a guest speaker for my class. He teaches a career unit and he teaches my barbecue unit and whenever he comes in there and he has to teach the same thing every class period, he leaves. He's like fuck, no, no, no, no, I can teach adults because he'll teach fire science classes over at treasure valley. And he's like I can't, I can't. I saw one kid like picking his nose, another kid like scratching his junk and I'm like at it's junior high man I mean, here you are, don't even notice it, don't?

Speaker 2: 2:10:44

pay attention, like they're picking their nose. I'm like, can you go wash your hands? Like gross, but I mean that doesn't bother me, like yeah, I love teaching little kids. I love it.

Speaker 1: 2:10:53

It's so fun and he hates it he's like no, I'll bill for it not doing it, not doing it yeah, not for everybody yeah that's where I feel we need to start honing in and, like you said, we need an overhaul of our educate. We need an overhaul, we need an overhaul in.

Speaker 2: 2:11:08

I think the way administration runs the district is my thing. Start at the top, and I don't even know if it means like getting rid of people. I just think it's like are you, have you? Have you lost Cause? Those people were all teachers before. That's the part that gets me, these people that are handling my situation. They were all educators before, so put yourself in that position You've lost it.

Speaker 1: 2:11:32

Once you lose it.

Speaker 2: 2:11:35

Are you forgetting what this? Would be like it's the typical forget where you came from this is your first year teaching, you take a mouse home in your bag. You don't think that's a problem. I think it's a problem Once you don't think that's a problem.

Speaker 2: 2:11:46

I think it's a problem once you get to that pedestal, yeah, you're sitting there looking down on everybody 100. So I just feel like there needs to be some training and I I don't know, I mean everybody. Every district has negatives and positives like that. I can't sit here and be like west state is perfect. But what I can say is what I've heard from my daughter, who's gotten a lot of involvement with the superintendent at that level and administration at her school and stuff. I hear the positivity that I have heard come from her and that situation and experience. It totally outweighs.

Speaker 1: 2:12:24

That should be the main focus of our public school administrative side of the system. They should sit on their little shitty pedestals looking down at everybody going. Our students speak so highly of us. Right, that should be the main goal that these students are going home like. Oh my God, I have this teacher, ms Chung. She sat and pulled me to the side and and spent quality time with me. I have mr smith sat there and realized something was wrong with me. Like that's as an administrative side and if I had kids in the system, right, that would be what I would want, right, their goals to be is to have that pride like that, like I.

Speaker 2: 2:13:03

I am one of them. Yeah, why are you not fighting to keep me? Why are you fighting to get rid of me? What have I done? That would be my question. You asked me all these questions, right? My question to my school district would be what have I genuinely done that warrants what you're doing to me? I have done nothing. I have done nothing wrong. I have done nothing. I have done nothing wrong and I know I haven't.

Speaker 1: 2:13:27

I'm curious to see how this all pans out.

Speaker 2: 2:13:33

I hope you're sitting on the board one day owning it. I just need to fix the school, yeah, and then I'll walk away.

Speaker 1: 2:13:36

Thank you again for the update.

Speaker 2: 2:13:38

Thanks for letting me come.

Speaker 1: 2:13:39

Yeah, I'm sure we'll have a part three once everything's settled We'll have you back, because everybody was asking. So thank you again.

Speaker 2: 2:13:45

I appreciate your time. It was great. I'll get quincy in here for sure.

Speaker 1: 2:13:49

Wild ass story.