Submitted by Susan Kohi, Mar 3, 2008 21:18

We do not have rubber rooms in my state...yet. However, as a high school teacher, I can truly say that I spend all day just waiting to be admonished because I am strict, require behavior appropriate for the classroom and do everything possible to help students meet not only my academic standards, but the state standards as well. For this I am punished. I am constantly called to the administrative conference room in front of a panel of administrators and counselors where I am accused of not being nurturing enough or sensitive enough, or loving or caring enough. I am too academic. I am threatened, put on plans of improvement, and a great effort is made to put me in my place through humiliation and intimidation. From the moment I enter the building each and every morning I am never sure when the axe is going to fall and when I will be summoned to listen to all the lies told about me by students who resent the fact that I am not there to baby-sit. There are consequences in my classroom for cheating, truancy, profanity, rudeness, and disruption. Verbal abuse of staff members, destruction of school property, gang activity are all against the law in my state. Yet the students receive what amounts to laughable consequences for their outrageous actions and I, as a teacher who refuses to allow criminal behavior to go on in my workspace, am constantly berated. So eventhough we do not have rubber rooms, dedicated teachers who do their jobs are still in danger. That is why there is a shortage of teachers. No one wants to work in such a stressful and hostile environment. As a matter of fact, I'm wondering if a rubber room wouldn't be just what I need right now. I could read, catch up on my correspondence, nap, make new friends, and get paid for it. With or without rubber rooms, too many of us are badly treated and we deserve much better.

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