Teacher faces termination after calling in sick for 2 days to attend a concert in Nashville, district says
Teacher faces termination after calling in sick for 2 days to attend a concert in Nashville, district says
And they wonder why it is hard to find teachers.
As an educator, I’m shocked … that they have the backup subs and/or a replacement teacher to justify losing a teacher over this.
In America, we act first, and deny the responsibility to acknowledge consequences.
Isn't there a never-ending supply of substitute teachers who are desperate for a full time job? That's what I hear from teachers in Canada.
Not so much in the US. At least in my state, they don't have enough subs and have to double up classes when a teacher is sick.
Where I work in the US midwest, we are lucky if we get coverage when we take time off (let alone call-in sick) and are understaffed in all departments teacher-level and below payscale-wise (para, custodial, transportation, etc.). But I’m sure it’s different depending on the location, but that’s my experience.
Omg I wish that were true! We can't get decent (or any) subs like 95% of the time. It used to be that you could sub with a bachelor's degree and a substitute certificate or any teaching license. Now, we're so desperate that it's basically any adult who can pass a background check. Most of the time, teachers just ended up skipping their prep time to cover the missing teacher's class.
This is the best thing I've seen today. Thank you
Strangely applicable
Why is this in the news
So, this whole "article" is pretty light on any details here.
Was this her first offense? Did she have vacation time and chose not to use it? Did she use up all of her vacation time and then chose to take sick days? Did she have other offenses that led up to this termination call?
I mean when I used to have a job with vacation/sick leave, no one ever got sacked for taking a sick day or two to just have some time off, UNLESS, it was chronic, you had other performance issues, or you used up all of your vacation and decided to game the system and took like a week long holiday anyways and got caught.
Was this in the U.S.? If in the U.S., sick days are ridiculously limited. So you're damn right I'm going to use them all up through the year.
In Europe is different. They have protections for workers.
Most places I’ve taught in the US don’t have vacation days. You have sick days (10 a year, they stack), and personal days (3 a year, max of 5 before they turn into sick days).
What a hellhole.
Yooo! Your personal days turn into sick days?! Goddamn, that's nice. Ours are just use-or-lose.
Wow, I've never had that much time off when working. We get 5 sick days from the state and 0-5 from the district. You lose any district days that you don't use, but you keep any state days that aren't used.
One of the teachers had never taken a day off in his 30+ years and had a ton of state days. They wouldn't let him donate more than 5 to a teacher who just gave birth, so she had to come back to work after just 2 months.
Woof, that sucks, this would be the only time I would be in favor of PTO.
Did she have vacation time and chose not to use it?
Teachers typically can't take vacation time during the school term.
Most places these days lump theb two together into "PTO" - mostly to shave a week or two of paid time put off us poor ununioned drones. Because America and capitalism suck.
In the USA I get 3 weeks paid vacation, 3 personal days, and more sick days than I ever need, about 2-3 accrue per month. But I have a good job, best one I've had yet.
Just an example of what is available out there to look for.
Don't get me started on PTO. Give me back my vacation and sick days.
But including all those detail wouldn't make for a good ol' ragebait article!
Good for you lady. Life is short and teachers don’t get paid enough.
There won't be any teachers soon.
In the US, that's by design. But there will be theologists at private schools! And being private they can choose who attends.
Yeah. Good for her abusing a system paid for by our tax dollars to listen to racist music live.
Also, as a side note, teachers don't get vacation time. Yes, they get a lot of time off for holidays and summer, but they are not allowed to choose their vacation. So if there is something you want to do really badly, but it falls during the school year, well, tough titties. This includes people's weddings or other major events like the birth of a nephew or something. Basically, if it's not legally mandated that you can take off for it, you don't get to take off. Fine. You take the good and bad with each job, and this just requires a lot more prescheduling and paying more money to go places during the busy seasons (which usually coincides with students being off school).
Her sick time, though, is part of her compensation package, but for some reason, she's not allowed to use it? When I left the education system, I had 40 unused sick days because it was heavily frowned upon to be out sick. Did I get those paid out when I left? Nope. You just lose them. They get (40 days x 8 hours per day =) 320 hours that they get to just not pay me for or have to pay a sub for.
Those days off are part of her compensation package, meaning that instead of giving her a higher wage, they make the trade-off for other benefits, like those sick days. So there is a dollar figure that corresponds to each of those days that they are being paid with, and the general public seems to think they should just donate those benefits (which are the equivalent to money) to the government. Would you donate money to the government?
This is on top of the fact that teachers are not allowed to get overtime. This is on top of the low wages. This is on top of having to purchase their own supplies with that meager wage. This is on top of the high pressure and responsibility of the job. This is why over 50% of teachers leave the field completely within 5 years. I barely made it to 8 years before leaving.
I now work in the private sector making double what I did as a teacher, can take off whenever I want, and have a job that is a hundred times easier. When I have a difficult day at work, I remind myself that it's still easier than teaching. My 3 weeks of vacation now is still better than the 12 weeks I got off as a teacher (most of which were spent sick as my body tried to recover from finally getting a moment without stress). They lost an excellent educator because I finally said f-it.
I don't give a crap if she did see a concert. She should be able to use the time that she is being paid with instead of donating it. The tax dollars that she "cost" the taxpayers were already budgeted. Your taxes did not increase because she chose to use her sick time.
Racist music?
Just because it's Nashville? Unless I missed it they didn't say what she was going to. How do you know it wasn't Drake and J.Cole at the Bridgestone Arena Feb 8th 2024, which would line up with the dates in the article?
Just because it's country? How do you know it wasn't Charley Crockett?
Just because you make stupid baseless assumptions based on your own biased preconceived notions? Well maybe we're onto something here.
Your taxes are paying her wages, including sick days and paid vacation, whether she uses them on actual sickness or not, fuck it, let her have a little joy in her life.
Muh tax dollars!
spoken like the welfare queen you are.
I wouldn't call that "pay"
What concert tho
Jonny Cash and the Deadites I assume.
If it was 2 days in Nashville, I want to believe it was for BTBAM's 2-day/2-part concert "Colors II Experience" on March 26 and 27 at Basement East.
edit: nm
Documents ... say that Washburn “falsified sick leave” on Feb. 8 and 9...
Fuck, I'd bail on work for 2 days to see BTBAM like that. I never got to see colors live.
I have a family member that is a teacher. She gets 2 vacation days a year. The school argues it’s fair because they get summers off.
That's funny because my kids' teachers all said no matter what we were actually doing, to just call the kids in as "sick". Even if it was something else that was an excused absence. Sick was always the right answer.
My dad said for time off work, always say "urgent personal business" and leave it at that.
There's this third party hotline we use to call in so it's kind of separated in that they may not know our actual policy. Regardless anyone that has personal time knows what it's for.
I called to use a personal day. "Hi I'm calling off for my shift tomorrow. I want to use a personal holiday."
"Ok, why are you calling off?"
"Because I'm using a personal holiday. I have 30 hours left I want to use 10 tomorrow please."
"Ok I have you for 10 hours personal holiday I just need a reason"
"I don't need to provide a reason. It's a personal holiday. As long as it's no less than 8 hours before my shift, I just tell you guys I want to use a personal holiday. I don't have to provide a reason."
"So you don't want to provide a reason?"
"No, thank you."
That was basically the end of the conversation but I was just like "holy fuck lady please just stop" at the end. No one gives reasons for vacation days and personal holidays. Sick days ( if you're lucky enough to have sick time) are implied. Even if I called off, didn't have time to use and ate points, are you going to give me less points if I provide a reason? No. We're not going to do that. We're just being fucking nosey.
"I have plans" even if the plan is to sit on the couch in your underwear eating cheetos. "I'm going out of town" is similarly vague but people accept it.
That said I appreciate people like you who stick up for yourselves.
I'm not sure why this is getting upvoted aside from the snowball effect.
I've never had a teacher say what your "teachers" have said.
TL/DR; Honest person penalized for doing something millions of people do dishonestly.
The continued rewarding of dishonesty shapes society.
Washburn told several colleagues that she was attending a concert in Nashville.
Oops
Rookie mistake
If this is news then i should be a celebrity by now!
Not that i get fired a lot, but far more exciting things happen to me, than this!
Why is this news?
Good.
She wouldn't have to have used sick days if this God damn country had basic worker rights and gave people vacation time. Oh and a side note, many companies will 100% fire you if you use your vacation days. Fuck the American work environment
No argument about that one, the way the states treats workers is shocking.
As someone who works in an "at will" state, I agree. This absolutely happens.
And replace her with whom?
Mental health maintenance is a valid reason to use sick leave, and getting out of town to have some fun is exactly what people need from time to time. Her union should hire her a good lawyer to tell the district to pound sand.
The issue in this case is that if was planned with some time in advanced and notified the same day/day before.
If a coworker has any kind of emergency (family, health, mental) and takes the day off, I will sympathize, regardless of how that impacts me. If it's planned but not communicated not so much.
Of course, I live in a country with 22+ paid days off + "unlimited" sick days and I in my role we usually are flexible with the time off. With very different conditions that might be more understandable.
When you live in a country where your vacation requests can be denied arbitrarily you might be tempted to just say 'fuck em' and let them know it's not optional the day before you skip work.